Being now Harmattan a transition towards MeeGo, we have decided to let MeeGo releases go first, and then add at a side the Harmattan specific details for those really interested.

Also the fact of publishing SDK pre-releases changes a lot now that we have Qt as baseline and the Qt SDK as official tool.

This is why the Harmattan alpha SDK release announced last year for 1Q 2010 ended up being the MeeGo Day 1. Now we are waiting for the first MeeGo release to be published in few weeks. The plan is to publish the Harmattan platform SDK (Scratchbox based) few weeks after targeting mainly platform developers interested in the diffs between MeeGo and Harmattan with the goal of polishing/bridging them towards the next MeeGo release in Autumn and the Harmattan final release.

Let me insist that MeeGo, with its SDK and build infrastructure, is the track that developers need to follow - including those interested primarily in the evolution of Maemo. The Scratchbox based Harmattan SDK will be interesting just for a minority of really specialized developers interested in software architecture and middleware details.

So let me repeat that in my own words just to make sure I understood it correctly:

Up to now (pre-Harmattan), the Scratchbox-based SDK was what (amost) all developers needed.

This has changed now because of MeeGo and (maybe more important) Qt, and you have three offers:

Application developers can (and should) download the Qt SDK (Beta) right now and start developing for Harmattan with this IDE. Most of them will not need the Scratchbox-based SDK any more.

Platform developers can (and should) go to meego.com right now and join the party there.

Only a few cases will require access to code that's specific to Harmattan. These cases will not be covered by the abstraction layer that Qt offers, nor by the stock MeeGo code. Developers who need these middle layer are the only ones who'll still need the Scratchbox-based SDK.

Is that how it is now? So especially for application developers, does this mean: Stop waiting for a Harmattan-specific SDK, start working with the Qt SDK now?

This is starting with Fremantle, actually (targeting PR1.2+ at that), and will carry on to Harmattan later on (I say later on, as the Maemo 6 UI Framework had no releases so far, so technically there is nothing - yet - to write for or test against).

Exactly. The plan offered by MeeGo and coincidentally Nokia is to sit on top of the Qt API and tools. Then make your choices on platforms to target and devices to optimize for only when it comes to compile, test, package and publish.

Qt development is quite open. Qt 4.6 has been around for several months and you don't need any MeeGo or Harmattan specific SDK to get you started.

Qt 4.7 is being developed right now, with all the code and tools being available and in the process of stabilization. This means that you can start playing with Qt Quick even before any MeeGo or Symbian folk makes an official statement about it. Because Qt Quick is in Qt 4.7, and that version will be integrated in Qt based platforms at some point.

Same for the Qt Mobility APIs, they are being developed openly and there is nothing really stopping you from getting familiar with them. Nobody has sai what Mobility APIs will be ready for the next MeeGo (or Symbian) releases but as a developer you can start using them, testing them, providing feedback, filing bugs... and with this you will contribute to their readiness.

Conclusion: you still need a MeeGo Qt SDK to release your MeeGo ready software, but you can start your MeeGo development already now with the Qt Nokia SDK (targetting Maemo 5 and Symbian if you wish) since most of the Qt pieces are in place already.

i got libdui compiling on my ubuntu laptop but i cant get mthemedaemon running but duitheme is installed ....


i dont understand, i want to test widget gallery and then try to compile duihome but i cant even run mthemedaemon ....

HEEEEEELP !!


PS : ubuntu 10.04, qt4.6.2, with build-essentials
PS2 : i'm a qt4/C++ dev so don't worry about telling me technical words, i know them ;-)

TheBotroo, you have more chances of getting feedback from the maintainers at http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=44562

Hello!
Does anyone know if there will be an official update from Maemo 6 to MeeGo?

Maemo 6 (just as Maemo 5) cannot be upgraded to MeeGo. Note that this is a different question as to whether MeeGo is installable on the device that will originally ship with Maemo 6.

UPDATE :

I downloaded contextkit and libcontentaction from maemo-af gitorious and got contextkit compiling but not libcontentaction

then i got libdui, duitheme, duicontrolpanel and duihome compiling on my ubuntu but not duicompositor because of contentaction missing...

and i can't run mthemedaemon, so all harmattan apps launched just shows me a blank screen


but there's some progress !!

Answering http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com...teps-for-2010/

There is a post from me somewhere where I'm proposing this provisional name to be used here between us while the real name comes. And it's coming. Somewhere else I was saying that a dependency is the MeeGo Compliance Program, that is also coming.

Most N900 users haven't seen "deb" ever since they just go to Ovi Store or maemo.org Extras, via online or local application, and slect their apps based in one icon, a description, etc.

MeeGo-Harmattan users (let me insist, provisional name) will be exactly in the same situation: Ovi Store, meego.com community repository, installable online or via local app.

It will become clear to you when you see the MeeGo Handset UX next to the MeeGo-Harmattan UX, the MeeGo & MeeGo Handset API next to the MeeGo-Harmattan API. Then you can add to the mix the Maemo 5 UX and API and you will see that MeeGo-Harmattan is indeed much more MeeGo than Maemo. Sure, they share Debian packaging but really this means nothing to end users and actually not much to application developers using the MeeGo SDK and API.


To be honest, who should be really interested in this discussion at this point, before any MeeGo-Harmattan device, UX or SDK announced? Only a bunch of platform developers and people alike really understanding about architectures, APIs, packaging, developer tools, etc. I count less confused people in that sector. Thy are more like waiting for the real beef to come or thinking that whatever, it's all about marketing and what counts is the wide picture and the evolution of the whole thing into pure MeeGo.

The "confusion" can be also better understood under the context of a discontent for factors mentioned in your blog post. If Nokia would have said in the MeeGo launch at February that MeeGo-Harmattan will be officially supported in the N900 and there are details that will be sorted out many of the vocal 'confused' posters here would have just celebrated and moved forward. Yet the naming has nothing to do with the decision to support or not the N900 in future MeeGo commercial releases...

Which is coming.

Thanks for the help, but in this case it's not needed.