[maemo-developers] Proper documentation (was Re: [maemo-developers] HildonProgram input to gtk_widget_show()?)

[From: Stefan Kost]

Hi,

Mike Frantzen wrote:
 >> ...
> 
> I think it's even worse than that.  There are enough differences to the
> usual linux/gtk development environment that the N770 is very
> frustrating to develop for.  The usual embedded linux target gives the
> developer the freedom to choose the methods to his madness.  The N770
> forces developer do it Nokia's way or not at all.

We (Nokia) don't enforce stuff. But if you want to use some stuff, then you need 
to use it the way it has to be used ;)

>  Most embedded linux
> targets are just as mature as the underlying linux system.  The N770
> used enough bleeding edge technology that it has some very sharp edges;
> and as a developer I really don't like the bleeding part.
> 
> The big ones that immedietly come to mind are:
>   1) gstreamer which I understand if you want to offload multimedia to
>      the DSP.  It's just too bad that it's not stable.
What do you consider so unstable here? The way the DSPPlugins (decoder sinks) 
work right now is now perfect - we know that and we are going to improve it step 
by step.

>   2) dbus/libosso.  blech, complex solution to a simple problem.  very
>      "Windows" like
Personaly I like DBus. I don't see how this relates to Windows. Please enlighten 
us :)

>   3) hildon-specific gtk widgets instead of just modifying the stock GTK
>      widgets to work well on the N770 platform
The plan here, was *not* to fork gtk. Please remember that there was no ready 
made receipie for us. We know that its not perfect, but still I like what we 
achived so far.

> 
> Porting existing applications to the N770 involves rewriting some things
> and kludging the hell out of others.  Both which make it much less likely
> that the diffs will be accepted back into the main application's source
> tree.  Which means the porter has to maintain his diffs out of the tree
> which is a big PITA.
 >
Then please point out such things. Many things can be abstracted, but sometimes 
it needs some time to get the right ideas. We had to start somewhere.
> 
> Writing new applications for the N770 locks your application into the
> N770 platform or you implement a lot of things twice, once for the N770
> and once for everything else.  You end up doing things twice since it's
> much more pleasant to debug outside of a N770 or a scratchbox.
> 
> I'm not happy with the N770 software.  The hardware is great and the
> platform does have some serious potential if it ever matures under the
> hood.
 >
It will and its up to you to decide wheter you wanna help or sulk.
>  
> .mike

Stefan