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  1. Qt
  2. QTBUG-21319

Supported devices section needs refinement in Symbian platform and compiler notes

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Details

    • Bug
    • Resolution: Duplicate
    • P1: Critical
    • 4.7.4, 4.8.x
    • 4.7.4, 4.8.0, 4.8.x
    • Documentation
    • Symbian

    Description

      In http://doc.qt.nokia.com/4.7-snapshot/platform-notes-symbian.html (it seems however that updates are available in 4.8 doc branch (https://qt.gitorious.org/qt/qt/blobs/4.8/doc/src/platforms/platform-notes.qdoc) - these updates should be backported to Qt 4.7.4 doc so that they are available for Symbian developers targeting Symbian Belle) from Qt SDK Symbian targets when SDK is updated for Belle support (now beta level experimental support available). These updates include modifications to the Multimedia section, fixing of broken links to now late symbian.org site on Symbian OS capabilities etc.

      More over following refinements are further needed:

      • The doc topic starts with "As with any port, the maturity for Qt for Symbian has not yet reached the same level as other established Qt ports. This page documents the current notes for the Symbian port." This is outdated information and stems back to initial Qt support in Symbian. As Qt is already pre-installed in devices starting from S^3 and now in Belle it's in ROM, and fully deployed with Smart Installer to all devices starting from S60 3.1 onward I think this should be removed and replaced with: "This page documents the current notes for the Symbian port.".
      • Binary Compatibility needs refinement. "As with every supported platform, Qt strives to maintain application behavior and binary compatibility throughout the lifetime of the Qt 4.x major version and within the Symbian devices supporting Qt. Symbian support in Qt SDK and Store was introduced with Qt 4.6. In each Qt release there is bug fixes that may impact to application compatibility as the API behavior has changed due to bug fixing. Symbian devices are also having different input methods like different style of keyboards or touch input, screen sizes memory and CPU/GPU capabilities. This means applications need to be tested for specific target devices to ensure actual compatibility. In order to build applications that are supported also on earlier devices select the target in Qt SDK carefully. Generally an earlier target (like Symbian^1) will work more widely than a later target (Symbian Belle).

      The above description of binary compatibility is ensured for Qt APIs when Symbian OS device APIs are utilized consult Symbian OS documentation for API compatibility details."

      • the link in Supported devices is in plain text; should be given as a hyperlink (the #fragment part of the link actually misleadingly links to the same doc topic). Moreover, since the URL of the link is now outdated as it uses old forum.nokia it should be changed to http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Nokia_Smart_Installer_for_Symbian.
      • the link itself is really not that well giving out the supported devices. I tells where Smart Installations for Qt are supported so it's a good one to keep here but it's not giving the whole picture. Because of this I would like this to be changed as follows:
        "Qt 4.6 for Symbian is supported for S60 3rd Edition feature pack 1 devices and onward via Smart Installer. Qt 4.7.3 is supported in S60 5th Edition devices and onward. Symbian^3 devices have Qt 4.6 support pre-installed. Symbian Anna has Qt 4.7.3 pre-installed and Symbian Belle has Qt 4.7.4 in device firmware (ROM).

      Nokia Developer provided device specifications database (link to http://www.developer.nokia.com/Devices/Device_specifications/) can be queried for Qt support in Nokia devices. This database lists both Store publishing and Qt library pre-installation details for Nokia devices. The Store publishing support is listed in General section and API section details what Qt modules and versions are pre-installed in devices.

      When device does not have necessary Qt libraries pre-installed then Smart Installer may be used for deploying these to the device during application installation. Refer to Nokia Smart Installer topic (link to http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/Nokia_Smart_Installer_for_Symbian) for details on what Qt modules are supported on-demand for different Symbian device models and how applications can enable Smart Installer support in Qt applications. Smart Installer ensures needed Qt support libraries are available in the target Symbian device before installing the actual application.
      "

      • In Supported Functionality section in QtMultimedia there is confusing statement. "Although the module itself is supported, no backend for Symbian is currently available. However, there is a backend available for Phonon.". Perhaps this Phonon was added later but then it should have been removed that "no backend is available". However, since there is still quality issues in QtMultimedia as indicated by the later Multimedia and Phonon Support section it's good to link there from this and say "QtMultimedia is supported but refer to details from Multimedia and Phonon Support section" here.

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              cvandonderen Casper van Donderen
              auotila Aleksi Uotila
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