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The Paper - Page 3 - Preparations

The Workflow of C++ Game-Development on a Series 60 Platform device

Andreas Jakl, Revision 1.0, July 2004


Chapter 2 – Preparations

This chapter gives an overview of what has to be done before the development can start. It also presents the technologies used in this paper, gives reasons why they have been chosen and points out possible alternatives.

2.1 Prerequisites

Knowledge of C++ and object-oriented programming is required.

2.2 Development environment

Currently three integrated development environments (IDEs) have support for development of Series 60 applications. In this paper Microsoft Visual Studio 6 is being used, as it is widely available, well-known and the main platform for the Series 60 SDK . Its big disadvantage is that it has no native support for mobile development; therefore many things have to be done manually. On the positive side, the user interface is established and efficient. Visual Studio .NET is not supported by the SDK (see, for example, FAQ-0835 at http://www3.symbian.com/faq.nsf). While it does work with some tricks, the application wizard does not, and you have to do even more steps manually.

Alternatives are Metrowerks CodeWarrior 1, which is more tailored to mobile development and even supports on-device debugging and Borland C++BuilderX Mobile Edition2, which provides assistants for many cumbersome tasks like building menus or bitmap files.

It would certainly be worth downloading the free trial versions of the latter two programs if you have no previous experience with Microsoft Visual C++ .

To develop for Symbian OS, a distribution of Perl is also required. ActivePerl from ActiveState3 is free and works fine. You also have to download a copy of a Symbian OS SDK, in our case the Symbian OS SDK for Series 60 . Currently you can get it from Siemens 4, Nokia 5 or Sendo 6. Choose the 2.0 SDK if you want to develop for a Symbian OS v7.0s phone, otherwise pick the 1.2 SDK. Please note that the game presented in this paper has not been tested with the SDK version 2.0.

2.3 Installation guide

Install Microsoft Visual C++ 6 and the latest Service Pack. Choose to add the paths to the system paths. Then install ActivePerl , also allow it to set the system paths. It makes development easier if you map a new drive for Symbian OS-related files. This will help you because of short paths to the files. Additionally it allows you to transfer your projects from one PC to another, no matter how and where the Symbian OS SDK is installed. To do that, first create a directory like C:\Symbian\ . Then create a batch file on C:\ with the content subst Q: C:\Symbian . Put this to the Startup group of Windows, so that the drive gets mapped automatically.

Now install the Symbian OS SDK for Series 60 directly to Q:\ , so that all system paths are set correctly from the beginning. Then create a directory on Q:\ called dev . This is where the source code of your projects will go. As a final step, open Q:\Epoc32\Data\Epoc.ini and correct the paths (you have to change C:\Symbian\6.1\Series60\epoc32\wins\d to Q:\epoc32\wins\d ). In the folder Q:\Series60Tools\ you'll find three useful utilities which you should also install, called mmpclick, the Epoc Toolbar and the Series 60 AppWizard. Read the respective text files for installation help.

After everything has been installed, try to create a new test project using the AppWizard [9]. Then compile and run the project. If everything worked, a dialogue box will pop up asking you for the executable file, which is the emulator (Fig. 2.1). Specify this file: Q:\epoc32\release\wins\udeb\epoc.exe . For the next question, tell Visual Studio not to ask you again and click OK. The emulator will load and at the end of the menu you should find your application.


Figure 2.1: Dialog to locate the executable of the Windows emulator.


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