Proposal for micro-donations for authors via maemo.org
Andrew Flegg, your editor, has made a proposal for a consistent donation scheme to be available to application authors wanting to publish open source software in maemo.org's repositories: it is interesting to think about how micro-payments for ones software could make one a bit of money (100 users at $1 each is a nice present); but whilst still having our software as open source. There've been suggestions in the past of a "Donate" button on each project's website, but I suggest we thrash out a scheme - and then implement - a consistent micro-donation system for maemo.org Response on talk.maemo.org, Twitter and IRC has been generally positive.
maemo.org Extras definition of 'free' brought into focus
Jeremiah Foster, our debmaster, brought a conversation about (non-)free, as in speech, applications on maemo.org into the light; based on a bug report against Mauku. The conversation reignited the debate about whether or not the community should be doing free quality assurance testing for applications which are dependent on the author for future releases and upgrades. However, it also highlighted the lack of awareness about the "non-free" section of Extras.
Network connected apps should better support proxy
Bobby Adesuyan is asking for better proxy support on the N900. He complains: The device is an internet lemon if you are behind a proxy firewall and ony the browser and email works. Nothing and I mean not one internet aware application works. I live and work in a school where all internet connection is done via a proxy and its been a hellish experience using the N900 because of this problem. The worst part is even core system application which you would expect to work with the system wide proxy I added to my wireless profile doesnt work (the Nokia repo fails) and everyother core app like Internet radio, and sharing to flickr, facebook applet, IM non seems to be able to connect when you are behind a network proxy. The situation is just soo bad. Ouch. Developers should familiarise themselves with the libconic proxy examples linked to by shadowjk in the ensuing discussion.
Further design work on "badge" for CLI icons in Extras
Tim Samoff has created a new set of CLI icons/badges for use in the Application Manager with command-line only applications. The intent is to make such packages easily available, but to indicate to users that the package is intended to be used in X Terminal. According to Tim, he decided to create the new set because it seemed that the "puzzle" icon I made wasn't very well loved. Ultimately, using the default icon or adding the badge to your existing icon, may become part of the QA process for command-line only applications.
PyQt 4.7 released on all Maemo devices, for Qt 4.5/4.6
Talk member attila77 has announced PyQt 4.7. It is still in extras-testing but features Qt 4.5/4.6 support, N800/N810/N900 support, proper demo package, OpenGL ES support, synched with upstream 4.7, smallest footprint, and an easy upgrade path to PySide. There are still some autobuilder/dependency issues so be sure to check out the discussion.
MADDE: new cross-platform Maemo development environment in technology preview
Other next-generation mobile platforms, whether Apple's iPhone OS; Google's Android; Palm's webOS have one thing in common: an easy-to-install, low-barrier-to-entry development environment. At the Maemo Summit 2009 in Amsterdam, Nokia promised that Maemo 6 would join their ranks. Qt Creator is already available, and a possible future multi-platform, cross-compiling, simple-to-use back-end (MADDE) has now been unveiled. MADDE stands for Maemo Application Development and Debugging Environment. It is SDK for cross compile, debug and package new application for Maemo. It is not meant to use to build debian packages that use Autotools or anything that aids compilation by figuring out native system information. As you can see, it's intended for "native" Maemo applications rather than ports; but has already had a positive reception amongst early adopter developers.
MADDE frequently-asked-questions
As a sign of how quickly MADDE is being embraced by developers who - for some reason(!) - find Scratchbox a little intimidating, clumsy or heavyweight; Pasi Savanainen showed his community spirit by pulling together an FAQ for MADDE.
Maemo Developer Day, November 2009 writeup
About 150 developers and 53 companies gathered in Copenhagen to talk about the Nokia N900, Maemo 5, and Qt. According to Quim Gil, This is just the beginning for Maemo, as we will look to create our flagship experience on Maemo with deep Ovi service integration; offering the most advanced performance and user experience, Right now is the time to prepare for the coming buzz that Maemo will undoubtedly create. There has already been great interest for the Nokia N900. Maemo 6 and Qt 4.5 was also discussed, with Qt having good support and documentation at Forum Nokia, and can be a great tool for universities. Ovi will open soon for Maemo apps.
Change chinook repos to 'archive' mode?
Niels Breet is the maemo.org web-/infrastructure-master and is seeking opinions on whether or not the chinook (Maemo 4.0) auto-builder and repository should be kept fully supported: I think it is time to make the chinook repository read-only and close down the builder instance for it. maemo.org would then support the latest stable releases for each device generation out there. As we went to print, the responses have been few and were mostly from software authors who still supported this release for users who hadn't upgraded to diablo (Maemo 4.1).
Qt/3D Demos Running on N900
Marko Mattila has tried running the 3D examples (shipped as part of Qt) on the N900: I decided to take a look at if it is possible to run Qt3D demos on N900 and yes it is. The applications that I ran on the video are Qt3D demo apps which come with the Qt3D source code. Given Qt is the future development framework for all Maemo applications, these examples give a good indication of the power and flexibility of the framework; and how it can already be used within Maemo 5 on the N900.