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04/12/2008
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04/12/2008
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NS Basic, the cross-platform Basic programming language that was announced for Symbian OS at last year's Smartphone Show, seems to be finally coming together. NS Basic has now put a page up, listing it as 'coming soon' and with a bullet list of features. It'll work with both S60 and UIQ, too, which is good to see, though it's apparently implemented on top of the StyleTap Palm OS emulator for Symbian. If you've got as many concerns over performance as I had, check out their benchmarks page too. http://hongblog.net
Read on in the full article.
this is amazing news. i know dozens of programmers that know visual basic like the back of their hand but their knowledge in C is equivalent to their knowledge in japanese. i myself know visual basic a bit and giving users this kind of possibility is amazing. it means i can make my own programs for my own device. amazing.
Should I dig out the old BASIC programming manuals from my ZX Spectrum? ;-)
While this is undoubtedly good news, the real test is going to be whether or not this language is supported/updated, or if it's going to go the way of OPL (ie. every time a new version of Symbian comes out, the language takes a year to be ported, or simply doesn't get ported).
It's also not clear what the cost of a license is going to be; if it's not free, it will be difficult for freeware/shareware developers to release software written using this language, as the target market will be too small to make it worthwhile...
Licenses for the Windows CE version were about $150 for the basic version per user. They became very high for enterprise/multi-user licenses.
Having used version 4 for Palm development (a long time ago) it wasn't a bad development tool - especially for someone proficient in VB.
What I would like to see though is some form of Java framework for working with the native Symbian UI in a better way than J2ME's elements. Personal Java or even full Java Standard Edition with Swing or SWT or something, even some form of add on for J2ME would do. After all, Java's free.
python.
How could you go past the power & simplicity of pys60 (and free!) - and NS-Basic is running on a _Palm OS_ compatibility layer? You gotta be kidding me?!?
Nerdy arguments aside - if you have any desire to dabble with programming for your s60 device, pys60 is well worth the look. Very easy to get started with, well documented, and with a very friendly community of support.
I agree with the open source and free option of Python however it would be nice if it also ran on UIQ. Also it would ne nice if the Symbian Perl project was resurrected as it seems to have died a death.
Another vote for Python here. If you don't fancy getting to grips with C (which isn't as bad as its made out to be) then Python is modern, worth learning and ever more available these days.
BASIC just makes people think 'Amateur'.
yes but it does not deny BASIC's possibilities. i know basic. learning python would be a stick up my ass. plus just as you said it, BASIC is for amateurs (which is everyone who's interested in this since everyone else who can program is already using C ) and python is newer (which makes old programmer unfamiliar with it) this is a win-win situation but the price defines the outcome.
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