[maemo-developers] Making my app. appear on the Navigator menu

[From: David Hazel]

> i suggest you convert the energy you put in writing those long emails
> into reading carefully

So you'd prefer me not to explain my problem as clearly and fully as
possible? That'll help a lot, won't it?

> if you are unsure about the directory structure and you have no real
> reason to change it, then stick with the one suggested: this really
> eases reading the docs and tutorials.

The problem there is that there is more than one directory structure
"suggested": the one in the hello-world example is different from the one in
MaemoPad. The hello-world example is closer to mine than MaemoPad's, but the
fact that they differ is what makes me ask the question.

> remember that help on the irc channel or the dev mailing list is
> provided by volunteers.

And by the occasional Nokia person, with presumably a commercial interest in
making sure that people out in the wide world know how to write software for
their kit.

> from what i can
> recall, a lot of people on the mailing list helped you already.

I've had answers to less than 50% of the questions I've asked. The rest of
the answers I've had to dig out myself by trial and error.

> did you
> ever consider you were not asking the right way ?
> in any case, whining never helped.

Sometimes you have to be direct to get a response. And since when is
pointing out the shortcomings of documentation and community support
"whining"? I assume Nokia would like to know when there are shortcomings in
both of these areas. It's quite likely, too, that there are others out there
with similar problems to mine who simply don't dare shout because of exactly
this kind of slap-down.

> how does it help solving your problem with .desktop and .service files ?

Not with those, specifically, but I'm hoping the remark will serve to prompt
someone at Nokia to take this issue seriously. Platforms don't gain
widespread support when they're only suitable for technically-minded people.

> unfortunately, blaming the platform, the people behind it, and the
> community won't bring you more attention nor more help offers.

And keeping silent about poor documentation and support won't help Nokia to
sell non-Windows PDAs. Technology alone never sells itself, despite what
many techies believe - you need good grass-roots support as well. That
comes, in part, from there being widespread knowledge about how the
technology works, and by hiding the complexities of the technology as much
as possible.

> welcome to the embedded world, no you're no more under windows sitting
> comfortably behind visual studio's brilliant debugger :)

Nor am I under Mac OS X with its even better (GNU-based) debugger, well
thought-out documentation and integrated development/deployment tools ;)

I'm not some rookie fresh out of university. When someone with 24 years of
development experience, including in embedded software, says a platform is
difficult to develop on because of poor (or, more likely, poorly organised)
documentation, it's worth paying attention and not dismissing them out of
hand. Again, Nokia need to be aware that there are issues like this with
their platform. Keeping quiet about it would not help them.

> good luck

Looks like we'll all need it.