Re: [SailfishDevel] When does Jolla give us an API?
Hi, On 03.02.2014, at 16:58, David Greaves david.grea...@jolla.com wrote: On 03/02/14 15:29, Putze Sven wrote: Hi there, during Fosdem I spoke to some people about this, even to Carsten Munk from Jolla itself (not in the depth and detail of this mail, I must admit) and he suggested to write this in the mailing list, so those of Jolla who should be concerned have a chance to answer this question and I really would like to hear some official statements here. Did you manage to get to the round-table event? - we spent a fair bit of time talking about APIs there; we also openly discussed the issues we face. I know that the community people there wanted to continue the discussion. Yes, I got there but many people of the mailing list did not. From my point of view there is a discussion to be continued, one of the reasons I brought this topic up here. But IMHO it's not *just* a community thing, Jolla can't simply flinch and point at the community when it's getting unpleasant. Of course they can, but IMHO they shouldn't ;-) What does a developer need to write quality apps? An API and a documentation of such. So far there is a quite limited API available and therefore we don't see too many apps out there. How will you write a sophisticated app, if the API is not available or it is not allowed to use or is only known to those with Maemo/Meego history? A quick response: we support the Qt API and rather than developing our own proprietary one we're working hard to support the open one as it grows. The Qt documentation is extensive and superb :) As pointed out from others, it's not simply done with the Qt documentation. The Sailfish OS is built upon many libraries, frameworks and layers. But which one is to use? Is naming the building blocks enough? I am not writing this to run down other people or to make Jolla look bad. I am staying a pain in the ass because I truly believe that there is a gap and it needs to be filled. If you only want to address the geeky Linux approved developer with Meego background, this may be just enough to keep this eco system alive. Even if it does not seem this way right now, I *want* you to have success! If you want to attract mobile developers that are in the iOS, Android or even Windows Mobile universe right now, you need to offer them something more. Right now they are in a comfort zone. Besides that the Qt documentation is extensive and maybe extraordinary for an open source project, but it has much headroom for improvement^^. Using it in Sailfish Silica apps is less well documented but is improving (and honestly is mainly a tutorial issue for new developers - not an API docs issue). That depends on the definition of a new developer. If *new* means new to the platform then it's exactly the kind of developer and the problems they will have, that's what the whole topic is about. Try to see it from this perspective: I *am* new to the platform, hence not (yet) wearing rose-colored glassed. And maybe - just maybe - I (still) ask the right questions. BR. Sven When I write you, it's not so much you as in David, it's more like in Jolla ;-) signature.asc Description: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail ___ SailfishOS.org Devel mailing list
Re: [SailfishDevel] When does Jolla give us an API?
Hi, 2014-02-03 16:29, Putze Sven skrev: What does a developer need to write quality apps? An API and a documentation of such. I would like to add best practices and experience sharing, which is exactly what StackOverflow provides me as a developer in other projects. In my opinion is a place for QA a good way to share experience that takes a long time to gain. I'm not sure yet how this is best done for Sailfish development - launch a QA site targeted at Sailfish developers , use StackOverflow, use together.jolla.com, or something else? This is also asked as a question at together.jolla.com: https://together.jolla.com/question/26003/sailfish-app-developer-qa/ Regards, Erik ___ SailfishOS.org Devel mailing list
Re: [SailfishDevel] Silica API documentation on sailfishos.org website updated
Generally, for me there should be more examples on active covers
Hi Harald,
You're right, cover layouts is an area where Silica components need to improve.
We provide common UI components for easily building Sailfish-style application
pages, but so far when it comes to covers developers have unfortunately mostly
been required to create their own custom cover layouts. This is because most
application cover layouts have so far been so different from each other that
not too many clear UI patterns have emerged that would nicely turn into a
reusable common component.
Luckily similar UI development principles often apply for cover pages as for
the normal application pages like 1.) use Theme.paddingLarge margin around the
page edges and 2.) keep most text of size Theme.fontSizeMedium. Also since the
space on the covers is very limited remember to use truncationMode:
TruncationMode.Fade for non-wrapped one-line labels.
Quickly thinking we currently have seven types of cover pages in use:
1. Empty state cover. App icon + descriptive label (most platform apps when
there is no content)
- example: CoverPlaceholder { visible: model.count === 0; text: Sign in
to...; icon.source: appIcon }
2. Thumbnail cover. Scaled down, cropped view of the app contents (Maps,
current tab in Browser, open PDF document in Documents, open photo in Gallery)
- example: Image { anchors.fill: parent; fillMode: Image.PreserveAspectCrop;
source: currentItem.source }
3. Grid cover. 2 column x 3 row grid of items, e.g. photos or icons (Gallery,
Settings, Camera)
- example: Grid { Repeater { model: photos; Image {} }}
4. List cover of one-line items. Vertical list of 5-7 items with an icon and a
label (Phone, Documents)
- example: ListView { model: callLog: delegate: ListItem { Row { Image {}
Label {} } } }
5. List cover of two-line items. Vertical list of 3 two-line items (Messages,
Notes)
- example: ListView { model: conversations: delegate: Column { Label {} Label
{} } }
6. Header and two items cover (Calendar, Clock)
- example: Column { HeaderItem {} ListView {} }
7. Static cover. Big billboard graphic and status text (Store, Tutorial)
- example: Column { Image {} Label {} }
I'll add an item to our backlog about writing instructions on how to build
active covers. Also in the future we should provide some common cover layout
components.
Cheers,
Joona
From: devel-boun...@lists.sailfishos.org [devel-boun...@lists.sailfishos.org]
on behalf of Harald Schmitt [li...@hschmitt.de]
Sent: 07 February 2014 15:07
To: devel@lists.sailfishos.org
Subject: Re: [SailfishDevel] Silica API documentation on sailfishos.org website
updated
Am 07.02.2014 13:36, schrieb Joona Petrell:
Hi,
As requested on Together Jolla website we have just updated the outdated
Silica documentation on our developer website to match the latest SDK.
See https://sailfishos.org/sailfish-silica/index.html
We have also included a new UI development guide called Common Pitfalls
in Sailfish Application Development in the documentation. I encourage
everybody interested in building Sailfish applications to read it. :)
https://sailfishos.org/sailfish-silica/sailfish-application-pitfalls.html
I did a quick read and the pitfalls section is very helpful.
Generally, for me there should be more examples on active covers since
you say: ... this concept is at the core of the multitasking
capabilities of Sailfish.
Best regards,
Harald
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Re: [SailfishDevel] When does Jolla give us an API?
On 09/02/14 11:28, Putze Sven wrote: Hi, On 03.02.2014, at 16:58, David Greaves david.grea...@jolla.com wrote: On 03/02/14 15:29, Putze Sven wrote: What does a developer need to write quality apps? An API and a documentation of such. So far there is a quite limited API available and therefore we don't see too many apps out there. How will you write a sophisticated app, if the API is not available or it is not allowed to use or is only known to those with Maemo/Meego history? A quick response: we support the Qt API and rather than developing our own proprietary one we're working hard to support the open one as it grows. The Qt documentation is extensive and superb :) As pointed out from others, it's not simply done with the Qt documentation. The Sailfish OS is built upon many libraries, frameworks and layers. But which one is to use? Qt. Seriously. You asked for an API. Jolla supports the Qt API precisely because it is a single, high level, app-suitable API that is well managed and open. It provides a significant degree of platform independence by abstracting a large amount of platform capability provided by those underlying layers; there is not much 'limited' about it :) Not only that it permits us to provide an API usable by C++ and QML/js at a cost that we can manage. Having said that, we do need to look to see where there are gaps. What functionality are you looking for that is not either supported or planned to be supported by an API exposed by Qt? If you do want to tinker outside of the store API and enter general linux programming then you have the freedom to do that too; however Jolla simply does not have the resources to maintain and/or document all the various systems and libraries which make up Mer/SailfishOS over and above the various resources that exist out there on the web (and in the source). David ___ SailfishOS.org Devel mailing list
