Nokia porting Qt Quick Components to Ubuntu, Maemo & MeeGo

One of the biggest problems facing Harmattan is that the preferred user interface technology is Nokia's Qt Quick Components on top of QML; whereas Intel developed their own "MeeGo UX Components" which were a late addition to MeeGo 1.2. With similar aims, the two frameworks still have a different API. Nokia's Qt Quick Components allow you to target Symbian and Harmattan, and soon Maemo and MeeGo as well. Kate Alhola writes: Nokia Developer former Forum Nokia will provides a community port of components to Ubuntu Natty, Maemo5, and MeeGo 1.2. New components could be easily adapted for example to MeeGo 1.2 style with just small hack in application. Our Qt Components are licensed with Open Source license, so you are free to use them in any system. Out product theme that comes with MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan SDK is proprietary but I have made version of MeeGo 1.2 theme that works with MeeGo Harmattan Qt Components. I will provide more information about porting to different platforms and community theme in my upcoming blogs.

Information on N9 Open Source Developer Device Programme

Quim Gil provides information on the N950 developer device programme through meego.com, which has 250 devices to give out to foster development ahead of the N9 launch: Candidates must be community developers ready to start working on new or existing open source applications, to be published in apps.meego.com and the Nokia Store. Links to your current projects are relevant! Deadline for applications: end of Tuesday, June 28th. IMPORTANT: commercial developers are encouraged to apply directly at http://developer.nokia.com. See also the related discussion thread at Nokia Developer. Thank you for your understanding. The short window (which expires tomorrow) means hopefully developers should start receiving devices this week. A video demonstrating what they should expect is also linked to below.

Reporting Harmattan development system bugs

bugs.maemo.org was the Bugzilla instance for Maemo, from the 770 through to the N900, but the disconnect between user-facing issues and developers hidden within Nokia often caused friction. Quim Gil outlines that the bug reporting process for Harmattan is much simpler: only issues affecting the SDK or developer experience should be logged. User facing issues & enhancements should go through Nokia's customer service channels, which are far more suited to dealing with them. This bug reporting tool focuses on *developer issues*: platform, SDK, documentation, etc (the open source components). However, we have added a component "Device" where the developers getting the devices can also file bugs they are finding as testers of the device.

Python for Harmattan released

Luciano Wolf has announced that the Harmattan Python team is proud to announce the availability of a full-featured Python environment for the MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan platform. Supported on Nokia's N9 phone and preloaded on the Nokia N950 developer device as well as the Harmattan Platform SDK, the Harmattan Python environment allows you to write Python applications with complete device functionality and flawless user experience. You can even publish your Python applications on Ovi Store!

The last point is particularly pleasing, given the previous stance towards Python from the Ovi Store which the previous Maemo Community Council attempted to have addressed.

Urho Konttori looks back on N9 development

Urho Konttori, involved in the development of Harmattan and the N9, publicly thanked his staff and colleagues for the extraordinary effort in getting it released - to such fanfare - when surrounded by challenging circumstances.

What I want to say to the people who beared all that: Respect. You have my utmost respect and admiration. We didn't just do our best, we crafted the software to near perfection. Simplistic UI is easy to imagine, but extremely hard to execute. And execution includes design. Devil is in details and temptations are many. Keeping the boat steady on course needed a lot from you design and product management. It's nothing short of miracle that the fruit of our labor is now admired by millions.

Why the Nokia N9 does run "MeeGo", and how that's good for the MeeGo project

One of your editor's, Andrew Flegg, responded to a comment on LWN from Arjan van de Ven (one of the MeeGo architects) which said that "MeeGo is not Harmattan, despite Nokia's best efforts to confuse things".

MeeGo needs two things - both of which can be provided by the N9 and N950: A mass-market, consumer-friendly device perceived to be running MeeGo, for future OEMs and manufacturers to see that a compelling UX can be built on (something like) MeeGo; [and] apps.

The Compliance Specification (for MeeGo 1.1 at least) specifies that "compliant applications must conform to the MeeGo API", and since the "MeeGo API" is very similar to the "Harmattan API", this means a relatively simple porting exercise (although a lot of the Harmattan GUI is MTF rather than QML, QML is still the preferred way to write Harmattan apps, as it is on MeeGo). We can certainly sympathize with the emotional politics wrapped up in this issue, but leveraging the buzz around Nokia's MeeGo-branded efforts seems more productive in the long run than treating Harmattan like radioactive waste.

Help out with QML for MeeGo IM client

Jeremias Bosch has asked for assistance in developing the QML user interface for Peregrine, the IM client which is shipped as standard on the MeeGo Community Edition. He says that in order to speed up for MeeGo 1.2 CE Releases we are looking for one or two community qml developers who can help and support us in bringing the updates for MeeGo 1.2 CE faster. This will will bring the User Experience of Chat and VoiP on MeeGo 1.2 CE to a new level.

Post to Harmattan event feed from Python

Thomas Perl has packaged the API for posting to Harmattan's Events' view into a convenient Python API: This library allows you to post new events to the Harmattan Event Feed screen and receive callbacks when events are clicked. You can post updates about new items that are found and create other kinds of cool notifications :) The Event Feed screen is available in MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan on the N950 and N9 - this library allows you to integrate Python code with it. One of your editor's Harmattan application plans revolves around geolocation and the Events Feed, so such convenience APIs will be very handy.