Question

I have a Symbian 9.1 handset, Nokia E65, based on Nokia S60 series UI. I’d like to build a simple, full screen, graphic application. It should be able to display some text and pictures and have a basic interaction from the keyboard. That’s for me only, not to be deployed.

Now, what do you think is the quickest and most painless way to have it done?

I have the following skills:
– HTML, PHP, ASP.net, JS
– ASP.net and C#, Silverlight
– Java, but mostly for networking, not UI
– Some C++

I have downloaded the Nokia IDE, but it is scary at first sight 🙂

Any tutorial or example are welcome!

Edit:
In particular, two questions:

1. is there a possibility to make a stand-alone flash application for that handset?
2. how about the QT mobile version?

Answer 1

For your device, definitely use Python for S60. It is much easier to start with than Symbian’s C++ SDK and in case you ever need more low level functionality than python gives you, you can write small modules in c++ and use them in your Python program.

For a simple application like the one you are describing, Python will do just fine. You don’t even need any of Nokia’s IDEs / tools on the PC, you can just write the code in any text editor, copy it to the phone and test it live.

As others have mentioned, other options include:

• Symbian C++ SDK : As you have discovered the tools and not the most intuitive to work with, development is not straight forward either.
• Nokia’s WRT : Using javascript/css/html, but it is not available for your phone.
• Qt : Not available for your phone.
• Java Me : Probably your second best option, your code will be slightly larger but more protable. The tools are not as straight forward as with Python, but definitely not as complicated as with Symbian.