[maemo-developers] General Maemo/Scratchbox/N800 help

[From: David Hazel]

I've been trying, for 3-4 weeks now, to develop some software in my
spare time for the N800 device. However, I'm fairly new to Linux
development in general, and completely new to Maemo/Scratchbox. I'm
having a general problem with finding out how to do basic things such
as:

- interacting with the N800 device itself from my Linux PC
- understanding 'flasher' (in particular, what the "R&D mode" and "host
mode" actually do and how to make use of them)
- transferring files etc. to the N800, for example to test software
- knowing what commands are available in Scratchbox to help me with the
development, deployment and testing of software


The problem seems to be that such documentation as exists often appears
to jump into the explanations halfway through, without catering for
people who aren't members of the "Linux/Maemo developers" clique. There
are often disclaimers to the effect that readers are assumed already to
be familiar with X, without saying what to read if one isn't familiar
with X. Even when pointers exist, they are often in the form of vaguely
worded descriptions that don't produce anything useful when typed into
Google. Some documentation is even at the level of header comments,
which are only useful as reminders if you already know how to do things.

Now it may be that everything is fully documented, and that the
documentation is available somewhere online. The problem I'm having is
finding it (or even finding out whether it exists, in many cases).

So, can anyone help me? I need to find out where I can look, either
online or in published books, to find out how to proceed. Answers to the
points listed above would be an excellent starter. I have lots of
software development experience, on many operating system platforms, so
I certainly don't lack the skills to do what I'm trying to achieve.
Unfortunately, not much of my experience has been on Unix or Linux, and
I'm finding these to be pretty impenetrable to someone who doesn't have
a-priori Unix knowledge.


Thanks in advance for any pointers that anyone is able to give me.


David Hazel