[maemo-developers] Is it possible to make a "well-behaved" pyGame app with maemo-python ?

[From: Tomi Ollila]

On Fri 30 Nov 2007 00:33, "Thomas D. Waelti" <twaelti at dplanet.ch> writes:

>
>> Thomas D. Waelti wrote :
>>>> However, I have been unable to adapt the mClock example for the
>>>> service file successfully. As soon as I reference the X-Osso-
>>>> Service value in the desktop file, I get a lengthy "Loading..."
>>>> banner and nothing else, even though I call osso.Context()
>>>> early in my code. I must be missing something still...
>>>>
>>>
>>> Does the service really load your app?
>>> Try to launch the application manually from xterm using the same
>>> command that you wrote into the service file.
>>> Does it come up then?
>>>
>> Yes, it's exactly the same line as in the .desktop file, and it
>> does load the app by itself.
>>
>> This is all very frustrating. I think it's bad for the app
>> portfolio of the tablet, and its users in general, when amateur
>> programmers like me have to spend hours after their program is
>> finished, just to understand how to put its icon in a menu and
>> actually get it launched from there... all because of an arcane and
>> somewhat under-documented packaging system that's only really
>> grokable if you have a good experience of Linux and Gnome
>> beforehand.

> Exactly my feelings. Compared to development on Palm or Windows Mobile,
> this is hell :-) 
> I spent 2-3 evenings on mClock, and at least a dozen on the packaging
> etc.


Same here, I remember spending something like 6-7 hours trying to get 
all bits right to make one GUI application work properly on N770...
and even could not do that fully. I just fork(2)ed away. The most painful
things in working part were to notice that whitespace at the end of some
configuration files did mean something -- made the file not to work
(I hope this is fixed by now).

Anyway, previous experience of flustration with getting software work
on Nokia Internet Tablets have shyed me away for creating stuff for
the machines... and first I should (again) get the development 
environment(s) to work.

So OS developers, please make this part smooth and understandable -- and
enchange debugging facilities so developers can figure out where the
problem lays when nothing happens -- I mean *nothing* happens... this
reminds me of a thing I heard what happens sometimes at russian border:
one has to fill a blanket written in cyrillic letters; lot of information
is asked to be filled and if there is an error anywhere in the papers,
the clerk returns the papers for fixing, without any explanation what
went wrong. The (language) barrier is hard to get over sometimes. The
barrier in maemo development is much lower, but for developers working
on their spare time it should be as minimal as possible.

>
> Oh darn...
> -Tom


Tomi