Binary Compatibility - Is It Really Important?
Opinion July 2nd. 2006, 3:21pmI have been receiving some emails from the users of my freeware, Screenshot for Symbian OS. They are asking why they cannot install the software in their new S60 3rd phones. One of the reasons is because they have downloaded or installed the wrong version (for S60 2nd phones). It seems compatibility break in Symbian 9 have introduced some problems to the developers as well ass to the end users. The Register has written an article, Is that a PC in your pocket?, about binary breaks in Symbian 9.1 and how it affects the end users.
Fortunately, we have good news, Symbian and their licensees have announced their commitment to provide a stable platform starting from Symbian 9.1. Now we are still in the transition time and it has been a difficult situation. How to communicate to the users that they have to download the right version for their phones. For instance, how to make sure that the users check Compatible devices/requirements in Handango portal (see picture below)? Furthermore, if their phones are not supported, how to direct to the right version, for example, direct them to S60 3rd version?
As a fan of Symbian OS, I hate to say that Microsoft has done a great job maintaining binary compatibility in the last 15 years. Just a simple example, I have a Tetris game for Windows 3.x developed in 1990 (about 16 years ago) and I still can run it on Windows XP SP2. I am not kidding… see the screenshot below. For your information, I don’t manipulate the screenshot using any imaging software.
Back to the Symbian OS, are they really committed to maintain binary compatibility? I hope so; otherwise the platform will die slowly. Let’s see…
5 Responses to “Binary Compatibility - Is It Really Important?”
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July 5th, 2006 at 4:51 am
It is important that developers can concentrate on the development of their own apps, without having to concern themselves so much with the differences between different phones. There are so many little nuances even between different firmware releases on the same phone model that supporting applications on these platforms is already a nightmare. The cost, for a small company, of getting all these different handsets for testing purposes, is significant, and will be off-putting for many, leaving aside that if they bite the bullet and order a load of new phones, there’s almost no way to specify which firmware release they come with.
Compare that to developing for Windows Mobile, where I can compile in evc version 3 (which is free) and run on devices built from 2000 to the present day. Sure there are features that I can’t use from the old tools (vga, landscape etc), but in my opinion that’s much better than just having to maintain yet another separate development path, in many cases in an entirely different tool.
Although I would hate for it to happen, I could see that if there isn’t a significant improvement in the tools and documentation available for Symbian developers, many will defect to “the dark side”. I have a developed for Palm, Pocket PC / Windows Mobile, Series 60 and UIQ platforms, and of the three (counting the two Symbian together) Symbian is by far the most time-consuming, and it’s all down to platform-specific stuff. I wouldn’t mind so much if I was just “not very good” at coding.
I made exactly this point at the Smartphone show in London last year to various different people at Symbian, Nokia, and I forget where else, and all of them re-assured me that it would all be fine “soon”. But I can’t see that it is, almost a year later on.
July 5th, 2006 at 9:22 am
@Mike: Are you my ex-colleague when I worked in Bochum, Germany? If not, then sorry because your name is the same with his…
Back to compatibility, I have been pushing Symbian OS and their licensees, via variaous discussion forums and blogs, to improve their documentation and tools too. Let’s hope that we will see significant improvements in the near future.
There is a joke from my colleague who works with Symbian OS. He says that he feels 20 years younger after programming in Symbian OS. The reason is because all the APIs, tools and documentation just like what we used to have about 20 years ago.
July 6th, 2006 at 4:32 am
Antony: Not me, never worked outside (currently) sunny England.
July 13th, 2006 at 12:49 am
Good post! Let’s keep spreading around the message…
July 20th, 2006 at 5:55 am
Time to start taking good care of S60 backwards compatibility
During the last year, one of the biggest complaints among S60 application developers (and some end-users) has been the backwards compatibility of S60 3rd Edition, or the lack of it. Because of the binary break, the thousands of old…