.::[SymbianGeek]::.

Move on....

2011-02-17T08:25:00.002+05:30

Yes, that is what Nokia told us, and that's what we need to do after the unceremonious dumping of developers by Nokia. I am not going to quit coding Symbian applications and would continue to do so for fun.
This is this final post on this on this url and I would be migrating the content here to another site soon.I will make the announcement about the new site soon.

Stephen Elop asks a Wesley Gibson question!!!

2011-02-09T23:47:00.004+05:30

In this supposed internal memo,Stephen Elop, asks a Wesley Gibsonesque question to his Nokia team.
And this news has completely overshadowed the other Symbian device released by Akai in India(Need to verify this one!!!!). It's a dual-sim device and as per my knowledge if this thing is really a Symbian device, then its the first dual-SIM Symbian device.

QML source material.

2011-01-23T23:42:00.006+05:30

Symbian needs flashy UI, that's what everyone feels and cribs about. So the solution is QML.
The quick way to make great UI.
I have just started checking it out. The definitive source for it is this.
Update #1: Some of the pdf files of the online articles can be found here.
Update #2: Simon Judge has some useful QML tips on this mobilephonedevelopment.com blog. The tips can be found here.

Symbian Series 40!!!!

2011-01-12T18:26:00.004+05:30

To quote from this review of the Nokia C3 at PCMag.com:
"The Symbian Series 40 OS is quite dated, but for a low-end phone like this, it's more than up to the task."
People who don't even understand the difference between Series 40 & Series 60, very authoritatively claim its all Symbian!! Symbian has become the punching bag for all Nokia haters.
PCMag.com is off my list from now on.

symbian.org is now symbian.nokia.com!!

2010-12-18T13:08:00.002+05:30

With 17th Dec. 2010 gone, the old Symbian Foundation web-sites are down and Symbian has a new address at Nokia. Nokia has started a new blog at symbian.nokia.com. SymbianDevCo has also migrated succesfully to the AAS domain. Let's see how many days does Nokia keep Symbian alive!!

Rare Nokia 7700 for sale!!

2010-12-07T20:54:00.005+05:30

While browsing through the esato.com forums, found this gem.
A rare Nokia 7700 prototype. I am not sure if its considered Nokia property.
Wish I could lay my hands on it:P

The sale thread is here.
Finding a Nokia 7710 itself is difficult, but finding a 7700 is even more of an event. Hope I get some quick cash soon to lay my hands on this one.

Symbian moving from Open-Source to No-Source. X7-00 amazes.

2010-11-28T13:11:00.008+05:30

Symbian is closing all its web-sites right from the ideas to horizon sites. This is again going to leave all those symbian.org contributors in a limbo. The sites are closing (and I quote from the symbian wiki entry : )

Which websites will be affected?
All of the websites hosted by the Symbian Foundation will be affected:
* www.symbian.org, www.symbian.org/cn, www.symbian.org/jp
* developer.symbian.org, developer.symbian.org/cn, developer.symbian.org/jp
* horizon.symbian.org
* ideas.symbian.org
* blog.symbian.org, blogcn.symbian.org, blogjp.symbian.org

The @Symbian Twitter feed and the Symbian.org fan page on Facebook are also likely to be discontinued.

So you see most the contributions, ideas of the past 2 years are going to go 'god knows where'.
The source will be available on-demand. Also nothing is clear about the domain names(symbian.org will be on sale?) and the sources.
So things are moving to Nokia's fold back again. This should make things move faster and we should start seeing more fire-breathing Nokia soon.
And just to add : the leaked X7-00 looks somewhat unusual and reminds of the N-Gage a bit.But on the whole if the specs are right this could the real N-Gage successor(I hope it does not become the N-Gage successor sales wise :P ).

The floodgates have opened but the apps have dried up!!

2010-11-10T16:02:00.006+05:30

The signs of a declining developer interests were imminent(look here, here & here), but now its becoming more worse. Somethings like apps for Symbian devices, which were taken for granted, are becoming more and more scarce.
The N8 review here mentions the scarcity of apps as a con of the device!!! Now with SF(Some one please remove those mutated icons of SF, make it look more professional. Make app development fun & we can live with more watered down icons.) being diluted and Nokia taking charge of Symbian, its more important that "Symbian starts doing UI".
And if Nokia really has some cash left, then it should acquire TAT and put in on Symbian :P .

The floodgates have finally opened !!!

2010-08-18T10:38:00.003+05:30

Finally after pleading for many years, hobby developers can develop and post some apps for a very nominal fee.The Nokia Symbian signing apps for free program has moved out of the beta stage. Now it's just 50$ that are required for publishing an application through the Ovi store. While this fee is a one-year cost and would suffice for apps using the erstwhile Express signed route, it's still a big push for hobby developers and enthusiasts. I hope the app flood should start in another 3-4 months. More details here.

Join SymbianDevCo.org now!!!

2010-07-21T07:19:00.006+05:30

There have been many attempts at creating a platform where in individual Symbian developers can be heard.But most of the time either the grouping was all too weak or no one really cared what the group said.
Enter SymbianDevCo.org(SDC). This seems to be the right place where in individuals can make the SF hear their views. Presently the numbers are too small, so to really make it a big force SDC would require more members from all domains of device development life cycle.Also the ideas platform was just about presenting ideas and could never influence the roadmap in anyway.I hope this time its going to be bigger, better and more influential.
So let's all join SDC now.
And just to add, it's just not the developers who are invited,you could be either of these(excerpt from SDC itself):

    * Open source enthusiasts
    * Systems architects
    * Kernel developers
    * Firmware/driver developers
    * Middleware developers
    * Tools developers
    * Widget developers
    * Applications developers
    * Designers
    * Third-party content creators
    * Technical writers
    * Usability practitioners
    * Support professionals
    * Trainers
    * QA experts
    * Students, graduate students, researchers and professors
    * Community managers
    * Sales, marketing and public relations professionals
    * Industry analysts
    * Anyone else with an interest in making Symbian better

Nokia signing Symbian apps for free.

2010-07-18T20:06:00.002+05:30

This is some old news , but still relevant for overall Symbian app development. Nokia has announced that they will be signing Symbian C++, QT & Flash apps as a part of a Beta program. They have published the required steps here. This is a real welcome move from Nokia which should lead to more apps being published.
And one more thing to add would be the unofficial(I assume) report on the Ovi Store.

Getting the Symbian source code.

2010-07-04T23:31:00.005+05:30

Update #1: 5th July 10PM: It's been nearly 22 hours and the package download is still ON. The total sources size is around 6.5GB, while the total download size with build tools etc. has been around 8.5GB. I will be aborting the download in an hour if it does not end.
Symbian has been open source for some time now. I am now getting the sources using mercurial. The cloning process is going on quite slow with packages being downloaded. The process is two step one.
First we need to get the utilities to fetch a perl script. The command for that would be :

hg clone https://developer.symbian.org/oss/MCL/sftools/fbf/utilities/

Once this is downloaded, the perl script to fire is called

clone_all_packages.pl

. Just fire this script on the command prompt from the directory in which to download the sources and the download should start.Here is a screenshot of the same.

If no.of visitors were to indicate... - Part III

2010-07-03T03:35:00.009+05:30

##Warning : This is a long rant.##
From May 2010, I have been seeing a shift in the trends that seem to indicate a move towards Android. And now this, with some of the most prominent fanboys quitting Symbian or should I say Nokia(Ohh seems like Two-Face of Batman : Good & Bad in one. But certainly not supervillian). General people shifting platforms is one thing and fanboys shifting loyalties is another. Fanboys need some real hard hitting to get them moving on to the next fandom.
Symbian-guru.com has gone into suspended animation and it shaked the whole Symbian fanboy base. The head of Nokia Mobile Solutions had to take note of it.
There are many other fanboys(1,2,3 ) who are moving to Android. It's easy to develop and still provides enough depth for the geeks to tinker with the system. Seems like the trend of the last two posts of this series were true after all.

Let us do some analysis of the situation.
Guilty Party #1 : Nokia
Nokia is certainly not making good devices and doing justice to Symbian. I have a N79 whose main speaker stopped working within 8 months of purchase. So once the hardware starts going bad , there is nothing that the software can really do. Nokia has made some great concepts which were well ahead of time, but never wholeheartedly supported them.
N-GAGE was one example, just a bit more push in terms of hardware would have changed the scene together.
I have seen Nokia investing hugely in new ideas and with blind faith and then abandoning the whole thing one fine morning. And all this while totally ignoring the end user demands(N-GAGE, MOSH).
Nokia probably suffers from some kind of "short attention span disorder". It was most of the times the first platform to launch stuff(apps, games, video chat/call), but never made efforts to provide a polished product or market the half-baked product madly. It would create some new concept, execute it with some noises, and then with the embarrassment of the execution, market it making even more half-hearted noises. This has always led in failure. I just hope that Symbian does not end the same way.

Guilty Party #2 :Symbian
The whole concept and execution of developing native apps is very geeky on Symbian. It has appealed to a small segment(and am one of them) right from the start. One of my seniors, who has worked on client and server application frameworks from the past 15 years, had been quick to point the totally confusing and complicated method of creating a simple string in Symbian. He quit on Symbian native app devlopment learning within 3 days of starting to learn it. He never returned and would always tell me that Symbian may be a great operating system, but its not at all developer friendly. I had long defended my(being a symbian fanboy) position, that one day Symbian would be more appealing than any other developer platform. That day has still not arrived.
If development was not any easier the signing process has been a nightmare running from the past 3 years. The signing process has shooed away so many hobby developers that the damage is certainly irreparable. The lessons being learnt are so late that only some real miracle can get the developers back to Symbian.Remember it's not going to be some device release which can trigger it, it has to the developer friendliness of the platform that can only change the situation.

Competitors and the things done correct by them #1 : Android
Android may or may not have the most efficient method of creating strings, but the ease and comfort it presents to new developers is amazing. I recently have experimented with Android and completely overwhelmed by its simplicity. I created a simple application with a classy list ,populating it with entries from contacts db. This was done in 3 days and well within 2 java files of 40-60 loc max. Is this possible in Symbian native app development? And I would rate Google's documentation way beyond Symbian's documentation. Google does not have a hit device/flagship device, but its main pull is its developer friendly approach.

Competitors and the things done correct by them #2 : Apple
Apple has been one of the most clever players in the mobile scenario. It knew that it just could beat Symbian and other players by simply changing the rules of the game, but only by changing the game itself. It shifted the focus from hardware extras like camera, GPS to software (apps,services). Never were apps so game changing and influential. Apple acted as if multi-tasking never existed, and no one missed it either. Symbian kept lazily deriding Apple for it. Apple has never beaten the competition at its game. It has always thrived on changing the game. And till the time the competition the rules of the game and mastered it, Apple invents a new game. As far as I know the competition has been dumb enough to take Apple's bait time and again. Except for Google I don't see anyone innovating. Probably Google has understood Apple's game and hence is able to counter them. Other device manufacturers are just busy in making iPhone killers, acknowledging their inferiority and thus giving iPhone the GOD like status. Also Apple has always made sure that it is connected to its users. Either through iTunes or by being constantly being in the news. It has made sure that it gets the required eyeballs even before it starts its show.

So what next?
Most of the Symbian developers are moving to Android/Maemo or iPhone(I hope even QT), I can see that happening in terms of lesser number people visiting my KERN-EXEC 3 page ;).
I would not wait for the next Nokia device to change things, if Symbian and Nokia can really open doors to developers and get them rolling, just the current installed base of Symbian devices is good enough to set things right again.

As for me, am sticking to Symbian(not sure if to Nokia) till the end. I am attracted towards Android, but its surely not gonna rip off the Symbian in my DNA ;).

After some grim rants, here's some light moments. Check this really funny(really felt bad for the user) highlighting Symbian user's woes and the pathetic state of Ovi. (Got it from here.)

To end with, there's a line from Terminator Salvation which would be my advice to Symbian & Nokia : If we stay the course, we are dead! We are all dead!

If no.of visitors were to indicate... - Part II

2010-06-26T23:47:00.002+05:30

Should we be alarmed?

This is what Rural India truly needs...

2010-06-25T17:36:00.004+05:30

There have been many competitions about creating mobile apps which can change the way people communicate. One of the recent ones wanted apps which helped the environment and was relevant in the rural context as well. But more than apps this is something that should be really promoted in rural areas. The Roto Charger is what is a must in the rural scenario where power supply is best available in patches. If mobile companies can push this solution, it would be real contribution to saving the planet. I am now on my way to buying the Roto Charger. Its available for Rs. 350($ 7.5) only. Check the ebay store listing here.

Symbian may open gates for hobby developers. But when?

2010-06-07T19:01:00.004+05:30

As I had dicussed it earlier, the cost and rules do not allow individual developers to create & sell Symbian applications. The biggest hinderance being the Publisher ID which was being issued only to companies. Now there are some indications on forums of an alternate route being investigated where the users identity once confirmed can get apps signed. The methods probably being investigated is the Paypal Verified one.
But the main issue is, there are no indications when this will be rolled out. As from the forum posts here,here & here it seems that its in planning stage from 9 months and will probably take some more time before being rolled out.

If no.of visitors were to indicate...

2010-05-27T23:44:00.006+05:30

I just checked the number of visitors on two major smartphone platforms, Android and Symbian. The statistics shock me a lot.
Just check this out :

These domain stats include the number of statistics of the developer subdomains as well. So the developer pull of Symbian seems to have diminished a lot. Also as per the graph the number of visits in the last two months are in the range of 19K-22K. This is way too less than what android has been able to attract from day one.
A bit more media coverage of the Symbian platform would do it more good than harm.

Selling Symbian apps : Costs & realistic chances of making profits.

2010-05-19T03:58:00.009+05:30

I am "planning" to code and publish a Symbian application.So here I will be chronicling the various steps right from conception to coding to testing to actual publishing of the application.
Now let us check the costs involved in making a symbian application:
1. Developer hours: So going by current standards it would be around 14 dollars per hour. So even if we assume take a unrealistically low 200 hours for the complete development. It boils down to 2800 dollars as developer cost(approx 128000 INR).
2. Company registration costs: I am not sure as to exactly what will be the cost as per Indian procedures. Also a domain of the company would need to be purchased as well. This should be around 50$ per year(2280 INR).This needs a bit more investigation.
3. Symbian Signing costs: This is the road block of hobby developers and the following are the costs:

Publisher ID : 200.00 USD = 9,119.00 INR
Content ID : 10.00 EUR = 555.021 INR
Test house testing : 150.00 EUR = 8,325.32 INR
Express Signed : 10.00 EUR = 555.021 INR

So assuming that we will need only one cycle of test house testing, the total is approx 18000 INR.
So the total investment before earning a single rupee and not even adding the company registration costs is 148280 INR (approx $3252 ). So if I set a price of $ 3 for my app and assume that I will get on an average 50% return, after the VAT is deducted, I will have to sell 2168 copies of the app. Now that's one tall order.
Which also gets me to the question as to what kind of app will sell this well? So we would need to get more stats from Ovi store related to best downloads. Unfortunately Ovi is not that forthcoming as far as sales stats go.
I will update as and when I get more details about the costs of the company setup.
Just to add to the cost there is the Ovi store registration cost of $50.

Symbian^3 SDK released.

2010-05-07T13:07:00.003+05:30

An alpha version of the Symbian^3 SDK has been released on Forum Nokia recently.Just downloaded it from here.
All these SDK's are confusing me no ends and have left me completely dazed.

MMORPG on Symbian & state of native Symbian games.

2010-04-27T23:34:00.002+05:30

One thought has been bothering me a bit and that is the state of the native Symbian C++ games. The last game I really enjoyed was KRally, which had great game play to offer and it was amazingly polished for a native Symbian game. And this happened in 2006, after that I haven't noticed any mind blowing games on Symbian at all.
I noticed this MMORPG named Anrufen. The game looks promising and noticing and so does the premise.
But one question still dogs me, when can we expect the next killer game on a Symbian device? Do we need an open source game engine to make a great Symbian game? What is really lacking that Symbian devices do not make great gaming mobile devices?
Update: Noticed this FN thread on Anrufen.

Nokia unveils new devices.

2010-04-13T13:30:00.005+05:30

Nokia just launched their new devices E5, C3 & the C6. Just a screen shot on the site below.

More details can be sought at this site.
Update : All devices are cool, but I personally feel that C6 is a nice package overall and would probably sell well here in India.
27th April 2010: They have been annouced for India as well and as expected the Nokia C6 is available for a cool 13k rupees. I am not sure if this is price tag is good enough to boost sales as the local mobile manufacturers are really throwing many more features at a far lesser price. I think I will wait till C6 hits the 10 to 11.5k price range. Remember, how E63 really reduced price after a month or two :P.

Trying to make TTS work on my N91.

2010-04-09T02:38:00.010+05:30

Sunday, April 10, 2010 : The code works fine on my N91 and N95. Friday, April 09, 2010 : Found the example code here. It's really sad that symbianexample.com is not live any more. Lots of valuable code has gone missing. Let me check if this site is hosted somewhere else. Friday, April 09, 2010 : After a big break from Symbian C++ coding am back getting my hands dirty. Nothing else can beat the thrill of making something work on a Symbian device. So am tinkering with the TTS api on S60 3rd edition. But it has not worked and the example code specified here is really not complete enough. I will keep updating the progress here.

Symbian is OS(Open Source) now.

2010-02-04T23:56:00.005+05:30

Symbian is now open-source. The project is huge and there is so much information that at least am baffled and confused. I am tempted by the new graphics architecture and want to contribute to it. But as for now am going to read the extensive documentation hosted online. And for the ones who want to get their hands dirty, you can find the package source code here.
Update : The UI mailing list would be very useful.

Symbian.org device list WTF!!!

2009-12-30T00:26:00.006+05:30

Be ready to do some crazy time travel and sample some of the erroneous data present on the device list page of Symbian.org. To experience the magic yourself just browse through the Symbian.org devices listing page and start sorting device listings on date.

Nokia 6220 which is listed as a S60 3rd edition FP2 device was released in (hold your breath) , 11 Mar 2003.

Some landmark devices like Nokia N90 & Motorola A925 are not listed at all.

The "Date", not sure if it's the announced date or release date, is wrong for many models.

For Nokia 3600 & Nokia 6260, the image on respective pages is that of a Nokia 3600 Slide & Nokia 6260 Slide!!!

This device listing deserves to be entered in the Misinformation Hall of Fame. x(

N-GAGE is gone.. :(

2009-12-10T00:31:00.003+05:30

This is a classic case of the saying "First impression is the last impression". N-GAGE, which according to me was the first N-Series device, is officially now dead. Nokia after putting in lots of time and money has put to rest it's most ridiculed creation.
First, the device which was launched in 2003 was ridiculed by people in tonnes. For all those people it just did not matter that it was one of the most multimedia feature-laden device of its time. One mistake of placing the ear piece and microphone on the sides was met with scathing criticism. Nokia's attempt at re-inventing the device had taken off its sheen a lot.
Then came the platform offering, which vowed to get all mobile gamers connected and hooked on. The UI for its device client was amazing on paper, but slow in it's ultimate execution.
According to me, if only Nokia had released another gaming device like the N-GAGE Classic bundled with camera around 2005/2006, that would have been a killer innovation and would have proved to be far more successful than any of the half-hearted attempts made later by Nokia.
Anyway's lets hope Nokia does not screw up any more of its present ventures.

Mobile application development sucks even more now..

2009-12-09T23:30:00.010+05:30

Just when dust of the world of mobile application development seemed to have settled a bit,one more whirlwind platform announcement rakes up more dust, blinding the developers even more. Samsung announced the BADA (means ocean in Korean, but this word in Hindi, the Indian National Language, when pronounced with the 'D' intact, means BIG!!!) OS. This addition to the already crowded mobile platforms scene only adds more chaos and makes it more impossible to earn money thru' mobile application development.
An analogous chaos in the laptop world would be like DELL, HP, LENOVO and other laptop manufacturers announcing different application development sdk's for their laptops.
So consider this,if I want to make a mobile application which could be installed on handset of top mobile phone manufacturers, then I would need to make applications for the following platforms using their respective languages and sdk's(development languages may be incorrect for some platforms mentioned):

SYMBIAN - C++
WINDOWS MOBILE - C++
ANDROID - JAVA
iPHONE - JAVA / OBJECTIVE C
MAEMO - C++
BADA - C
BREW - C
BLACKBERRY - JAVA
J2ME - JAVA

*WRT and Flash are not included as they do not expose much capabilities for the app developer.
And even after coding for so many platforms and in so many languages I will have to pass the various application signing criteria. So even before I sell the first copy of my killer application, I would have spent a good amount on just developing my application, with no guarantee whatsoever that my app will sell. Compare this to the PC application scene and you would notice either you make the application for Windows or Linux or Mac laptops and you are done. No worries of passing certification from various laptop manufacturers and other installation and portability issues.
I hope few years down the line all the CHOTA(that's small in Hindi) and nonsense platforms vanish and only the best ones survive.
Till then happy Symbian coding ;).

Symbian Developer site is back with a bang.

2009-11-04T19:56:00.007+05:30

Yes that's my post ;).

I returned to the Symbian Foundation Developer Forum (http://developer.symbian.org now!) after a long time. And the changes to the site is shocking. The graphics though weird, add a carnival like atmosphere to the site. For the first time I felt that the stiff upper lips have loosened a bit at Symbian and there is certainly a change.
There's lot of catching up that needs to be done, so am going back to the SF developer site. Catch you there. :)

Forum Nokia - Remote Device Access(RDA) shortcut added.

2009-10-06T23:31:00.003+05:30

Forum Nokia Remote Device Access(RDA) is a very useful service. But finding the exact link can be a real task. So am adding a shortcut here on the blog, so that it can be easily accessed. For people reading this is the link to Forum Nokia - Remote Device Access.

Nice little paper on Symbian panics.

2009-07-04T23:17:00.002+05:30

Just wanted to share an informative white paper on the Symbian panics by the MacroBug guys. Not surprisingly, it mentions that KERN-EXEC 3 was the most common error that they faced while developing a phone.But they also mention that it was the most easiest to fix!! You can read the whole paper out here.

RConnection::Attach needs TConnectionInfo!!!

2009-07-04T23:10:00.000+05:30

I had been fighting it out for some time to get the disconnection up and working. I had tried all the steps mentioned at various forum posts and wiki, but the first step of attaching to a connection would never succeed and would always return KErrCouldNotConnect(-34), which was always a mystery to me. Checking all the documentation and capabilities alike I just could not figure out what the problem was. Then I saw an old post on NewLC.com which mentioned that the RConnction::Attach needed TConnectionInfo instead of the TConnectionInfoV2 as is shown in the SDK documentation in the following location.

» Symbian OS v9.2 » Symbian OS guide » Comms infrastructure » Using Sockets Server (ESOCK) » Using Sockets Client » Connection Management » Connection Management overview

So remember this tip and save loads of time :).

Why ...

2009-05-12T09:09:00.007+05:30

..isn't there a function like RFs::FileExists() / RFs::FolderExists() ? ..does the S60 emulator take so long to load?? ..is setting item interface so minimal?? ..is the desired setting item type always missing?? ..does RInteger have static functions NewL instead of having simple Create or Open functions,the way other 'R' classes have?? .. to be continued.

"(command-line defines):: identifier expected" error fix.

2009-05-12T05:29:00.005+05:30

As you can see postings here at Symbiangeek have been scarce. The work load is taking a toll and the only thing now I can blog is the errors that I get during Symbian C++ programming :( . Well the error in question was this pathetic, completely misleading error:

(command-line defines):12: identifier expected

This is the error code reported in Carbide.c++ while building a background exe. Anyways the culprit turned out to be, the macro declaration in the project mmp.

MACRO MYMACRO 1

To remove this error just corect this macro declaration to:

MACRO MYMACRO=1

Well, thats it from my side. Ciao.

Solving KERN-EXEC 3 : a few more tips

2009-04-05T01:20:00.002+05:30

After seeing the feedback on the KERN-EXEC3 solving blog post, it became clear that it was time to post a more elaborate post to help fix those elusive KERN-EXEC 3 (we will call them KE3's)panic. So here are some more detailed pointers to fix the KE3 issue:
1. If you have any member variables which are pointers to objects owned externally,try to convert them to references so as to avoid deleting them accidentally. This is more of a tip to avoid KE3 rather than to fix them.

class CMyClass {
private:
 //CMemVarNotOwnedByMe* iMemVar;
 // Better to have a ref to an externally owned object.
 CMemVarNotOwnedByMe& iMemVar;
};

If having references is not possible, a note of such member variables should be made in the class declarations.

class CMyClass {
private:
#warning ("DO NOT DELETE CMyClass::iMemVar ") 
  CMemVarNotOwnedByMe* iMemVar;
};

2. Double deletion of pointers will lead to KE3. So you need to be sure as to who owns a particular object.

AknsUtils::CreateBitmapL() // Transfers the CFbsBitmap ownership to the caller
CGulIcon::Bitmap() // Does not transfer CFbsBitmap ownership, unless bitmaps are externally owned

So while the bitmap returned by AknsUtils::CreateBitmapL() needs to be deleted, deleting the one returned by CGulIcon::Bitmap() will cause a KE3 in cases where the bitmap is not set to be externally owned.

3.Setting TPtr's to pointers which deref to NULL is a sure shot recipe for KE3's.

 char* charPtr = NULL;
 TPtr8 tPtr((unsigned char*)charPtr,10);
 tPtr.Append(TChar('a'));// Here you have a KE3!!!

So a NULL check before setting the pointers would be a good decision.

4. When an application runs out of memory it gives an OOM, but when it runs out of stack space then it would usually be seen as a KE3. A GUI application would usually get around 80kb of stack space, if you try to put a huge variable like a big TBuf or something, then the code will KE3.

 const int KGreaterThanThreadStack = 100*1024;
 TBuf stackBuf;

While this code will work on the emulator, it will cause a KE3 on the actual device at the point when the function where this variable is declared. If such a variable is to be used, then better allocate it on the heap.

5. In UIQ 3.0 devices it is reported that while loading a dialog ,switching a view or selecting a menu, the application crashes with KE3. The solution to it would be to increase the stack size. So if something is working perfectly in UIQ 3.0 emulator and under nearly the same circumstances(all needed resources & settings file needed present) it's crashing with a KE3 on the device, then increasing the stack size could be one of the solutions.

6. While porting code from other platforms, the usage of stack especially would need to be checked. Just too many or too big stack variables would cause a KE3, which can be agonizingly hard to figure out. So while porting code, if it's giving a KE3, then do try increasing the stack size.

7. Other things to cross-check once would include a check of the destructor code to ensure that all of the "only" owned objects are destroyed properly.

8. CApSettingsHandler::RunSettingsL can also crash with a KE3 if the application stack size is not enough!!. So the remedy is to add the following line to your application's mmp.

// Doing this specifically for CApSettingsHandler else it can give a KERN-EXEC 3
EPOCSTACKSIZE   0x5000

I have tried to cover as many scenarios as possible ,but if you have come across some other scenario which caused a KE3, please do mail me or reply to this post.I would surely add that scenario as well with the essential credits.
Please let us know if this post was useful or not.

Did this post help you in fixing KERN-EXEC 3? ( surveys)

Also do check out : Getting the maximum stack & heap memories for application.

S60 5th Edition SDK v1.0, Language packs and extension plug-ins released.

2009-03-09T14:55:00.002+05:30

Nokia released a v1.0 of the S60 5th edition SDK which is the latest version of the SDK after v0.9. In addition to the SDK a Arabic and Urdu language pack and an 5th edition SDK plug-in also has been released.
S60 5th Edition SDK v1.0 for Symbian OS can be found here.
Extensions Plug-ins for S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition SDKs for S50 3rd edition FP2 and 5th edition SDK can be found here.
Language Plug-ins for S60 SDKs for Symbian OS for S50 3rd edition FP2 and 5th edition SDK can be found here.

Ovi Store launched,70%***** revenue cut.

2009-02-17T00:49:00.009+05:30

Nokia has finally launched its app store, Ovi Store. This annoucement has excited me more than the Symbian device announcements made at MWC. Now Symbian content developers can dream of emulating some of the fame and money earned by their iPhone content developer counterparts.

As for the revenue model, the site mentions it in short like this:
70%* of Gross sales, net of refunds and returns, less applicable taxes and, where applicable, fixed operator billing costs.

The Terms and conditions should be read more closely to understand what the exact details are. As for the ones challenged by "lawyer speak, you can discuss the issues here at Forum Nokia. The app submission is currently open for companies and individuals will have to wait for some time before they can submit their apps for publishing.
As for me, am quickly starting off the coding of my killer app idea ;O .
Ovi, here I come.

Useful S60 emulator keyboard shortcuts.

2009-01-22T14:17:00.000+05:30

This post may not be something new ,but it's very very useful information. The keyboard shortcuts for S60 emulator would be very helpful while programming and debugging on the emulator. My personal favourite is the control border drawing shortcut(Ctrl + Alt + Shift + J), which is very helpful in custom control development.
So here is the complete list ripped directly from the S60 3rd edition Emulator guide.

Esc	Cancels currently displayed dialogs or menus.
F1	Displays the Options menu.
F9	Turns off the emulator. Re-press to restore the emulator.
F10	Simulates an emergency shutdown. Press F9 to restore.
~ (the key below Esc)	Corresponds the Selection key, that is, OK on the navigation key.
Alt + 1	Corresponds the left soft key.
Alt + 2	Corresponds the right soft key.
Cursor keys	Correspond the navigation keys.
0-9, * and #	Correspond the ITU-T numeric keypad.
Home	Corresponds the Applications key.
Ctrl + H or Backspace	Correspond the Clear key.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + O	Rotates the Emulator skin by 180 degrees.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + J	Displays coloured borders around controls.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + P	Displays information pertaining to the resource failure tool.
Ctrl + Alt + Shift + Q	Turns off the heap failure mode.
Ctrl + Alt +Shift + R	Redraws the screen.
Ctrl + Alt +Shift + F	Enables the Window Server auto-flush.
Ctrl + Alt +Shift + G	Disables the Window Server auto-flush. (Default)
Ctrl + Alt +Shift + M	Displays a Move Me dialog.
Ctrl + Alt +Shift + Enter	Displays a Move Me dialog.

XML parser api troika.

2009-01-14T03:10:00.007+05:30

Symbian provides a XML parser, which has been extended in S60 XML parsers classes as well. The Symbian parser is SAX based and would be sufficient for basic XML parsing requirements.
In the Symbian CParser, the parser state needs to be reset after a parse of a complete XML document. This resetting needs to be done even in case of an error. The main thing to remember is that the following troika of API calls in case of XML parsing:

CParser::ParseBeginL()
CParser::ParseL()
CParser::ParseEndL()

The processing of XML may be done in small steps like shown here, but remember once you are done, do call the ParseEndL() function for sure, if you plan to immediately parse another XML document. If not called you may get errors like -991, -997, etc., which are related to parsing the XML. FYI, these error codes are defined in epoc32\include\xmlparsererrors.h.
If you want to check out the XML parsing code in the first place, check this, this & this wiki post.

A really belated "Happy New Year" 2009.

2009-01-06T13:44:00.002+05:30

I wish all readers a really belated "Happy New Year" 2009. Hope this year we will see some more action from the Symbian Foundation. Also I am trying to be a bit more active as compared to the last two years. So see you soon, all Symbiangeeks.

Nokia's Christmas gift to Symbian C++ developers : Carbide.c++ v2.0 is "FREE"

2008-12-17T15:45:00.005+05:30

A new version of Carbide.c++ i.e. v2.0 was released. On first glance, I really did not care much about it at first, as I thought it would have added new features just for the "paid" editions. But then I found that all the editions and their respective goodies are free. This is one of the most awesomest thing that has happened for Symbian C++ developers.
Carbide.c++ v2.0 can be downloaded from here.
Check out the Carbide.c++ v2.0 datasheet here.

GCC 4.2.3 provides some space optimisation..

2008-12-12T17:55:00.008+05:30

I have tried setting up GCC 4.2.3 for the S60 3rd edition SDK. The setup was successful and it was rather quite straightforward, thanks mainly to the detailed steps mentioned in the Forum Nokia Wiki.

I did not apply all the patches mentioned in the wiki. Only the following patched were required to get the basic S60 code samples.
1. Edit the compilation scripts.
2. Remove failing assertions.
3. Remove extra qualifiers from the SDK's header files.

I just tried my compiling a few of the S60 examples and here are the results detailing the size of the executable generated using both the compilers:

Example Name	GCC v3.4	GCC v4.2
AddressBook	48 kb	20 kb
BrCtlSampleApp	63 kb	18 kb
Messaging	10 kb	7 kb
WebClient	33 kb	13 kb

The newer compiler generates a slew of warnings but generates code quite optimised for size. Also the patches to apply would wary from project to project. While this data is not comprehensive, but it gives a glimpse of the good that the new version of the GCC compiler holds.

GCC 4.x comes to Symbian OS via the unofficial route.

2008-12-11T17:05:00.006+05:30

Thanks to the persistence of Marian Kechlibar and some generous help from Julian Brown ,we can now use the latest version of GCC 4.x for target compilation(GCCE). This was done by the inclusion of asm definitions for __aeabi_uidiv & __aeabi_idiv routines. The complete details of how to get GCC 4.x setup are present in an excellently descriptive Forum Nokia Wiki article.
Though this is more of a "hack" and would not ensure that everything compiles under GCC 4.x, but nonetheless its at least a good start, as we have been stuck with GCC v3.4.3 for quite some time now.
Do check the wiki article: How to use GCCE 4 with Symbian SDKs.
All the versions of Sourcery G++ Lite for ARM SymbianOS can be downloaded from here.

Symbian programming frustration...

2008-12-01T18:50:00.003+05:30

This would be an odd post to make on this blog for SymbianGeeks, but the fact is I am really frustrated and am going to vent a small part of it here. I have been now coding Symbian C++ apps for some time now and let me tell you coding Symbian C++ apps is not one of the easiest tasks around. The steep learning curve, incomplete documentation and absolutely pathetic debugging support (though this has improved in recent times) makes it only more harder.I did find some old posts on similar lines on the net, which seem to be quite relevant even today. By the way,they are good entertaining reads as well:
1. How to Make Developers Hate Your Platform - Dated : 21st April, 2008.
2. Tayseer On Programming : Why do I hate Symbian? - Dated : 01st March, 2007.
3. The complexity of Symbian development - Dated : 28th December, 2005.
4. Why Symbian OS Development is Very Difficult - Dated : 19th December, 2005.
5. Symbian OS design faults - Dated : 20th Jan 2005 - This post was widely reported and had caused quite some passionate debates.

So you can see this frustration is more of an curse on the Symbian C++ app programmer ;) . And seems like it is here to stay for some more time now.

Control and extend Nokia Energy Profiler(NEP) using NEP External APIs.

2008-11-03T13:36:00.008+05:30

A year ago Nokia a cool tool was released on Forum Nokia known as Nokia Energy Profiler(NEP), which allowed a nice view of the power usage of the device. Now a few days back the APIs to control the NEP tool have surfaced on Forum Nokia.
So now we can control NEP from other applications as well as write plug-ins to provide more nice views of the profiling measurements data. But the dependence on NEP tool to be pre-installed is not so cool from the developers point of view. A NEP library which could have been linked against any application would have been more practical. Hope so we get such a NEP lib soon,till then we have to be happy with these external API's.
Nokia Energy Profiler External APIs can be downloaded from here.

Samsung Mobile Innovator opens for registration, celebrates with free application signing for first 300/350 apps!!

2008-10-21T19:02:00.007+05:30

Samsung Mobile Innovator is now open for user registrations. The registration allows access to the forums and other key areas. The forums are a bit confusing, but the forum itself seems to have a no-nonsense air around it.
Samsung has annouced a unique offer to certify first 300/350(not sure what is the exact number, as the news page says 350 but the T&C page says 300!!) applications. This offer will last till the announced number of apps quota does not exhaust.
More details about the offer can be found here.

Samsung SDK Extension for S60 3rd Edition, FP2 final version released.

2008-10-07T21:28:00.005+05:30

Samsung has released the S60 3rd edition FP2 SDK extension to provide API's for its Optical Joystick and G-Sensor features present on the SGH-i450 & GT-I8510 devices. It also provides the i8510 emulator skins. There is also a SDK switcher packaged to help in switching between the Nokia and Samsung variants.
Samsung SDK Extension for S60 3rd Edition, FP2 can be downloaded from here.

MOTODEV Studio for UIQ v1.0 : IDE for UIQ 3rd edition app. development.

2008-10-07T21:19:00.015+05:30

Motorola has silently released the MOTODEV Studio for UIQ v1.0 which can be used for Symbian application development for Motorola's UIQ 3rd edition device line-up. Here is a list of its features,taken from the MOTODEV site:
• X86 Debugger.
• UIQ Emulator & On-Device - deploy and launch.
• Package Creation wizard & signing.
• Importing projects based on the Bld.inf file.
• Build/Package error parser.
• Support for Custom Target.
• MOTODEV Device Manager view.
• Creation of UIQ template classes.
• Context-sensitive help and integrated documentation.
• Display functions, variables, and includes in the Outline view based on C++ source code.
• Navigate between C++ classes by CTRL-clicking on them.

On-device debugging is still not supported,but we can positively expect it in the future.
I have not been able to setup on my XP PC till now, as the setup just not launch at all!!Hence, I am not so sure, how different it would be from Carbide.C++.
MOTODEV Studio for UIQ v1.00 can be downloaded from here.
Note : Need account to download the setup.

S60 5th edition SDK v0.9 is out !!!

2008-10-05T17:21:00.006+05:30

The first Series 60 5th edition v0.9 (Touch) SDK is out,with the release of the Nokia 5800 device. This would be first touch screen & pointer input based device(if we act as if Nokia 6708 never existed). The SDK is based on Symbian OS v9.4 and would allow to build and test apps for "new Quarter High-Definition (QHD) touchscreen interface". I would be adding the SDK review soon.
S60 5th edition SDK can be downloaded from here.
Nokia 5800 device specifications can be found here.

Getting the maximum stack & heap memories for application.

2008-09-23T01:36:00.002+05:30

While porting desktop applications it would be common for applications to request heap memory more than the usual 1MB,which is the default limit for Symbian OS applications. It has been a common misconception that an application would not get more than 8Kb of stack & 1MB of heap memory. In the mmp file of an executable we can specify our own values for the stack and heap sizes. This is particularly helpful in cases where code is being ported from other platforms(especially desktop platforms),which usually have greater demands for stack and heap memories.

To specify greater heap size add this line to the mmp file:

// MINIMUM 4KB  - MAXIMUM 500MB - Future proof for some time now ;)
EPOCHEAPSIZE  0x1000 0x1F400000

While specifying the heap size, we need to specify minimum and maximum value. The minimum value is the minimum amount of heap memory you expect to be free while your application is being launched.If that much heap memory is not free while loading the application,then the application is not loaded in memory at all. Also the maximum value can be anything,but ideally should be set with the target device in mind.

To specify greater stack size add this line to the mmp file:

// 80Kb max stack size
EPOCSTACKSIZE  0x14000

In case of stack sizes there is only a single value specified which is actually the maximum stack size. If you specify a stack size value greater than 80kb, the application will not launch on target device. There is no easy and straightforward way in which the stack size can be increased greater than this limit. So it would be a good idea to limit stack usage in ported code.

Samsung Mobile Innovator : Samsung ramping up to start S60 support forum.

2008-09-10T13:23:00.004+05:30

Seems like Samsung has also now decided to increase interaction with S60 developers. The Samsung Mobile Innovator site seems to be a step in that direction and now it would be easy to get support for Samsung S60 devices specific issues. The site is neat and has some useful sections. It also promises to provide virtual testing facility.The discussion forums & wiki are not up still as the registration process is due to start in Oct 2008.

Simulating slow network speeds in S60/UIQ emulators.

2008-07-18T19:17:00.002+05:30

Loading a web page with network speed limited.

Simulating slow networks on S60/UIQ emulators can be done using the network throttling tools widely available on the net. The tool that I used was the shareware version of NetLimiter 2 Pro . It has a nice detailed interface which allows you to control the network bandwidth for a specific application.It not only allows to limit network bandwidth, but also allows a bandwidth grant,which is kind of a surety that the specified amount of bandwidth will be available for our application, given that the network provides that much bandwidth.

Such a network bandwidth control feature would be a good addition to future Symbian simulators.

Symbian Foundation Platform announced : Symbian is finally Nokia OS ;).

2008-06-24T15:12:00.002+05:30

This is really an interesting change. Symbian Foundation Platform has been formed and it will bring together the best of various platforms like S60,UIQ & MOAP under one roof.What would this mean to developers is still not clear as it's too early to think about it.
Details about Symbian Foundation Platform can be found here
1. Nokia Press Release.
2. Symbian Foundation Platform.

SymbianSigned encourages you to hack PlatSec.

2008-06-18T14:57:00.002+05:30

SymbianSigned has changed "some" of its services.These included a new online only service for signing and doing away with the freeware signing. Am more frustrated rather than amused by the changes.

OpenSigned online version only: Earlier if a developer had to test some application with capabilities he/she had to download the DevCert once from the SymbianSigned site and then that DevCert could be used for testing on one device. As far as signing a test application was concerned, earlier we just had to go once online. But now SymbianSigned expects us to be online whenever we want to just sign our test application. So we now have to decide which is the costlier approach,staying online all day or getting a Publisher ID. But what happens when the network is down or for some reason,then how should poor mortal Publisher ID-less people test their application?The guys on SymbianSinged forum answer like "if you are a professional developer you should consider getting a Publisher ID" for queries regarding network issues!!!
Publisher ID compulsory: I cannot afford to spend 200$ annually, when there are no chances of earning a single dime from hobby programming.So what happens to hobby programmers like me? Should they quit hobby Symbian C++ programming altogether?
While all this time I have observed PlatSec hacking from the sidelines and never tried to use the hacks anytime. But now these hacking steps seem to be the right thing to do. Once hacked, the device can then install any application without the need of any signing at all. Thus reducing all those unnecessary trips to SymbianSigned website. While not the most secure solution, at least we can use these hacks for testing our applications without the need of any DevCerts.

Hope there would be some changes in the future in SymbianSigned, else PlatSec hacks seems to be the way ahead.

Are you happy with the OpenSigned online only version? ( surveys)

Symbian SQL released,but not public still.

2008-06-18T13:34:00.003+05:30

Symbian SQL was announced some time back, which would be a good alternative to the old native database system. Symbian released the binaries some time ago. But it's still S60 3rd FP1 only and on top of that it's only for licensee SDK's owners only.
Symbian SQL binaries for emulator and device can be found here.

I am back...

2008-06-10T11:20:00.014+05:30

Hi All, I am back to blogging after a small break. But during this short duration a lot has happened in the mobile world especially the Symbian world. With a slew of sdk updates and new developments. Let me just summarize them here, so that nothing is missed out:
1. Symbian turned 10 this month.
2. UIQ 3.3 SDK Beta was released some time back, and also new UIQ 3.0 devices were released by Samsung, a refreshing change from the usual Nokia devices announcements.
3. Updated Extension Plug-in package for S60 3rd FP1 SDK.
4. Updated Extension Plug-in package for S60 3rd FP2 SDK.
5. MDS plugin for S60 3rd FP2
6. Open C\C++ plug-in for S60 3rd. - This update is particularly quite significant as it also has added STL and Boost libraries.

Coding standards for Symbian C++.

2008-04-16T18:57:00.004+05:30

I was searching around for some documents and guidelines to do Symbian C++ code review. I came across these two extremely useful documents for Symbian C++ code review:

The second link is more concise and to the point and also assigns levels of severity.

Using Symbian Cryptography Libraries : Part I.

2008-04-02T02:38:00.006+05:30

Symbian made available the Cryptography API's available some time ago.The API's can be used with the Series 60 3rd edition as well as the UIQ 3rd edition SDK. The documentation of the API's, keeping in tradition with the Symbian documentation style, minimum at best. The following services are provided by the Cryptography API:

Symmetric encryption-decryption.
Asymmetric encryption-decryption.
Integrity checking and signature verification.
Key exchange.
Message digests.

In this part,we will take a look at Symmetric encryption-decryption. The crypto apis support the following symmetric encryption algorithms : DES, 3DES, AES .I will show here how to use DES encryption-decryption.In the same way we can do 3DES & AES also. These algorithms have very specific key and data chunk input sizes, anything more or less panics the code. Also if specific size data chunks are not provided then padding string needs to be added. The padding specific classes are provided by Symbian as well. The following code shows the usage of the padding classes as well. Firstly include the following headers:

#include <>
#include <>

And now is the actual code the encrypts and decrypts a string using DES.


         _LIT8(KDESKey,"12345678");
         TBuf8<8> deskey;
         deskey.Copy(KDESKey);
         TBuf8<50> indata,encdata,decdata;
         indata.Copy(_L("1234567"));

     
         // Key size must be 8 bytes
         // Data input size must be 8 bytes no more no less
         // If not sure that the input is of perfect 8 bytes
         // then you can use CPaddingNone
         // else you would need to use CPaddingPKCS7

         CDESEncryptor* iTrans = CDESEncryptor::NewL(deskey);
         TInt KDESBlockSize = iTrans->BlockSize();
         CPaddingPKCS7* pad = CPaddingPKCS7::NewL(KDESBlockSize);
         CBufferedTransformation* iBfrd = CBufferedEncryptor ::NewLC(iTrans,pad);
         iBfrd->ProcessFinalL(indata,encdata);

      
         CDESDecryptor* iDec = CDESDecryptor::NewL(KDESKey);
         CPaddingPKCS7* pad2 = CPaddingPKCS7::NewL(KDESBlockSize);
         CBufferedTransformation* iDecbuf = CBufferedDecryptor ::NewLC(iDec,pad2);
         TInt declength = decdata.Length();
         iDecbuf->ProcessFinalL(encdata,decdata);
         declength = decdata.Length();
         CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy(2);

The libraries to include in the .mmp are as follows:

LIBRARY           cryptography.lib

Here are the key and data sizes for the following encryption algorithms:

Encryption Algorithm	Input data size(bytes)	Key size(bytes)
DES	8	8
3DES	8	24
AES	16	16/24/32

In the next part we will see the usage of message digest api. Cryptography API download can be downloaded here.

Needed badly: Windows clipboard support for S60 emulators.

2008-04-01T15:27:00.006+05:30

One thing which had always amused and irritated me greatly was the failure of S60 emulator(last tested on S60 3rd FP1 ) to completely ignore the win32 clipboard altogether. Inputting long text is just a nightmare. At least entering URL's is facilitated by the File->Open URL... option.But just try to paste(Ctrl-V) the URL in the S60 browsers address bar and it returns a plain "Nothing to paste" message. So my request to the S60 emulator team would be to add win32 clipboard support asap so that inputting long text becomes easy.
If some one else knows some way to paste long text into the input box, please do let me know.

Some news...

2008-03-17T12:18:00.005+05:30

Feb-March have been eventful months for me. At Feb end I got selected for the Forum Nokia Champion reward program, which was a wonderful surprise. This reward will encourage me to contribute more meaningfully to the Symbian developer community.
Well apart from the developments on the professional front,things have been moving on my personal front as well. I would be getting married in April. So preparations for the same are gathering pace.Which means that I will not be able to dedicate much time to blogging for another couple of months. So during these slack months I will be trying to clear my present backlog of pending posts.

Problem with SyntaxHighlighter.

2008-02-14T10:00:00.001+05:30

As most of you,must have noticed the source code highlighting has gone nuts.I am trying to fix it as soon as possible,but till then bear with the screwed up code formatting.
Update : For now I have fixed the issue ,but still there are some issues with the #include statements.But as these are less annoying am ignoring them for now.

Change Details : Compiling S60Webkit with Carbide C++ v1.2.

2008-02-12T15:24:00.000+05:30

I had mentioned that I was able to compile S60 WebKit using Carbide.C++ v1.2. To get it to compile I had to change the build.bat script to include the correct Carbide C++ path as well as include the proper lib. Carbide C++ v1.2 has the concerned libs in separate path from Carbide C++ v1.0 so we would need to rectify the script to point to the correct path. So the changes are to include these two line after $cbdhome variable.

my $cbdv1path = "plugins\\com.nokia.carbide.cpp.support_1.0.0";
my $cbdv1_2path = "x86Build";

Also the following two lines present in build.bat


$ENV{'MWLibraries'}     =
"$cbdhome\\plugins\\com.nokia.carbide.cpp.support_1.0.0\\Symbian_Support\\Win32-x86 Support\\Libraries\\Win32 SDK;$cbdhome\\plugins\\com.nokia.carbide.cpp.support_1.0.0\\Symbian_Support\\MSL\\MSL_C\\MSL_Common\\Include;$cbdhome\\plugins\\com.nokia.carbide.cpp.support_1.0.0\\Symbian_Support\\MSL\\MSL_C\\MSL_Win32\\Include;$cbdhome\\plugins\\com.nokia.carbide.cpp.support_1.0.0\\Symbian_Support\\MSL\\MSL_C++\\MSL_Common\\Include;$cbdhome\\plugins\\com.nokia.carbide.cpp.support_1.0.0\\Symbian_Support\\Runtime\\Runtime_x86\\Runtime_Win32\\Libs";
$ENV{'MWSym2LibraryFiles'} =
'gdi32.lib;user32.lib;kernel32.lib;MSL_All_MSE.lib;MSL_All_MSE_Symbian.lib;MSL_All_x86.lib;MSL_All_x86_Symbian.lib';

would need to be changed to the following:

$ENV{'MWLibraries'}     =
"$cbdhome\\$cbdv1_2path\\Symbian_Support\\Win32-x86 Support\\Libraries\\Win32 SDK;$cbdhome\\$cbdv1_2path\\Symbian_Support\\MSL\\MSL_C\\MSL_Common\\Include;$cbdhome\\$cbdv1_2path\\Symbian_Support\\MSL\\MSL_C\\MSL_Win32\\Include;$cbdhome\\$cbdv1_2path\\Symbian_Support\\MSL\\MSL_C++\\MSL_Common\\Include;$cbdhome\\$cbdv1_2path\\Symbian_Support\\Runtime\\Runtime_x86\\Runtime_Win32\\Libs";
$ENV{'MWSym2LibraryFiles'} =
'gdi32.lib;user32.lib;kernel32.lib;MSL_All_MSE.lib;MSL_All_MSE_Symbian.lib;MSL_All_x86.lib;MSL_All_x86_Symbian.lib;MSL_All_MSE_Symbian_D.lib';

With these changes in the build.bat, the S60 Webkit can now be compiled with Carbide C++ v1.2 as well. Also make sure that the S60 Webkit revision is 21772, as that is the latest code version that compiles without any issues.

File compression & decompression using CEZFileBufferManager.

2008-02-10T01:22:00.002+05:30

EZLIB library, which has been part of the Symbian SDKs now for some time, provides data compression and decompression functionality. The file compression functionality is provided by CEZFileBufferManager,which is very poorly documented(Actually if there ever would have been Razzies for code documentation Symbian documentation team would win it quite convincingly). Moving on,I needed this file compression functionality and then had to waste some time to get it working.But the rest of you need not suffer the same fate as mine.Following is the code for file compression,first:

void CompressFileL(TFileName aSrcFile,TFileName aDesFile)
{
CEZFileBufferManager* fileCompressor = NULL;
CEZCompressor* comprsr = NULL;
RFs iFs = CEikonEnv::Static()->FsSession();
RFile inFile,outFile;
User::LeaveIfError(inFile.Open(iFs,aSrcFile,EFileRead));
CleanupClosePushL(inFile);
User::LeaveIfError(outFile.Create(iFs,aDesFile,EFileRead | EFileWrite));
CleanupClosePushL(outFile);

fileCompressor = CEZFileBufferManager::NewLC(inFile,outFile);
comprsr = CEZCompressor::NewLC(*fileCompressor,CEZCompressor::EBestCompression);

TBool res = EFalse;
do
{
 res = comprsr->DeflateL();  
}while(res);

CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy(4);//inputFile,outFile,fileCompressor,comprsr
}

For decompression use the following code.

void DecompressFileL(TFileName aSrcFile,TFileName aDesFile)
{
CEZFileBufferManager* fileCompressor = NULL;
CEZDecompressor* decomprsr = NULL;
RFs iFs = CEikonEnv::Static()->FsSession();
RFile inFile,outFile;
User::LeaveIfError(inFile.Open(iFs,aSrcFile,EFileRead));
CleanupClosePushL(inFile);
User::LeaveIfError(outFile.Create(iFs,aDesFile,EFileRead | EFileWrite));
CleanupClosePushL(outFile);

fileCompressor = CEZFileBufferManager::NewLC(inFile,outFile);
decomprsr = CEZDecompressor::NewLC(*fileCompressor);

TBool res = EFalse;
do
{
 res = decomprsr->InflateL();  
}while(res);

CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy(4);//inputFile,outFile,fileCompressor,decomprsr

}

The headers that need to be included are :


#include < ezcompressor.h >
#include < ezdecompressor.h >
#include < ezfilebuffer.h >

And finally add the following lib in the .mmp file


LIBRARY           ezlib.lib

This code uses the "best compression" setting and the default buffer size.Both these parameters can be set according to the compression requirements and the file size to be processed.

Flavour of the month : Runtimes.

2008-01-18T15:59:00.000+05:30

In the first month of 2008, runtimes seem to he hot and happening. Nokia and Symbian both have (seems more like a planned and coordinated move) directed their collective attentions to the world of runtimes. While Symbian Developer Network has hosted a series of articles explaining the runtime-verse, Nokia has started a developer/programming challenge to develop a solution which could unify the various S60 runtimes, a mighty challenge for all developers.And whats at stake,well any S60 device of choice and lots of exposure in the S60 community. The articles on runtimes is hosted here. And more details about the Forum Nokia - Problem of the Month can be sought here.

GeekTip : Rebuild Music Library of your N91 Media player.

2008-01-07T19:07:00.000+05:30

Now a non-programming tip for a change. I have had my N91 for nearly an year now and it's working fine, but it's Music Player is quite buggy when it comes to detection newly added tracks and refreshing the Music library. It also randomly removes tracks from the list as well. Recently I had added two new albums to the disc and none were detected. After umpteen restarts still the Music Player just would not detect those newly added mp3's. So it was time for some drastic measure, which I will share with you. So if you want a completely new music library with all the tracks on the 4/8 GB HDD detected, follow these simple steps: 1. Plug-in your N91 to the PC using the USB cable. 2. Select the "Mass Storage" mode. 3. Browse to the following folder location on the N91 HDD : \Private\100012a5\ and remove the .mpd file. 4. Disconnect the device from the PC and then go to the music player and refresh the Music Library.Now all the tracks will be detected and you will have a crisp new music library.

SW Installer Launcher API with Extensions plug-in package for S60 3rd Edition SDK , Feature Pack 2, Version 1 Beta.

2008-01-03T16:17:00.000+05:30

Nokia today has published the Extensions plug-in package for S60 3rd Edition SDK for Symbian OS, for C++, supporting Feature Pack 2, Version 1 Beta (phew!!) which has some much required API made publicly available. And in the crowd of these API's the one that caught my attention is the SW Installer Launcher API. ~~So this probably now opens the doors for custom installers on S60. As these are S60 only API's for now, lets hope the UIQ team,which is more liberal in opening up API's, would follow soon.~~ This would only allow to install and uninstall a SIS/SISX programatically. So the custom installer dream is still not fulfilled :( . Also another thing to be noted by all developers is the requirement of TrustedUI capability to use this API. The extension plug-in can be found here.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008!!!

2008-01-01T11:42:00.000+05:30

Many many best wishes for this new year , 2008. Lets all hope that this year brings us more Symbian goodies from Nokia, SE & Moto to chew on. Happy Symbian programming and hacking!!!

Finally,S60WebKit compiling with Carbide.c++ v1.2!!

2007-12-27T15:23:00.001+05:30

I have finally got S60Webkit to compile using Carbide.c++ v1.2. There are still some issues with using the latest source version from the s60webkit svn and Nokia probably has not fixed the issue till now. For S60Webkit to compile with Carbide.c++ v1.2, I had to modify the script a bit. The fix is similar to the one I had specified in this post, which is ultimately about the right path and proper libs. Also strangely there is no download link for Carbide.c++ v1.0 anywhere on the Forum Nokia site.This is for a tool which is deemed as "required" for S60Webkit compilation.

Logo support in pkg file.

2007-12-21T18:14:00.000+05:30

Some time back I had asked asked on the Symbian forum regarding the logo support in pkg files. The answer back then was that it's upto the UI vendors to provide logo support or not. In December 2007's SCN, I noticed that the post has made it's way to the Symbian FAQ,specifically in FAQ-1547 ,so there its now "officially" clarified that logo support is left to UI vendors. UIQ implements it, but the S60 installer team does think it to be a worthwhile feature to add. While S60 guys are upto adding eye-candy in it's latest Feature Packs,why not add this small feature as well?

On-line Documentation for Series 60 2nd & 3rd edition SDK for Carbide.vs.

2007-12-18T15:41:00.000+05:30

How did I miss this one is not clear to me!!! Well lucky S60 developers have now one extra luxury i.e. on-line documentation in Carbide.vs 3.0.Something which has been wanting for quite some time now.Also Nokia has taken care to appease both Series 60 2nd & 3rd edition developers. You can download the setup files for both here:

On-line documentation for Series 60 2nd edition.

On-line documentation for Series 60 3rd edition. Good work Nokia!!!

Nokia Energy Profiler.

2007-11-28T13:33:00.000+05:30

Nokia has published a new tool for developers, Nokia Energy Profiler to know and quantify the power consumption of their applications. Presently it is compatible(read working) with S60 3rd FP1 devices only. This specialized tool would be helpful mainly in knowing if a particular approach is more/less power consuming. Also mostly if the Power and Resource management Guidelines are followed, then this tool would rarely be required. You can download it from here : Nokia Energy Profiler Also check the Nokia Energy Profiler User Guide. Actually this tool reminds me of Batmon, a tool to know the battery parameters. It was a cool tool which worked using some great hacks. Need to find where that tool is once more ;).

What is this __DECLARE_NAME ?

2007-11-22T15:26:00.000+05:30

Time for some history lesson now. I had seen this __DECLARE_NAME empty macro in many sample sources on Symbian SDK examples as well as on Forum Nokia and was intrigued by it.I always wondered why was it used and why is it still in the SDK example sources. And on top of it scores of developers(count me in as well) have just copy pasted it without really knowing it's importance or implication. I had been digging the internet and the old SDK source code (ER5/ER6) for some time now, and stumbled on a post on SDN,asking why was the useful __DECLARE_NAME macro removed. It had been answered by none other than the legendary Andrew Thoelke. So here is the purpose of __DECLARE_NAME & the reason why it was discarded, in the very own words of Andrew:

ER5 introduces compatibility between debug and release
versions of EPOC binaries. This allows debug versions
of selected DLLs to be introduced to a release emulator
or device in order to try and debug problems that
occur in release builds. We successfully use this to
build "hybrid" ROM images for testing purposes. This
change was considered important enough to lose all of
the differences between the two builds that would
prevent it working.

One of those differences was the CBase::iName member
only in debug builds, historically used to track the
class name of the object, which proved helpful in
debugging. More recent versions of MSVC implement RTTI
(run-time type information), and the debugger can now
provide full class type information for any object
that has virtual functions - thus the added value
of __DECLARE_NAME() is removed. So __DECLARE_NAME()
is now deprecated, as it has no effect.

So, now that we all know the exact reason, we can stop using this now defunct macro. Unless someone wants to dedicate their code to this macro, for saving him/her lots of frustration while debugging in those good old days. Note:Guys and girls, forgive me for the extreme highlighting, but I just cannot resist using that awesome highlighting widget again and again.

SymbianGeek needs your feedback.

2007-11-20T00:00:00.000+05:30

As you all have noticed I have been blogging more frequently and also trying to improve on the quality of the blog. But all this work without direction can end being just a collection of mumbo - jumbo.So from all you geeks out there, SymbianGeek needs your valuable feedback to know if the blog is heading in the right direction or not. There are two polls in the sidebar on the right, just enter your options and let us know whats in your mind. Any other criticisms are welcome as comments in this post. Thanks in advance for giving SymbianGeek your valuable time.

Beta Impressions : Series 60 3rd edition Feature Pack 2(FP2) SDK Beta

2007-11-18T19:59:00.003+05:30

Nokia had some time back released the Series 60 3rd edition FP2 SDK,which is built on top of Symbian OS v9.3.I got some time this weekend to check it out. The SDK now takes a cool 1.04GB on the disk(just for the record,Series 60 v1.2 took 353MB,we have come a far way from then on). I would not elaborate on the salient features as they have been noted in the release notes already. I will just note the good things and bad things in the emulator and also some areas of improvement for the emulator.
Good points
1. Improved load times - But strangely was noticed only when J2RE v1.4.2 was been installed.
2. Better looking - No really, compared to the monstrous first Series 60 3rd edition emulator,this version is quite sleek,of optimum size and is well organized.Series 60 3rd edition emulator never used to even fit on my laptop screen. To get an idea of the space saving, check out the overlapped emulator sizes as shown below.
3. Documentation - Yes, it's that kind of improvement and change that requires special mention and emphasis.The documentation is based on the Eclipse plug-in and it is a great leap. You can put in bookmarks,the search results shown nicely and it is amazingly well organized as compared to the previous documentations. There also seems to be some kind of integration with the Eclipse IDE (MSDN-MSDev style), but I could not check it as I don't have Eclipse installed. I think this is the most commendable feature which now brings Symbian closer to the high standards set by MS SDK documentations. Check out the screen shot below. Bad points
1. Native apps still buggy - The native applications are still very flaky and keep on crashing every now and then.The most buggy of all applications is the Web browser application.It crashes every now and then and leaks memory as well.
2. Screen size configurations are reduced in number - I think Nokia had already decided that the devices supporting would have only these two screen sizes and so are limiting the emulator to only to the QVGA 240X320 screen size.
3. No camera support - Why in the world would someone not support camera in the emulator,when it is supposed to be for "multimedia computers" which have camera as a standard feature. Wishlist
1. Call emulation - Call emulation is seriously lacking feature. I mean even the call state events would do, it would save loads of time wasted in transferring, writing code to log errors and then testing it on the real device.
2. Device Profiles - If would be great if we could configure the emulator to load specific device profiles. Loading specific screen and key layouts would be additionally helpful.If such profiles are developed with call emulation then I don't see a case for RDA at all.All developers would be happy with the emulator only. Well those are my comments and lets hope with the next iteration of FP2 SDK(final release), at least some of the issues are addressed,especially the camera one.

Good news and bad news..

2007-11-17T01:10:00.000+05:30

As you all must have noticed what the good news is, yes, it's about the new blog template. I changed to this one as wanted to make the blog a bit more organized and nicely arranged.Also have added an awesome new widget which highlights code really neat.Just check it out at work here. Any feedback about the blog is always welcome. Now moving on to the bad news,I tested the Sensor server example on my N91 that comes bundled with Sensor Server API package.But alas the example did not even load,probably due to the lack of the required .dll. And strangely the prerequsites mentioned are : A device capable of delivering accelerometer data (e.g. Nokia 5500). So for now at least it seems that all N91 will remain grounded in spite of having all that it takes. Nokia,why is N91 child of a lesser god? Please, provide the required server exes and dll,so that even the N91's accelerometer becomes open to the world.

Go away touch,mobile gestures are here...

2007-11-14T23:25:00.000+05:30

Today I came across a post on the Forum Nokia blogs,demonstrating the mobile feelings application,which was basically a simple python script which was programmed to respond to tap actions on different sides. While on first look this simple script would seem toooo text bookish,but it's implications are huge. Call me over-enthusiastic but, I think now touch is passe , the real in-thing would be such gestures and physical interactions with the device.And the real killer would be a perfect combo of gestures with a sprinkle of touch here and there. Well for mobile gestures, as the newly aired Nokia ad says, "The next episode is about to begin..". Source : Jurgen Scheible's Forum Nokia Blog.

Accelerometer IC details of Nokia S60 devices.

2007-11-14T01:13:00.000+05:30

While trying to finding the differences in the N95 and N91 accelerometers,I happened to peer through the many device schematics,available through out the internet forums, to know the accelerometer IC's used in the N-series devices and here is one simple list:

N91 & Nokia 5500 - Both have STMicroelectronics LIS3LV02DQ - MEMS INERTIAL SENSOR - 3-Axis - ±2g/±6g Digital Output Low Voltage Linear Accelerometer(phew!!).On the N91, it seems to be mainly used for HDD parking and no interest is shown in using it in the camera application at all!!And I assume that the Sensor plug-in API should (in theory, atleast) should also work for the N91 as well.One interesting thing was that in the N91 schematics it was marked as N5024 ,but in the 5500 schematic it was marked with N6500.Am not sure what it means,but any explanations from the electronic gurus would be helpful.
N95 - Analog Devices ADXL340KCPZ Accelerometer - Used for the tilting functionality mainly.
N93 - Does not have one,here it seems the tilt feature is implemented using some other hardware event.
N93i - It has a STMicroelectronics LIS202DL - MEMS motion sensor - 2-axis - ±2g/±8g smart digital output “piccolo” accelerometer. It does not do a free fall detection.
N73 - Not found in the schematics, here also the tilt feature is implemented using some other hardware event.

So now the goal is to see if the Sensor plug-in can in some way help to harness the N91 accelerometer . Note : All the information is based on schematics and manuals easily found on the internet.If any of the information is not correct,do let me know I would update this post with the correct info.

3D Accelerometer API for N95: Why is the N91 left out?

2007-11-13T03:00:00.000+05:30

Most of the Symbian blogs are all full of posts about the "newly" discovered 3D accelerometer in N95.There have been samples from excited people who have made some small demo apps using this API. Now the N91 also has an accelerometer(check this FNTL entry elaborating it's behavior w.r.t disk cache writes), it's really not clear if it's really the similar accelerometer as the one present in N95 or as in 5500. I installed the sample Moving Ball example on my N91,but unluckily the application did not even start.I am now going to check and see if the 5500 Sensor Server plug-in can yield some results. I am not sure why did Nokia not advertise(actually they should be bragging about it,just like they are bragging about the "openness" of the S60 platform) such a useful feature till now?Also now the support comes in form of a R&D library!! It would be great if the Nokia Beta Labs could churn out something useful with this capability and the one more useful thing would be to release the libraries for all the devices(read N91 :D ) that have such hardware. The 3D accelerometer API's to experiment are present here from Nokia Research.

Why is it S60 Touch and not Symbian Touch?

2007-10-30T01:58:00.000+05:30

The new S60 touch user interface looks nice, at least in the video.It would be really impressive even if we achieve half the fluidity & smoothness of that shown in the video. Anyways not straying from the main topic,why is Symbian not developing such an interface?So once they develop such a thing, can't they just license it to all other willing licensees!! And c'mon, it has been ages since last Symbian did a major UI update. And now is just the right time to provide such an update.With new means of input available, better brighter screens, newer more intelligent controls from Symbian(not CAkn/CQik but just plain CEik controls) would be really wonderful.No not only for me,but for Symbian ultimately. Lets hope we see Symbian Touch in near future and only S60 extensions of good features.

Symbian PlatSec Hacked: Cat and mouse game begins.Nokia responds,updates NSU behavior.

2007-10-30T01:36:00.000+05:30

Well Nokia has responded. The response is not as gauntlet smashing as most of us would expect, but seems to be a lazy and reassured one-step at a time response. Anyways,though I would not take any credit for the wonderfully simple hack in any way,but some time back I had tried getting extracting the files from a E61 firmware .bin file(proof). I was not even near to what has been achieved,but back then the idea was to just replicate the ROM applications on the E:\ drive and try to run the applications with some custom settings.Well the same idea can also be applied here,though am not sure how effective it would be. Unfortunately I cannot even verify or experiment any with any of the stuff,becoz my N91 is the only working device with me and screwing it up is really not an option for me at all. So am just waiting for some time and watching the on-goings from some distance before I can really plunge it into it. Actually this development has really brought some excitement to the otherwise sleepy Symbian white hat hacker scene.Otherwise,since the time PlatSec was introduced the hacking scene was really dormant.Let's hope it's the beginning of more exciting things ahead. Keep checking symbaali blog for latest happenings.

Symbian PlatSec Hacked: Beware bricks devices.

2007-10-29T13:13:00.000+05:30

Finally, that day has arrived,the news is out,Symbian Platform Security the boon for operators and bane for geeks and virus writers, has been trashed, rather in a very unconventional way. The culprit is not any code in the kernel, but the Nokia Software Updater(NSU). Still,hats off to Symbian guys for such a well designed security framework. Also the dude, who got this hack was actually more interested in getting J2ME midlets unlimited permissions. He got it,but applied the same means to SISX files and so we now have a method(not full proof & fool proof as well) to install applications with any capability. Also there are already reports of some devices being bricked,so use the method with caution or just wait till we can get some better means to do the same. The complete method is present here : http://www.symbaali.info/.

Set QWERTY on Series 60 3rd edition emulator.

2007-10-28T17:43:00.000+05:30

Many of us have wanted to have the QWERTY layout on the Series 60 3rd edition emulator, so that we can test applications for E61 or E90 devices which have similar key layout. Surprisingly, for me atleast, such a layout configuration is provided by default in the Series 60 3rd edition SDK itself, but not included in the default emulator configuration for unknown reasons. The layout is provided in epoc_352x416_qwerty.ini file which can be found in \Symbian\9.1\S60_3rd\Epoc32\Data folder. So as to enable this configuration just include this line in epoc.ini(Also found in \Symbian\9.1\S60_3rd\Epoc32\Data):

configuration epoc_352x416_qwerty.ini

Make sure that this is the first line,so that it becomes your default configuration. This is the screenshot of my emulator with the QWERTY layout.

STL on Symbian - Reloaded.

2007-10-10T18:12:00.000+05:30

Here is a short update : Thanks to an "Anonymous" poster,we have with us now a STLPort port for Symbian OS v9.The angel soul who has done all the hard work is Marco Jez, who also incidentally maintains a blog about Symbian programming as well. The STLPort for Symbian OS v9 can be found here : Porting the C++ STL to Symbian OS 9.1 . Thanks Marco Jez and anonymous poster.

STL on Symbian.

2007-09-20T15:23:00.000+05:30

STL on Symbian has been asked for by many developers over these years.And probably, it will be asked many times in future as well. For using STL in Symbian there are two options: 1. STLPort - This is one library which is full-featured but, very hard to port on Symbian(especially if you are targeting pre-v9 devices).During one of my projects I had spent many sleepless nights to build STLPort for Symbian. Even then it would leak and corrupt memory like hell.Finally we had to just write our own implementation of the STL specific classes required.But from OS v9 this should not be the case as global data is no more an issue.I am expecting to see STLPort on OSv9 soon. 2. Symbian OS Standard Template Library - This in the Symbian port of uSTL originally written by Mike Sharov. I have not seen many discussions in the public forum about this one.Though I found one article here which shows how to use and also discusses it's pros and cons. So as for programmers there are at least some options as far as STL goes.I still feel it would be great if we get STL from the Symbian SDK guys itself. Update:I missed the line that uSTL is still only for pre-v9 devices.

Symbian development on Linux.

2007-09-10T12:07:00.006+05:30

Recently I had to start working on Ubuntu as a part of my project work.With some free time on my hand I decided to try to setup the Symbian development environment on Linux. The instructions for the setting up the environment can be found here :

http://gnupoc.sourceforge.net/
~~http://www.wayfinder.it/resources/uiq_gnupoc.php~~
http://www.martin.st/symbian/

I followed Martin Storsjö(last link) instructions to setup the environment. But I would be giving the other two a try as well. As for now here's a screenshot of the S60 2nd FP3 emulator in action(well nearly as it's still not letting me launch any application)

I will continue posting the subsequent developments as and when possible.
Update: a few more resources that would be helpful:

http://www.alfonsomartone.itb.it/ayxydp.html
~~http://www.oflebbe.de/oflebbe/sdk/index.html~~

Fixing that '___destroy_new_array'/'___CxxFrameHandler' linker error..

2007-07-05T14:16:00.000+05:30

After a very quiet June am back with some posts. Recently while building one of the components I was harassed by a silly linker error.The error message spewed was this :

     mwldsym2.exe: Undefined symbol: '___CxxFrameHandler'

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'void CAllocator::AddStopper(class MOOMStopper*) (?AddStopper at CAllocator@@QAEXPAVMOOMStopper@@@Z)' in Allocator.cpp:92

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'void * CBase::operator new(unsigned int)(??2CBase@@SAPAXI at Z)' in e32base.inl:36

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'class CAllocator * Allocator(void)(?Allocator@@YAPAVCAllocator@@XZ)' in MemoryManager.cpp:92

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'void invokeTable(void (* *)(void), void (**)(void)) (?invokeTable@@YAXPAP6AXXZ0 at Z)' in win32crt.h:121 (EDLL.LIB)

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'void * operator new(unsigned int)(??2 at YAPAXI@Z)' in win32crt.h:154 (EDLL.LIB)

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'void operator delete(void *) (??3 at YAXPAX@Z)'in win32crt.h:176 (EDLL.LIB)

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from '__E32Dll' in uc_dll.cpp:41 (EDLL.LIB)

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'CStopScheduler::CStopScheduler(classCAllocator &) (??0CStopScheduler@@QAE at AAVCAllocator@@@Z)' in StopScheduler.cpp:59

     mwldsym2.exe: Undefined symbol: '___destroy_new_array'

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'CPlainAllocator::~CPlainAllocator(unsigned int) (??_ECPlainAllocator@@UAE at I@Z)' in MemoryManager.o

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'CStopScheduler::~CStopScheduler(unsigned int) (??_ECStopScheduler@@UAE at I@Z)' in Allocator.o

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'CAllocator::~CAllocator(unsigned int) (??_ECAllocator@@UAE at I@Z)' in MemoryManager.o

     mwldsym2.exe: Undefined symbol: '___unexpected'

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'void operator delete(void *) (??3 at YAXPAX@Z)' in win32crt.h:176 (EDLL.LIB)

     mwldsym2.exe: referenced from 'void * CBase::operator new(unsigned int) (??2CBase@@SAPAXI at Z)' in e32base.inl:36

Well as straightforward as it may seem, I took a full day to fix this error. So if you are also facing this error, the fix can be one of these:

The PATH environment variable must have exceeded 1024 characters.So just check the variable and remove duplicate entries and try to compress long entries using the DOS 8.3 format.
The library in question is the MSL_All_MSE_Symbian_D.lib ,so just find its path and make sure that your linker finds it.
Also in case of CodeWarrior the above mentioned task would be done by the env_update.exe, which can be found in the /bin folder of you Nokia Codewarrior installation.

Hope this saves the time I wasted on fixing this silly error.

PART 2: CEikonEnv : A class for all apps.

2007-06-01T18:59:00.000+05:30

It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. So I will just do it by posting the long overdue second part of the CEikonEnv description. Now moving on in this post we will focus on the following parts: 1. Basic Dialogs. There are three main types of dialogs/notifications that CEikonEnv provides us: a. InfoWinL If you just need to show important some information to the user which the user should necessarily take note of and then only dismiss the dialog,this dialog is the one.It's usage is as follows:

CEikonEnv::Static()->InfoWinL(_L("This is InfowinL"),_L(""));

b. QueryWinL If you need user confirmation from the user,this dialog is perfectly suited for it.It returns Etrue if the user gives a positive confirmation.Its usage is as simple as :

if(CEikonEnv::Static()->QueryWinL(_L("Exit SymbianGeek::SwissKnife9?"),_L("")))
Exit();

c. BusyMsgL This particular message dialog that is not visible on Series 60 devices at all. Nokia for some weird reason has decided to omit this wonderfully useful dialog. Anyways this dialog is visible on UIQ and Series 80 devices(extinct UI series). Its usage is pretty simple:

CEikonEnv* iEikEnv = CEikonEnv::Static();
iEikEnv->BusyMsgL(_L("This is a very busy msg :)"));

And to dismiss this dialog its simple as one function call:

CEikonEnv::Static()->BusyMsgCancel();

2. Font Utilities. This set of functions can be used to get font instances, without really caring about the font names and sizes. The possible fonts to get are as follows :

CEikonEnv::Static()->AnnotationFont();//Gets the standard annotation font for this environment.

CEikonEnv::Static()->EikonEnv::Static()->TitleFont();//Gets the standard title font for this environment.

CEikonEnv::Static()->EikonEnv::Static()->LegendFont();//Gets the standard legend font for this environment.

CEikonEnv::Static()->EikonEnv::Static()->SymbolFont(); //Gets the standard symbol font for this environment.

CEikonEnv::Static()->DenseFont(); //Gets the standard dense font for this environment.

So this completes the two part description of our useful CEikonEnv class.

SPMark for Symbian OS v9.x devices..

2007-05-24T14:10:00.001+05:30

This is a benchmarking tool for every SymbianGeek to know the real graphics performance of your Symbian OS v9 device. It will basically tun a series of graphical tests and tell you the real power of your device. You can download it from here : SPMark for Symbian OS v9 Consumer Version Download. Here are the results of the test on my N91 1. With the log application running: FW:1.00.028.02 Score : 1103 3D Game : 13.12 fps 3D Fill Rate : 2.20 Mtexels/s 3D Polycount : 117.86 Ktriangles/s 2. Without log application: Score : 1104 3D Game : 13.15 fps 3D Fill Rate : 2.20 Mtexels/s 3D Polycount : 117.89 Ktriangles/s 3. After restarting the phone, without any recognisers loaded: Score : 1104 3D Game : 13.12 fps 3D Fill Rate : 2.20 Mtexels/s 3D Polycount : 117.97 Ktriangles/s There is a version compliant with Symbian OS 6.x and 7.x ,Series 60 and UIQ devices. You can get it also for the older devices from here : SPMark04 Consumer Version Download (Build 1.1.0) Here are the results of the test on my N-Gage: 1. Fresh after restart Score : 472 3D Game : 8.05 fps 3D Fill Rate : 1.60 Mtexels/s 3D Polycount : 27.12 Ktriangles/s 2. After some general use Score : 485 3D Game : 8.08 fps 3D Fill Rate : 1.73 Mtexels/s 3D Polycount : 27.23 Ktriangles/s 3. Offline mode: Score : 491 3D Game : 8.09 fps 3D Fill Rate : 1.80 Mtexels/s 3D Polycount : 27.20 Ktriangles/s Do post the results of your device as well.

Chinese version of TaskManager for Series 60 2.x devices..just preview screens for now..

2007-05-15T20:23:00.000+05:30

With some help from my Chinese friend Ken,I was able to create the chinese version of my Task Manager for Series 60 2.x devices. It was really a great experience making it work. Here are some preview screens of the same, as you can see I have still left some strings in english. That was just to avoid from getting lost completely in the application. :D Anyways will post the completed version of the Task Manager soon. Bye.

SwissKnife9 unsigned version here..

2007-05-11T14:36:00.002+05:30

Finally it's done. I have uploaded the unsigned version of SwissKnife9 on rapidshare.com, check the link below. Do let me know your suggestions and criticisms.
Bye.
Download SwissKnife9 for Series 60 3rd edition devices.

PART 1: CEikonEnv : A class for all apps.

2007-04-27T18:14:00.000+05:30

Symbian application programming usually requires access to file system as well as various other resources. Usually we tend to create new instances of server sessions every time we need to access them. But with CEikonEnv,the UIKON control environment, you have most of the required sessions and important class instances already created and ready to use. So it is a good idea to reuse those instances as and when possible. Actually in .app(pre Symbian OS v9) /.exe(from Symbian OS v9) ,you have the instance already there,but in .exe(pre Symbian OS v9), .dll(if inturn used by an .exe) you would not get a ready made instance of CEikonEnv. In .app just getting the instance is also very simple,just do a:

    CEikonEnv::Static()

Now moving on to the various possibilities with CEikonEnv, am just listing the most common anf useful ones(would be leaving out the special use ones) below: 1. Server Sessions and application specific object instances(detailed in this post). 2. Font Utilities (detailed in Part 2). 3. Basic Dialogs (detailed in Part 2). So here are various server session and application specific objects available:

    // Access an RFs session
    CEikonEnv::Static()->FsSession()
    // Access an RWsSession session instance
    CEikonEnv::Static()->WsSession()
    // Access an RWindowGroup instance, it represents the application window group
    CEikonEnv::Static()->RootWin()
    // Access the system graphics context
    CEikonEnv::Static()->SystemGc()
    // Access the CEikAppUi instance of the application
    CEikonEnv::Static()->EikAppUi()
    //Access CWsScreenDevice instance,quite useful when screen parameters need to be queried
    CEikonEnv::Static()->ScreenDevice()

So we will see what all other services CEikonEnv can provide us in the Part 2 of this post.

Task Manager for S60 v1.x ,2.x & UIQ 2.x devices.

2007-04-26T19:29:00.002+05:30

This was one of my earliest programs that I developed as a part of learning Symbian C++ programming. Some of the features were: 1. Task List. 2. Process List. 3. System info. 4. Compress RAM. 5. Run functionality as present in Windows. It is compatible with Series 60 1.x and 2.x devices & also UIQ 2.x devices. So guys here are the various versions.
1. Task Manager for S60 1.x devices. Credits to Joonas Kekoni from Vantaa, Finland for porting the Task Manager from Series 60 v2.0.
2. Task Manager for S60 2.x devices.
3. Task Manager for UIQ 2.x devices.
I will be also posting an unsigned version of my Series 60 3rd edition Task Manager soon. Added some screen shots of the application.

SisWare v4.5 : A must have tools for all SymbianGeek's..

2007-04-26T14:11:00.001+05:30

I found this cool tool to extract or create SIS files. This is very useful tool for creating SIS files for both pre OS v9 devices as well as v9 devices. The UI is really cool and the features are also comprehensive. SISWare v4.5 can be found here. Great work K. Suwatchai.

SwissKnife9 preview screens..

2007-04-25T18:16:00.000+05:30

After some months I have finally completed my simple task and system information manager named SwissKnife9 for Series 60 3rd edition devices. I now have to "just" get it Symbian Signed and that is going to be the toughest challenge. Am not completely confident if it will be signed/approved.But am keeping my fingers crossed and giving it my best shot. As for now am posting some preview screens of SwissKnife9.

1. Various Modes

2. MIME list mode 3. Task list mode 4. Process list mode 5. Task & Process list mode options.

6. Capabilities of task and process also available.

7. System Information mode

Solving KERN-EXEC 3 panic.

2007-04-11T21:33:00.012+05:30

Do check out the updated tips for solving KERN-EXEC 3 here.

KERN-EXEC 3 is one of the most common panic codes that most of the Symbian programmers face. It becomes extremely annoying to catch and fix the panic if its occurs when you exit the application.So here are some guidelines to avoid as well as fix the panic.
1. If you have any member variables which are pointers to objects owned externally,try to convert them to references so as to avoid deleting them accidentally.
2. If making them references is not an option then,just mark them in code comments as pointers which don't need to be deleted.This makes it easier to track pointers which are being accidentally double deleted.
3. Check the documentation about the pointer returned by the Symbian functions.Specifically check the ownership status of the pointer's returned. So some functions like :

CEikonEnv::Static()->ScreenDevice()

just return you a pointer while the ownership is not transferred.So no need to delete the pointer returned. But some functions like

AknsUtils::CreateBitmapL()

typically transfer the ownership to the caller.So just remember to delete the pointer.
4. Also the most common reason would be forgetting to delete the member variables of an object on its destruction. So just a check of the destructor would be helpful.
If these simple things are kept in mind,it is possible to avoid and fix the KERN-EXEC 3 panic.
Also please let us know if this post was useful or not.

ScrShots v1.0 for Series60 2.x devices : Grab screens at a fast rate.

2007-03-29T19:50:00.000+05:30

How many times you wanted to take many screen shots but could as those screens came and vanished in a blink.Well here is a small and nifty tool from SymbianGeek which makes taking screenshots more easy. Just start ScrShots and it goes to background taking screen grabs at the fast rate of one screen every .1 second. It saves them either on Phone Memory(C:\) or on the MMC/HDD(E:\). Also it does not fill in the complete memory and stops taking screen shots when the disk free space is only 1MB. Also the bitmaps generated are in .bmp format,but are not recognised by either MsPaint nor by IrfanView. I found only one program,XnView that is able to recognize in the bmp's generated. So you can view them in XnView and convert the interesting one's to .jpeg or .bmp. Also am working on the next version,wherein all the bmp's captured for a session are stored in a single archive file. I have not tested but it must also be compatible with Series 60 v1.x devices. Do let me know if it works fine on Series 60 v1.x devices. Download : ScrShots v1.0

KeyCodes : Know all your device keys.

2007-03-23T11:51:00.000+05:30

So finally we are ready with KeyCodes, a tool I always wished was present to know what was the scan and key code of a particular key.Well here it is KeyCodes v1.0 for Series 60 v2.x devices. Here is a sample screen shot of the same from my N-Gage. It has been tested on Nokia N-Gage and Nokia 6630. You can test on other Series 60 2nd edition devices and post comments if there are some problems and also if its working fine :) . Do post your comments below. Download : KeyCodes v1.0.

Array of literals/string.

2007-02-28T12:39:00.000+05:30

Creating an array of strings or literals would be a commonplace in any parser or encoder module.But creating one using the standard way as given in some forums would only work on the emulator and not on the actual device. On most forums you would notice something like this :

_LIT(KStringWan1, "one");

_LIT(KStringWan2, "two");

_LIT(KStringWan3, "three");

TPtrC StringWan [] = {KStringWan1(), KStringWan2(), KStringWan3()};

This code would seem fine for the emulator,but if you try compiling it for the device,that's an ARMI build you would get the notorious 'unitialised data' error. So if you want to use and array of string,just declare it like this

static const char * const StringWan [] =
{
"one",
"two",
"three"
};

And use the array like this:

TInt sizeOfItem = User::StringLength((TText8 *)StringWan [i]);

TPtr8 item((unsigned char*)StringWan [i],sizeOfItem ,sizeOfItem );

So by taking it into a descriptor you can perform all the descriptor operations.

Inserting TTime values in Symbian DB using SQL..

2007-02-27T14:45:00.000+05:30

I had been trying to insert TTime values using SQL statements and had real tough time getting the SQL string right. Firstly there is a complete specification for how to format values in the SQL statement when inserting it into the database. You can find it here:


Symbian OS guide >> System libraries >> Using DBMS >> DBMS rowsets >> DBMS SQL >> Supported SQL subset

So while inserting the date values do not forget to insert the '#' around the TTime values. Here is some sample code to do the same :

 
  TBuf<50> dateStr;

  TTime homeTime;

  homeTime.HomeTime();

  // Will convert it into the following format
  // MM/DD/YYYY hh:mm:ss AM/PM
  _LIT(KDateString3,"%M%D%Y%/0%1%/1%2%/2%3%/3 %-B%:0%J%:1%T%:2%S%:3%+B");

  homeTime.FormatL(dateStr,KDateString3);

  _LIT(KSQLText,"INSERT INTO DateTest (Time) VALUES (#%S#)");

  HBufC* sqlStr = HBufC::NewLC(1024);

  sqlStr->Des().Format(KSQLText(),&dateStr);

  User::LeaveIfError(iMsgBackupDb.Execute(sqlStr->Des()));

  CleanupStack::PopAndDestroy(sqlStr);

Hope this saves you the time I wasted in finding the correct format.

Quick Tip : Optimization flags in GCCE builds ....

2007-02-19T12:34:00.001+05:30

One more useful flag that can be added to remove unwanted code and avoid some bugs is the -Wunused. This is the super flag which will warn about unused functions, labels, function params, expression values and variables as well. The documentation for the super flags and other options are as follows:

-Wunused : Enable all -Wunused- warnings
-Wunused-function : Warn when a function is unused
-Wunused-label : Warn when a label is unused
-Wunused-parameter : Warn when a function parameter is unused
-Wunused-value : Warn when an expression value is unused
-Wunused-variable : Warn when a variable is unused

Do post if these flags have helped in some way.

Quick Tip : Optimization flags in GCCE builds.

2007-02-16T18:40:00.001+05:30

It has been found that GCCE build have generated huge binaries.So to trim them a bit just include the following lines in your .mmp file.

OPTION GCCE -O2 -fno-unit-at-a-time

And viola you would get a considerably smaller size binary. Just to tell you how much this helps,I had 47 source file project,which linked with around 30 libs.This binary size with optimization OFF was a whopping 101Kb and with optimization ON it was just 51 Kb. Also remember if after putting this option you do not see any difference in size,just remove the .o files from the [epocroot]\epoc32\build\[prj_path]\group folder and run the command again. Happy Symbian code hacking guys... :)

Big Dummy's guide to SMS/MMS Testing on Series 60 3rd edition emulator.

2007-02-15T19:12:00.001+05:30

I have recently been making a program to backup my sms messages from the default Symbian mail index to Symbian dbms. But while testing on the emulator I noticed that there was no way to create messages in the inbox.
Tools needed:
1. Series 60 3rd edition SDK.
2. Nokia Connectivity Framework v1.2.
3. JRE v1.4.1 onwards - NCF is very particular about the JRE.I had to uninstall the present JRE v1.4.2 and reinstall to get it running properly.So if by any chance its not working on your machine,just uninstall NCF as well as JRE and reinstall them to get going.
Okay, now back to sending the message from yourself from the emulator.Just follow these simple steps :
1. Start NCF and select the 'Product to Environment' on the Series 60 SDK that you want to do SMS testing on. 2. Once the 'Product' is added you would see the emulator icon with the phone number to be used while sending the message from the emulator. 3. Now right click on the emulator icon and select 'Start Product'. This will launch the S60 emulator. 4. Also on top you would see the status of the product as 'Running'. 5. Now you can launch the Messaging application and compose a SMS/MMS.The recipient number must be the number that is shown below the emulator icon in NCF. If the recipient number is any other number the message would not be routed to the emulator and you would see the status as 'Failed to route message'. 6. The message delivery status (success/failure in both cases) would be shown in the Basic tab in NCF. 7. Once you see the status,you can check the emulator Inbox.It would contain the SMS you just sent. 8. In case of an MMS you would also see InfoMsg's on the emulator about the MMS being sent and recieved successfully. This completes the guide to SMS/MMS testing on Series 60 3rd edition emulator with NCF. Also if you have fixed the NCF startup issue in some other way,do post about it.