Native Development

[singmajesty]

Hi,

Is SDL a good choice for native applications for the PlayBook?

I am compiling a cross-platform application framework for BlackBerry, and using SDL would likely be the ideal because it would minimize code differences, since SDL is already used for webOS and desktop platform support in the library.

iOS and Android have separate Objective-C and Java stages (respectively) so it would be possible to use something unique to BlackBerry if that is required, or ideal.

Are there any pitfalls to using SDL (graphics, sound, events) on the device? Will I be safe compiling a fairly standard version of SDL 1.2 for the platform, or do I have to use the modified version you guys have posted on GitHub?

If I should be using the modified version of SDL, is it already on the device, or is it distributed as a shared library so that I do not have to compile it myself?

Thanks! 

[jheron]

I am not familiar with SDL, but by using the Qt SDK you can deploy your app to win desktop, winCE, mac desktop, linux desktop, symbian, meego, android and BBX. There is also an IOS port for Qt but I am not sure how far along it is...

I believe Qt will be the backend for the cascades ui designer as well.

Cheers,
Jon

[Vilmos]

I can't get SDL to recognize touch events on the simulator, I haven't bothered trying on the device.  If you do get it working please post how!  Also I couldn't get it to recognize the native screen size even though it was enumerated correctly.

Edit:  I was using the git-hub BB version.

[singmajesty]

I'm using the SDL version off of Github, now. I'm having an "eglGetDisplay" error when I do anything with SDL_OPENGL, but software appears to work. I'm having an inconsistency between running off the terminal and from the launcher, though, so I'm going to have to figure out what's going on there (probably something about my bar descriptor file)

[juergen0815]

I haven't tried the bb version from the git hub. I compiled it, and I do have an SDL profile in the desktop version of my engine, however, I  dislike how SDL is dependent on the TouchControlOverlay library which I do not use. Also, I am using native EGL1 and EGL2 "profiles" on the PB which doesn't fit into how SDL works. I guess it should be fine if you are trying to port code, but me personally, I removed all SDL dependencies. But I can do most what SDL does with my own engine.