Developing Software for Symbian OS: A Beginner's Guide to Creating Symbian OS v9 Smartphone Applications in C++

Chapter 2. Symbian OS Quick Start

This chapter provides a quick start guide for setting up your Symbian OS development environment, as well as walking through, building, and running an example program.

If you already have your environment set up and have built Symbian OS software before, then you may be able to skip this chapter. Or, if you want to delay actual hands-on programming until you get more theory under your belt, you can return to this chapter later.

What Do You Need to Get Started?

The following are needed for developing Symbian OS smartphone software:

• A PC running Windows XP, 2000, or Vista (at least 1.5 GHz, 512MB RAM, and 2 GB free disk space is recommended).

• The C++ SDK for your smartphone model.

• A Windows development package (Win32 development tools with an Integrated Development Environment (IDE); Carbide.c++ is recommended).

• A Symbian OS smartphone.

• The PC suite used for communication between the PC and the smartphone.

Build Tools Overview

Figure 2.1 shows the basic development pieces. Symbian OS software is developed and built on a host PC. You can build your software to run on the Symbian OS PC-based emulator that comes with the SDK, or you can build for the smartphone itself and load your program to the phone via the PC suite through USB, IR, or Bluetooth technology.

Figure 2.1. Development Tools

Once your application is completed, it's deployed to users as an installation ...