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Symbian OS & Series 90

Posted by timothy on from the melts-in-your-mouth dept.

gletham writes "Today at NMIC, Nokia officially announced a new mobile device development environment - Series 90. So why series 90? This article explains it in detail - Nokia has launched this solution to enable developers to leverage their apps across a range of devices that are tightly focused on specific needs - in this case, playing music, messaging, or playing games. Series 90 is based on the Symbian OS 7.0, incorporating standard technology for application development, browsing, and messaging. Additionally, details of the first mobile device -- the Nokia 7700, based on series 90 -- was also released."

21 comments

  1. infoSync's coverage by holygoat · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4237.html

    Pictures, and running a damn sight faster than Nokia's site for me!

  2. Stop complaining by BraveSlice · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stop complaining. These ugly & expensive & too big devices with too many funktions are the ones witch are making technology to walk forward. You don't have to buy it, some tech freaks will, and thx to them next generation devices are actually better.

  3. the opera guys might be making real money now... by alexander+m · · Score: 5, Interesting


    ...and i've got to say i'm happy for them. this and the other nokia series 60/90 phones all use opera for their web browser. that and a design win with adobe, and the fact that it runs natively on windows, linux, freeBSD, AND solaris. well, i think it's worth applauding the fact that small innovative comapnise CAN actually succeed on merit! well done guys... :-)

  4. It's been said... by satanami69 · · Score: 1, Informative

    http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4237.html [infosyncworld.com]

    Pictures, and running a damn sight faster than Nokia's site for me!

    First thing I checked was ofcourse the screen's resolution and it turns out it sports 640x320 [nokia.com]. That's very good! Especially since close competitors (like the P900) only have 320x208 [sonyericsson.com]. Even some of the big-screen PDA's currently out like the Palm Tungsten T3 and the clamshell Sony Clie's only have 480x320. Even Sony's latest UX50 has that resolution [clieplaza.com] and if I'm not mistaken so does the latest Zaurus.

    640x320 is finally something you can seriously browse the web on!

    Stop complaining. These ugly & expensive & too big devices with too many funktions are the ones witch are making technology to walk forward. You don't have to buy it, some tech freaks will, and thx to them next generation devices are actually better.

    the opera guys might be making real money now and i've got to say i'm happy for them. this and the other nokia series 60/90 phones all use opera for their web browser. that and a design win with adobe, and the fact that it runs natively on windows, linux, freeBSD, AND solaris. well, i think it's worth applauding the fact that small innovative comapnise CAN actually succeed on merit! well done guys... :-)

    I keep waiting for a device that has the functionality of my T-Mobile Sidekick (IM, email, web browsing, phone, scheduler, notes, etc.) that is as thoughtfully made (screen flips up to reveal a solid thumb-board and every bit of data I enter is automatically backed up on T-Mobile's servers) that is anywhere close to the price point ($300).

    I bet this Nokia device is plenty expensive and I could send out an email 10 times faster with my Sidekick thumb-board than you could peck one out with the stylus on this device (if you could find your stylus ;-) ).

    http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?ph on eid=195184

    --
    I really hate Dan Patrick.
  5. I'm confused... by HotNeedleOfInquiry · · Score: 2, Funny
    Why does a Sybian need an operating systems. Something about a sidestick, perhaps?

    --
    "Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
  6. Why Series 90? by /dev/trash · · Score: 1

    Why not Series 2004!

  7. If you confuse the operating system and the toy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...you might be addicted to porno.

  8. ... by someone else! by nacturation · · Score: 2
    Hey mods, read the Nokia 7700 thread at +5 and you'll get an eerie sense of Deja Vu. What a scammer.

    Everything in the parent's post has been copied verbatim from that discussion. To wit:

    • infoSync's coverage (Score:5, Informative)
      by holygoat (564732) on Tuesday October 28, @06:11AM (#7327703) http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/4237.html

      Pictures, and running a damn sight faster than Nokia's site for me!
      --
      -Rich [ Reply to This ]
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.

      Nice try, but it's no Sidekick (Score:5, Informative)
      by ChaoticChaos (603248) * <l3sr-v4cf@sp[ ]x.com ['ame' in gap]> on Tuesday October 28, @06:14AM (#7327726) I keep waiting for a device that has the functionality of my T-Mobile Sidekick (IM, email, web browsing, phone, scheduler, notes, etc.) that is as thoughtfully made (screen flips up to reveal a solid thumb-board and every bit of data I enter is automatically backed up on T-Mobile's servers) that is anywhere close to the price point ($300).

      I bet this Nokia device is plenty expensive and I could send out an email 10 times faster with my Sidekick thumb-board than you could peck one out with the stylus on this device (if you could find your stylus ;-) ).

      http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?ph on eid=195184

      [ Reply to This ]

      640x320 is pretty good! (Score:5, Interesting)
      by jeroenb (125404) on Tuesday October 28, @06:25AM (#7327812)
      (http://slashdot.org/) First thing I checked was ofcourse the screen's resolution and it turns out it sports 640x320 [nokia.com]. That's very good! Especially since close competitors (like the P900) only have 320x208 [sonyericsson.com]. Even some of the big-screen PDA's currently out like the Palm Tungsten T3 and the clamshell Sony Clie's only have 480x320. Even Sony's latest UX50 has that resolution [clieplaza.com] and if I'm not mistaken so does the latest Zaurus.

      640x320 is finally something you can seriously browse the web on!
      [

    --
    Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
  9. Will it run Series 60 apps? by Kris_J · · Score: 1

    There's quite a significant software base for Series 60 applications. While yet another "standard" in this tiny niche market is ill-advised, one that isn't compatible with any existing software is suicide.

  10. Boycott any operating systems... by iamacat · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    That don't come with a standard C/C++ compiler, on-device debugger and ANSI C+POSIX libraries. EPOC comes with a tool chain that doesn't even support global variables and it's own, incompatible versions of memcpy and friends. And to add insult to injury each (frequent) release of the OS comes with it's own UI library.

    They obviously expect people to write an application from scratch for every device and not reuse even trivial C code from other projects. We should fight this kind of thinking. Zaurus would be a perfect "standard" platform, but even Palm and WinCE are not as bad. CodeWarrior for example supports standard C++ with globals variables exceptions and anything else you want.

    1. Re:Boycott any operating systems... by weicco · · Score: 2, Funny

      You're trying to put us (software developers) out of business? :)

      --
      You don't know what you don't know.
    2. Re:Boycott any operating systems... by CompVisGuy · · Score: 2, Informative

      I've developed for EPOC/Symbian. The OS is targeted (of course) at embedded devices. When I was developing software for the platform, a modified GCC was used as the cross-compiler. It's one of the most standards-compliant C/C++ going!

      Having an on-device debugger would be nice, but is often not possible with embedded devices due to memory restrictions etc. Most development is done using a PC-based emulator, which works very well.

      It is slightly ridiculous to demand ANSI C and POSIX libraries: EPOC/Symbian has its own very well defined programming model. This model was designed to deliver (among other things) outstanding OS stability and OS-wide object-orientation. So, you should not use C paradigms (or C code), but the OO paradigms defined by their programming model (and C++ code). Just because they have made design decisions that you don't like doesn't mean the platform is bad. It means you dont understand it.

      We don't have to debate the merits of global variables. We (should) all know that they are a bad idea except in a few restricted situations. For these situations, EPOC/Symbian provides thread-local storage (TLS) which can be used to create a singleton object; this can provide an OO interface to any global variables needed.

      The UI changes are a nuisance for the developer, but if you are coding something serious (like a new cell phone, which is the sort of thing EPOC/Symbian is for), then you will have some sort of UI specification, and you will probably want to develop your own UI; the libraries are there to help.

      The Palm and Win CE platforms are nowhere near as good for developing robust devices as EPOC/Symbian. This is largely due to the way in which their memory management works (or, rather, doesn't).

      EPOC/Symbian allows multitasking. Provided that applications are written in strict compliance with the programming model (which isn't too difficult) then the device will be able to run for *very* long periods of time without crashing. At the time, I was using a WinNT workstation, and my EPOC-based device had a much better uptime.

      Compare this to the Palm model, where (at least when I was developing for EPOC), multitasking was impossible. Memory was "managed" by the user exiting one app and starting another.

      MS have improved Win CE since I was developing for EPOC, but at that stage, MS had no programming model to ensure good memory management, and the robustness of the platform was a joke. Maybe they've solved this problem now?

      Memory management is a very important consideration when developing for cell phones: imagine the result of your phone crashing during a call to the emergency services.

      Yes, there is a price to pay for using EPOC/Symbian. But what you get for paying that price is a very robust and efficient OS that allows developers to use elegant OO design and C++ (albeit with some reasonable design decision imposed on the developer).

      --


      "The noble art of losing face will one day save the human race"---Hans Blix
    3. Re:Boycott any operating systems... by ebbe11 · · Score: 1
      EPOC comes with a tool chain that doesn't even support global variables

      You obviously have no clue at all on what you are talking about.

      Using global variables in a true multitasking OS such as EPOC is a sure way to disaster. And yes, I've been there, done that, I have the scars - and I'd love a an API that prevents me and anybody else from doing such idiotic things.

      --

      My opinion? See above.
    4. Re:Boycott any operating systems... by iamacat · · Score: 1

      I've developed for EPOC/Symbian. The OS is targeted (of course) at embedded devices. When I was developing software for the platform, a modified GCC was used as the cross-compiler. It's one of the most standards-compliant C/C++ going!

      How is that? ANSI C specifies global variables and well ANSI C library. Standard C++ specifies exceptions. Which standards are you talking about?

      Having an on-device debugger would be nice, but is often not possible with embedded devices due to memory restrictions etc. Most development is done using a PC-based emulator, which works very well.

      So, a Palm with 2M RAM doesn't have memory restrictions to run a debugger stub and 8M+ EPOC devices do? I say it's lack of desire to provide high-quality tools, plain and simple.

      It is slightly ridiculous to demand ANSI C and POSIX libraries: EPOC/Symbian has its own very well defined programming model. This model was designed to deliver (among other things) outstanding OS stability and OS-wide object-orientation. So, you should not use C paradigms (or C code), but the OO paradigms defined by their programming model (and C++ code). Just because they have made design decisions that you don't like doesn't mean the platform is bad. It means you dont understand it.

      No, it means I want to use the same code on multiple platforms. Say, I have a math library that supports my graphics drawing. I port it to EPOC and I have to call TLS to retrieve a pointer to global table that is initialized on the first call in front of every function. I have to rewrite all the exception code with "if (e) goto cleanup" and change all my interfaces to return an error. I'll probably cheat and provide my own memcpy, but I will have to scrap around to find BSD sprintf.

      Now say I want the resulting code to also work on Palm. I have to write EPOC memory cleanup functions for Palm (although it supports exception). I have to break up big functions into 32K chunks to fit into segments.

      Now I want to port it to BREW. It requires you to use macros like FADD(a,b) to do floating point arithmetics. How is that for a math library?

      We don't have to debate the merits of global variables. We (should) all know that they are a bad idea except in a few restricted situations. For these situations, EPOC/Symbian provides thread-local storage (TLS) which can be used to create a singleton object; this can provide an OO interface to any global variables needed.

      Yes, we don't have to debate. Global variables are for data that is meant to be shared between all calls and all threads, which TLS doesn't even provide. How does your argument prevent EPOC from implementing them for legacy code or for cases where they are approporiate?

      MS have improved Win CE since I was developing for EPOC, but at that stage, MS had no programming model to ensure good memory management, and the robustness of the platform was a joke. Maybe they've solved this problem now?

      There is a good, standard memory management model already. It's called C++ destructors and people who don't support exceptions (like EPOC and well CE) are breaking it. EPOC model (just adding a memory block to a cleanup list and then a call to free the list) is primitive compared to that. Again, why does a 2M PalmV support the good stuff?

      And finally:

      Yes, there is a price to pay for using EPOC/Symbian. But what you get for paying that price is a very robust and efficient OS that allows developers to use elegant OO design and C++ (albeit with some reasonable design decision imposed on the developer).

      Yes, and the price is that you can not reuse your existing code, even the platform-indepenent portion that should by all rights be reused. My company can afford to hire 2 people to port from Win32 to one platform, but can not afford 20 people to port to 10 platforms. As a result, our EPOC port is 5 year old and unmaintained.

      OS companies need to suck it up and support ANSI C/C++ and then provide their cute APIs as an alternative. All the arguments about overhead of, say, C++ exceptions on embedded platform don't hold water (well, except on devices with 100K RAM) because the overhead is only present when the feature is used and then it might be justified.

    5. Re:Boycott any operating systems... by psmears · · Score: 1
      Some points of information:
      • Symbian does provide a standard C library that you can use when porting applications.
      • Symbian does support global variables. The limitation is that you can't have a global variable in a library. Although this can be a problem when porting code, there are usually a number of workarounds (such as wrapping the code in a class, where the globals become member variables) that work well with a small amount of effort.
      • Symbian does provide on-target debugging
      The only valid point that you make is that Symbian's cleanup method is a bit clumsy and certainly inferior to exceptions/destructors (I believe this is due to the limitations of GCC at the time the cleanup mechanism was designed) which could certainly do with improvement.
      --
      Need to type accents and special characters in Windows? Use FrKeys
    6. Re:Boycott any operating systems... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You _can_ use non-const global variables in Symbian applications, if you know how to. I've ported quite a few apps to Symbian and I used a lot of our existing C code almost without any modifications. Maybe next time you should study the OS more thoroughly before you start bashing it.

      And, btw, if it is so difficult to port apps to Symbian, then how could they port Doom to it so easily that they are even offering it for free?

  11. "Leverage their apps" - more droidspeak by Viol8 · · Score: 1

    Do the people who always stuff like "leverage" really understand what they mean or do they think it just makes them sound like they're on the
    case , up to the minute , on the money etc etc. Hey pal , why don't you go facilitate an integration strategy
    where you can deliver a synergy scenario between my boot and your arse?