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Nokia Releases Perl for Series 60 Phones

Posted by timothy on from the best-programmed-with-keypad dept.

Jukka Laurila writes "Nokia just released a port of Perl 5.8 and 5.9 for the Series 60 smartphone platform. The port contains just the interpreter core, ie. there's no support for any of the Series 60 APIs yet, but this is still great news for all you Perl aficionados out there."

22 comments

  1. Oh great... by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 5, Funny

    now we have code no one can comprehend on screens too tiny to be legible.

    1. Re:Oh great... by GoRK · · Score: 5, Funny

      This, from a a person by the name of 0x461FAB0BD7D2?

    2. Re:Oh great... by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1

      I think your missing the point , or making a joke ..
      The point is that perl support will allow thos of us with a background in perl to produce applications on our chosen computer for the mobile phone.

      As for perl being incomprehensible ,well i am fairly sure if you comment it well and use good coding practice then those problems will disapear.

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    3. Re:Oh great... by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 1

      It is the latter.

      I, too, am a perl coder, and I know how many coders like to use tricks in their code making it difficult to understand without a comprehensive look.

    4. Re:Oh great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is completly offtopic , but i just looked at your homepage and that mame cabnit is wonderfull . That is some dammed fine hacking.

      Fidelcatsro--(anon as this is really really offtopic)

    5. Re:Oh great... by FidelCatsro · · Score: 1

      i apoligise then , i do tend to be a bit defense of my perl ;) as im sure you can understand .
      the real use i can see for this is making scriptable dialup events on the phone , for if im ever roaming and want to do some admin work as i really dont fancy a massive bill from my mobile company and having the script cut me off with resonible quotas for data would be grand

      --
      The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
    6. Re:Oh great... by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 1

      Interestingly, I used a perl script to come up with that name, because my first choice was already taken.

    7. Re:Oh great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Holy crap, 10 buttons per player?! What game needs 10 buttons? (yes, I know there are those handful of games... that all suck)

      Frankenpanels suck anyway.

    8. Re:Oh great... by GoRK · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Well, to be fair, there are 8 buttons per player not counting coin and start. N64 emulation requires lots of buttons, unfortunately, and it was one of my design goals. It looks sort of frankenstein, but it's actually very utilitarian and comfortable to use.

      Anyway, I'm planning to use an LED driver board that will illuminate the buttons a certain game uses to uncomplicate things.

      In retrospect, the N64 requirement would have been better served by some adaptoids and real N64 controllers. In that setup, I would have picked 7 buttons for p1 and p2 to get a combo layout between fighter and neogeo and only 3 or 4 buttons for p3 and p4.

      I am actually planning on a small redesign of the upper deck. I never use the vanguard style buttons on the sides, and I need more function buttons. The top stick will probably get replaced with an analog stick using Ultimarc's new A-Pac and I'll be adding better controls up there then.

      Also, I probably should have done the coin buttons by hooking up microswitches to the coin door rejects instead of having another button on the cpanel. Ah well, next time!

    9. Re:Oh great... by smallfries · · Score: 0, Troll

      As long as there is a good keyboard it won't matter. Perl is a write-only language anyway...

      --
      Slashdot: where don knuth is an idiot because he cant grasp the awesome power of php
    10. Re:Oh great... by snorklewacker · · Score: 1

      Oh wow, that just gets so much more insightful every time someone says it.

      Hey Philip Glass, find yourself a new note. If you don't like perl, why are you bothering to post?

      --
      I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
  2. changes by same_old_story · · Score: 3, Insightful
    this is the kind of thing that will make a difference towards the elusive real smart phone.

    its not a 10 megapizel camera that will make these things very useful. only when there's good software for them, people will buy into it, really. we are waiting for the killer apps in cell phones.

    giving developers choice (seriers 60 already has a python port and many phones do have java 2me) is what will help the next kille apps come to life...

    1. Re:changes by stridebird · · Score: 1
      maybe the killer app IS the 10 megapizel [sic] camera?

      OK maybe not: the killer apps will more likely take advantage of the marriage of the two devices, building on top of them. And perl may well have a new niche as the thinking geeks glue, customising the functionality of the camera phone and creating a quick'n'dirty testing ground for new software ideas. Although, if that's so, perl is going to need GD or some other module with extensive graphics support built in too.

    2. Re:changes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My kizamera got 10 megapizixels, f'shizzle!

  3. Awesome news! by sw155kn1f3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Expect user friendly and robust programs soon!

    perl -MNokia::Smartphone -eshell
    nokia> ATDT +x xxx xxx xxx xxx
    BUSY
    nokia> my %pb; tie(%pb, 'GDBM_File', "phone_book", O_RDONLY, 0666);
    nokia> ATDT $pb{dave}
    Dialing +x x x x x x ..........

    I'm just looking forward for it! Awesome mobile platform!

    --
    - Arwen, I'm your father, Agent Smith.
    - Well, you're just Smith, but my father is Aerosmith!
  4. Well.... by slapout · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...Perl code and some of those text messages do look an awful lot alike...:-)

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
  5. Perl? by scoopr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, there already is a python port
    Personally, I'd like ruby, but each to its own I guess.

    1. Re:Perl? by latroM · · Score: 1

      But it's not free. You can't even redistribute it. See http://www.nokiausa.com/support/warranty/item_deta ils/1,1955,item:gatesoft,00.html

    2. Re:Perl? by snorklewacker · · Score: 1

      Before anyone pipes up (seems unlikely, I must be one of the few that uses "show all articles"), yes the Artistic license allows this as long as it's compatible with the original version. Larry invented the AL (and popularized dual-licensing for free software projects) but these days he acknowledges that it's pretty vague and probably not any more enforceable than a BSD copyright. It's hard to say what would constitute a compatability test suite for perl though -- not even every platform can pass every test of builtins, let alone everything in CORE.

      The redistribution notice is likely boilerplate stuff anyway.

      --
      I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
    3. Re:Perl? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about OCaML? Scheme?

      We all want our high performance Lisp languages, too.

      And hell, why not Eiffel while you're at it?

  6. And you thought you got keyboard cramp before by suitepotato · · Score: 1

    Tinfoil hat thought, but are these companies tied financially to the portion of the medical industry that profits from repetitive strain injuries? I also wonder for that matter if all the people who make money from Unix and C/C++ are tied financially to analysts who specialize in neuroses of techies. "I swear doc, I don't have dependency issues!"

    --
    If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
  7. How many more interpretered languages? by Viol8 · · Score: 1

    Phones arn't exactlt overpowered at the moment , are interpreted (or bytecode) languages really a good idea? Whats next , Phone Prolog?

    >You remember granny?
    YES
    >Dial her
    NO
    >Please..
    NO
    >DO IT!
    NO
    >You *&(*&(*& piece of &^&^ , call yourself a smartphone?? :- Invalid predicate
    >*sigh* Bring back java
    NO!!