Screen Resolution on S60

As I developing S60 application, I am facing a very tricking problem where the screen resolution was so different in between the emulator and the real phone. Thus I raise my problem in Nokia forum regarding on my issue.

The feedback I get from was disappointing me because this problem is a general defect of emulator. This is impossible to develop one emulator that cater for so many hand held devices with different resolution. Someone has suggest me to use J2ME Polish and LWUIT to solve my problem. But anyhow, this is not a guarantee solution which will not working 100% on the way that you want.

Please note that J2ME Polish use heavy preprocessing and it create a JAR file for every single devices whereas is fairly screen adaptive technology.

Adding Scroll bar into S60

I was having a problem to show the content inside Nokia X5800 as the content was huge. Two solutions for this:

1. Redesign the content.
2. Add scroll bar into it.

Anyhow, I am force to use the 2nd option due to the urge from requirement. Unfortunately the srcroll bar component was not inside the eSWT library. Thus a message was send out in the Nokia forum to see how this can be done.

In the mean time, I did some Google search looking for alternate solution. I got one at last, which is, I have to manually handle everything from drawing to event handling. This is the worst solution if there are no more other choices. I continue my research on scroll bar while waiting reply from Nokia forum.

The first post was reply. And he mention that I have to draw the scroll bar on canvas and receive the "down" key event in keyPress(), and then update everything in the content. Almost similar to the one I found in Google.

Base on this website, eSWT was already handled the scroll bar automatically, but the problem was that when I click and drag the scroll bar, it doesn't work. Until my friend told me that I was using the wrong emulator (I was using 3rd edition FP2 during that time) and he suggest me to use N97 emulator. Then only I notice that this is the only emulator which support touch screen.

From the answer I get from Nokia Forum, I got good news and bad news.

Here is good news:

eSWT Scrollbars on Scrollable provide low level access to scroll events so that the applications can implement their own scrolling logic. You can register for those events using the Scrollable.getHorizontalBar() or Scrollable.getVerticalBar() to get a handle to the scrollbar instance and adding a SelectionListener.

Also there is a custom utility class in Eclipse that provides automated Scrolling for Composites Called ScrolledComposite. You can fetch it from Eclipse Project.

Posted by gorkem.ercan

And here was the bad news:

There is also an ongoing discussion whether ScrolledComposite or an equivalent should become part of the eSWT here. You can actually comment/follow on the progress of that as well.

Posted by gorkem.ercan

Anyhow, my friend was able to make a custom scroll on that phone. Although it is not working perfect, but it still can satisfied the project requirement.

Develop iPhone on Window

Want to develop an iPhone application under Windows. I found two discussion regarding on this issue.

In this discussion, they are not encourage people to develop iPhone app in Windows because this will against the iPhone's EULA. But in this thread, someone suggest that it could be done on normal PC by installing Hackintosh and it was working fine.

Will take a look on it, might think about MAC MINI when it is not working.

CORBA first touch

WOW!! I am moving one step forwards in my IT road path now - CORBA, my next goal. I have been seeking a chance to get myself involve in CORBA development, now I had it.

Since I'm new to CORBA, it is best to get some overview on the CORBA architecture. In this page, the author have give us a clear big picture describing the core concept of CORBA. In this discussion, people are giving us some hints to start CORBA. But that discussion was mainly for JAVA guy, but it can give us a preliminary understanding about CORBA since CORBA is not language specific.

Another discussion, was talk about an alternative way to COM. Among the technology used, CORBA is one of the solution. Enjoy your reading. Cheers!!

C++ developer direction

I have been learning, playing around with, and working on C/C++, MFC, STL, Win32, OpenGL, and minor DirectX for a couple of years (around 7 to 8 years). After that don't know where to go, have been waste some time working on Action Script, PHP, JavaScript, and J2ME. Not bad, I have learned new thing.

Until I found this discussion, there are actually plenty of things I need to learn. Among the answer suggest by the volunteer, I notice that this one is most valuable. The answer mention that information from rss feed, newsletter, and blog could be scatterer. Try concentrate on one thing or a specific topic, then you will be the master of it.

I am coming back to C.

Cheers !!

Can't launch S60 emulator

I was installing Nokia Symbian S60 SDK (3rd edition FP2 and N97) in my PC under C:\TOOL directory. (This is just my way of organising the files in my PC.) After the intallation completed, I was not able to launch the emulator. It tooks me about one day to figure out why this happen. Then I reinstall it under C:\ directory, its working!!

One thing must take note that although the SDK was remove from the PC, I mean uninstalled it from the PC, all the files were still there even though a new copy of SDK has been install under C:\ path. This has been making me so frustrated when I launching the emulator from Eclipse, it keep prompting not able to connect to agent. To solve this problem is to manually delete the old files.

Just curious why the S60 emulator's path was hardcoded?

To be a better "PROGRAMMER"

There was a very interesting post found in this page - How can I know whether I am a good programmer. From the answer, I found two point which is quite match with my attitude:

1. A good programmer loves to program, and would do so in their spare time even if they already spend 80+ hours a week programming.
2. A good programmer knows that she/he is not a great programmer.
   

I still remember when I first attend my C programming class, I start to fall in love with it. I start to realize that this is what I want to do to my computer. Not just to atend the computer class which I did in my primary school, turning on the computer, playing some games, and typing some documents.

I want to be able to instruct my computer to accomplish my command.

I feel so great, this is a real computer class I ever miss. I start digg out more stuff on pogramming after attended this class. Programming was so interesting, complex, cheating, mathematics, and mystery. I learn new everything at my own pace. Along the way, I have learned OpenGL, Win32, MFC, STL, and some web language. I am spenting all my day and time sitting in front of my computer to create something great and fun. From the things I have learned, I discovered that, OpenGL have a great library to create 3D application, MFC providing a framework to ease the application development. Whereas STL providing the algorithm library to simplify things, e.g. string manipulation.

Not there yet, there are many more to learn. When I move on to second company, I have found a new set of library which is dedicated only to the company and at the same time, I participate in OpenOffice project which is using UNO framework in the development. There are gain and loss from here; I study so hard to learned their framework, I am working with thier development style. I gained a valueble experience from here, which is, how to build up a framework for developer. Make developer feel easy. On the other hand, I was blinkly following their development style, I can't change their mind set to listen to mine idea because I am still new and young in programming during that time.

All the way in my study, start to realize the important of methodology, Object Oriented, in my development. But sometime I do think that this is some sort of bullshit theory. In fact, some brilliant people may have some kind of great thinking who can foreseen the future. Well, doest it really help? It has been a long time for me to adopt this concept in my development. That time was when I joined in a game company, I am fully utilize this concept in my development. The question come again, does it really help? I will say not neccessary. I would rather spend time on algorithm thinking rather than OO thinking.

Right until now, I have build up my expertise skill in Windows, and Linux software development, low level software design, and symbian development. Am I better enough? To be frank, I am still focus on the programming, but it is more theory about the programming language, like What the hell this PL is created? What is the fucking proof? When should I use it? Why should I use it?