Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

Ok help me out a bit, it's just a thought.
I've used 2g, to 3g to 3gs & now they are coming up with 4.0 in a few days.
Now!
with my current phone which is N900, & i Love it.
I ain't a programmer or developer at all but i was thinking that If we were to compare free aaps for iphone and free aaps for n900, what is that one thing that makes iphone programmers develop their apps much faster and so many & so well put together.
I can understand for the paid apps that they get paid so they put alot of effort into it but what about those thousands of free aaps.
From evey aspect from graphics, to the actual funtion of those aaps are so flawless and practical but here with my phone its kinda different.
I know it's a very young & new OS, but all im saying that do you guys think that apple developers or iphone progerammers can develop apps much faster than programmers for N900 or maemo.

I wanan be very clear that i didn't mean to be negative or didnt mean no offense to any of the programmers and developers here for maemo. I appreciate their work but i just wanted to share my thoughts.

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

All apps use a standard framework for the iPhone, so the graphics are handled by the OS.
Apps are "faster" for many reasons:
1. It doesn't have anything running in the background.
2. Most apps are programmed on one language (does the iPhone support other then C++/C/ObjectC?)
3. It's running at half the resolution of the N900.
4. It doesn't use GTK + X server + a window manager to handle stuff.
And so on...
Jailbreak an iPhone and make it multitask, then ask again.

P.S, interesting use of tags...

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

well, I am C# developer of 5 years, and I had some big plans to make some n900 apps, but I really couldn't find 1 straight article that would go from start to finish on how to instal the virtual machine, to how to compile my first app, to how to run it on the emulator. After a couple days I just gave up.

I might pick it up again in a few months.

so my guess could be lack of such straightforward development support?it's a trade off, but here's how it works for apple:
you pay a fee
you get a membership and access to stuff
there is a tutorials section with sample apps and how to get started

here's how the maemo sdk stuff went
I scoured the forums

found a wiki with instructions that weren't detailed enough on how to install a virtual machine

I have no clue how to compile my first app, but it all seems to be in command line?

I gave up

maybe this stuff is only for linux gurus

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

Or for the people that has the patience and the knowledge on how to search the internet...

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

From deciding I'd write some code to trigger the flash for my nikon/remote flash hack, to having a working executable on my device was about 2 hours all in.

I found the N900 very easy to develop for:

Download VMware image with SDK pre installed
Start it
follow wiki instructions on using scratchbox

The wiki page you want is here:
http://maemo.org/development/trainin...in_html/node5/

Apple is more popular as said above, it's easy to get started, with great documentation and a well mapped out easy route to market (even if it is free apps).

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

yeah I figured I was gonna get flamed for posting my experience, but I was using it to help answer the original poster's question as to why.





the accidental -
I'm not sure that document was written yet when I decided to try developing an app. this sparks a new interest in it for me. Thanks.

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

Yes you were correct on both counts, the lack of developer resources and the typical flaming that would follow. Congrats I guess :p

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

Roger_27:

I'm a C# developer myself.

Read the instructions about MADDE with Qt Creator. (Wiki, forum search, you name it.)
It works like a charm, although you'll need to refresh your C++ knowledge.

If you really want to stick to C# and .NET, you can search for Mono on the forum. (Mono is an open source alternative for the .NET Framework.)
Some people have it working, and you can compile and make it for yourself, but there are so much Microsoft-haters in here, that it hasn't (yet) really got too much attention.

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

My experience exactly (except that I was planning to start developing one year ago for my N810). Being new to Linux (I'm a C# coder too) I asked advice but didn't get good replies. Somehow I got a feeling that there are no beginner Maemo developers. You have to born as one. If you ask questions, then you are not the chosen one. :rolleyes:

Me too. Luckily I didn't start last year since I have been very busy with other stuff. Hopefully I have time to learn Qt in the end of summer. Or maybe I do something with Vala and GTK.
I think Maemo/Meego could use some developers, even n00b ones like me. One day I might learn something and maybe produce something worthy for the community that has given me applications that I use daily.

Re: Programmers/Developers which ones are faster??? Your thoughts
 

I think the reason most apps find the iPhone first is because:

a) Most app developers today are coming from the Silicon Valley/US trained education system. In the US, Apple had unprecedented marketing freedoms and strong exposure. Its userbase is usually more affluent, less tech savvy (in comparison to their EurAsian counterparts), and more likely to have disposal income to spend on appsand content, and will sacrifice the freedoms for ease of use.

b) Since the app craze is kind of new, those developers choose something local to their market with a low barrier of entry. This allows them to save on localization, testing, and marketing. Most development houses try to target their local market's dominant OS first, and the large iPhone buzz has spread to other locales, but the economy of scale and audience reach will be more important as smartphone use in the US becomes ore ubiquitous across a wider dynamic of the demographic. We are only just seeing other markets and lower income consumers demand popular apps and services outside the US. This is right on time with Nokia's cross platform strategy.

The real question is why is the ease of development more important than the addressable audience of targetable devices? Why consider an iPhone or iPad app, which will likely share some code, but is trending toward custom UIs for each device and will require at least some extra dev time for the larger screen, when you could use Qt and address Mac OSX, Win7, Linux, Unix, WinCE, WinMo, Symbian, Maemo/MeeGo, or even Silverlight for Symbian, Win7, and Win?? Is there really any benefit to focusing on the iPhone period while ignoring other larger OSes?! Unless you have an app localized to the US, I see little in that regard.