From the press release: “Trolltech, the leader in multi-platform development frameworks, today unveiled Qtopia, a Linux-based application environment that brings the power of desktop computing to mobile embedded devices. Trolltech is the creator of Qt, the application framework that lets developers create cross platform, single-source applications that run natively. Qtopia is already being used to power the new Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 PDA, with several additional design wins bringing products to market in 2002.“
Trolltech Unveils Qtopia
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Eugenia Loli
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What is the point of calling the system cross-platform, while recompile of source code is needed? Now let me think of Rebol or AmigaDE. In comparison to both of them, it is just PR hype, as we can say the same way QNX RtP is cross-platform (CPU wise), while it lacks kind of slim-binaries. If the recompile is needed, it is not cross-platform, it is just “cross-platform” …
-pekr-
I agree it is weird, but you’ve got to hope it turns out to be ok (cause lets face it the other pda choices aren’t that great; ms is great, but pricey; palm is cheap, but hard on the eyes; and the few linux pdas so far were palm’s features with closer to ms prices). AmigaDE could be good though, but I haven’t noticed a launch date anywhere for it.
“cross platform” source code is ‘cross platform’ surely? If you claim “cross platform” binaries then you must be stretching the truth surely? If you say “cross platform” binaries you really mean ‘single platform’ binaries for a VM where the VM source code is “cross platform”? Get what I mean?
Going OT a bit, I think that native compilation for a target is a real boon in the smartphone/PDA space. Working with the things, I get a good feeling for balance between using a VM-ed app (usually Java MIDP) for some tasks and native code for others.
VM-ed stuff is slow but safe and easy to write and easy to debug (emulators readily available usually). Native stuff is *much* faster but generally is more complex, being both difficult to write and difficult to debug.
So making toolsets that let people write nice VM-style software and then do a native compile seems a real boon and the best of both worlds?