Lucian Tomuta's Forum Nokia Blog

Don't expect miracles here, don't expect solutions to world's problems. It is more likely that I will ask [myself] questions looking for a always elusive answer.
And of course: "All opinions expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily represent the official view of Nokia". I mean it!

Just now I've run across a thread in the Forum Nokia's Discussion Boards promising an 1000% improvement of emulator's startup time.

Two things came to my mind seeing this thread: a paradox attributed to Zeno of Elea and ... the S60 3rd Edition SDK, supporting Feature Pack 2.

First, Zeno's paradox, adapted so that it fits the topic:

In order to satisfy the developers, the emulator would have to be fully up and running in about 10s. But, in order to do so, it would have to be in a "half way there" state first, which it cannot do unless it reaches half of that state to begin with. And so on, ... and so on, ad infinitum.

I have seen at least two conclusions of this paradox, pick your choice:

• The "logical" conclusion is that the emulator cannot actually ever start since it will have to pass through an infinite number of intermediary states in a finite time interval.
• The "logical" conclusion is that in order for the emulator to achieve the desired performance it is mandatory that the emulator is not even started.

Ok? No more complaints about the emulator please!

Now the serious part:

The S60 3rd Edition SDK FP2 does implement two start modes for the emulator, a partial one, with only a few critical servers started, and the full slow start-up mode with which we are all accustomed by now.

You can switch between the two start-up modes by modifying a setting in emulator's Preferences dialog (through the Tools -> Preferences menu option).

The SDK release v1.1 also adds a graphical indicator to the emulator's window so that the developer knows all the time whether the emulator runs in partial or full startup mode. This is intended as a reminder likely to be useful should you experience some strange application error, which can be a side effect of the chosen startup mode.

For tweaking the emulator of the previous platform releases we are each on our own, but it should be quite safe to try ...

Let's start with a bit of a warning: the tool no longer supports the old SDKs and this decision is final. Applying the hack described here will at best restore the support for the old SDK to the 1.2 level but enhancements are not to be expected. You should not ask for support from the Carbide.c++ team ( nor from me ) for any issues that might be a side effect of applying this hack.

OK, now that all this is clear let's start hacking. (More)

 

Somehow these pictures do not fit together. Or do they?

"Extra, Extra, Read all about it!"

The following piece of news caught my eye, I think it is funny enough to share it with you :)

The source of this information? Alexander Toldt of eFluxMedia (?!) Full story at Microsoft Going After MSN Israel Ltd.

Update: They've removed the highlighed paragraph from the article. Too bad, it would have been fun to see this picked up by the main media groups.

The news is hot and one needs to really take some time, let it cool down and then analyze it from all angles. But here it goes, straight from Nokia's press release:

"Mobile leaders to unify the Symbian software platform and set the future of mobile free (More)

The following is a copy of a Discussion Board post from a thread discussing - again - the level of support of the S60 tools and SDK for the Windows Vista, or more likely the lack there of.  (More)

• Z: the ROM drive where the firmware resides  (More)

The S60 SDK API Plug-ins have been updated today.

One change affecting all the plug-in versions regards the click-through Limited License Agreement (LLA), updated to reflect developer's concerns about the use of the provided APIs in 3rd party projects, both closed and open source. The LLA template can be viewed online (also included in each package) and one of the Discussion Boards threads discussing it, and the need for change can be found here. (More)

I've hear it so many times that I surprise myself for not believing it by now. Bashing S60 is by now the most popular sport, at least until the Olympic Games are started in Beijing. S60 is said to be difficult to learn (when compared to the Finnish language), difficult to understand (compared to the string theory) and definitely uglier than Miss South Carolina.

This week Leo Laporte had something to say about S60, you would not believe what he had to say in his "this Week in Tech" podcast, episode 139: 4-TWiTty. If you want to go straight to the chase forward to minute 59:50 (easier with the Nokia Podcasting application than on his web site). So, is he right?

As Ugur was making the point recently you do not need [always] the latest hottest technology or the biggest ever budget to add the wow effect to your application. Some times all you need is 50$ ... and a lot of brain.

Here's another proof of that idea:

Here's another "mind map" that I hope will help developers understand what are the implications of Platform Security on the Symbian Signed process. To me it is self-explanatory but I would happily answer any questions you might have on the topic.  (More)

Still looking for an answer to this question? The new release of Carbide.c++ comes with the "Capability Scanner" tool, a static code scanner that will identify the APIs used in your code, map them against a database of known APIs and their capability requirements and then provide you will a balance of what you have and what else should be added.  (More)

A background note first: I wrote this post on 09.03.2008, right after ending the talk on this discussion board thread. It was visible for a few minutes but then I took it back, with the hope that I am wrong, and Jeepy/Domi will not go ahead with his plan. But he did, and now so do I. (More)

recently...

• The S60 SDK emulator: faster if you do not start it
• How to enable support for old SDKs in Carbide.c++ v1.3
• What's wrong with this picture?
• Week-end task: Hack Lifeblog posting
• Microsoft to buy Symbian
• Are there any updates available for Carbide.c++ ?
• Symbian preparing for a new start
• S60 SDK and tools on Windows Vista - a success story
• Are you ready for more ... drives?
• S60 SDK API Plug-ins

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