General Open Source Topics

[prateeksriv]

Hi,

I wish to port few open source programs based on QT to PlayBook.

So, a couple of questions in this regard:

1. I get it that PlayBook OS is Posix compliant and also QT run time is available. So some open source programs can be ported. Is this understanding correct?

2. Any license limitations if the program is GPL/LGPL/APL?

3. BB NDK supports make. But not configure. Most programs for linux are based on autotools. Is there an import script? The programs usually expect a command sequence like:

./configure

make

make install

Is there a mapping or help document to help in porting?

[epelegrillopart · Accepted solution]

Hi There, Prateek.  Some quick As to your Qs...

* A number of programs and components have been ported by the community and by RIM.  See for example http://github.com/blackberry and http://openbbnews.blackberry.com.  In general the POSIX compliance makes porting quite easy, and the availability of ports of common components helps too.

* There is another thread that is covering these topics.

 * Some tools have needed small updates.  See for example this port of getOpt.  Also see the report by Cliff on porting CouchDB.

Good luck, and keep us posted on how it goes on your side.  Blogging about your successes (and challenges) always helps as that spreads the information around more easily and more quickly.

[prateeksriv]

Thank you for the pointers. I will surely try them out.

I am just doing this for hobby (not for profit), but I post about it.
I did not find a good and free chat client for PlayBook which supports Google Talk and Yahoo chat.
So I was trying to port SIM : http://sim-im.org

[epelegrillopart]

Have fun and report back.  Sometimes I'm easier to reach on twitter at @pelegri.