Native Development

[sfarley]

Hi,

 I trying to go through the documnetation of the Playbook and basically it's not too complicate but the interface part I am not sure where to start. I don't want to make a too complicate program regardings the interface but the porgram itself will be a bit more complicate.

So let says I would like to do a modal dialog box that is the main page of the program. is it doable or I have to do the basic UI component myself which would be completly retard or again do I have to use Adobe Air which is borderline retard because I don't want to use XYZ programmation language, I am at ease with C/C++ but not Java or action script even if they are similar and do not have 700$ for the license of Adobe Air.

Thank you, Stephan

[Innovatology]

Hi Stephan,

FYI: AIR is not $700, it's free. The IDE (FlashBuilder) can be had for $250, or there are free alternatives too. You can even do it all from the command-line or write some Ant scripts if you like.

But anyhow, you have various options at the moment:

• you can code your own UI using OpenGL. Lots of work.
• you can use the Qt framework, which has been ported to PlayBook. Check out these DevCon Europe sessions.(and Qt is covered in the keynote too)
• you can wait until Cascades is released, but there is no ETA on that yet
• you can - as you noted - code your UI in Air and call native C/C++ code via Air Native Extensions

Hope this helps.

[jheron]

Hi sfarley,

I would recomend you use Qt Quick, you can make great looking UI's fast, and they are easily integrated into your Qt  c++ code.

Rim is working on a port that is quite functional now, get the port here: https://github.com/blackberry/Qt

Find instructions here: http://wiki.qt-project.org/QNX

See Qt Quick in action here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G4U7QWRajg

Good luck!

Jon

[sfarley]

I like the idea of QT though I am no unix person, that is a bit complicate, do you have any tutorial that explain how to deal with QT installation for Windows. I am looking around and my head is already spinning I know I will have a sweet trying to program a simple program under that system.

I can understand better now why there is not that much program under Playbook they don't have any UI integrated that the programmer can use, really nice interface to do gaming though but the Playbook is not a toy for me, it's supose to be used for professional appplication. I find it difficult I need to have a program with XYZ modal windows and I think it would be easier at that point to do a game lol

Thsnk you for the suggestion, I might use flash, I really don't know at that point.

[sfarley]

I think in the meantime I will use Flash Builder or a free alternative, any suggestion?

[jheron]

For professional applications and awesome UI's, you can't beat Qt.

That's my 2 cents.

Jon

[jheron]

Download the latest QtSDK http://qt.nokia.com/downloads/  

and check it out!

It has several excellent tutorials built in.

You can develop your application and get it working on the desktop or in the sim from the SDK, then you can deploy it for the playbook, symbian, android, mac, linux, windows desktops, etc. Qt  can be deployed across several platforms...

Cheers,

Jon

[meltbox360]

I'mjust going to throw SDL into the mix since it isn't all too difficult to learn. I learned the parts I needed in a day. Of course all of this heavily depends on how good you are with C.

[sfarley]

It seem good with the one you provided, do you have a link that explain how to merge the QNX and this one together??