Now it's naturally time to try to get my Qt Quick application into the E7 for testing. Updated Qt to 4.7.2 (it's nice that it's only some gigabytes when updating...). Qt Creator up and added device configuration. Build, get a warning about spaces in paths and build bar goes red. Nothing happens. For some time. Change view to Compile Output and there's the typical error about missing path, path being cut at space. Great.
So there are two problems here, still: Symbian toolchains don't handle spaces in paths and Qt Creator can't even show errors in the Build Issues view when building for Symbian.
Hey, it's 2011. When will you guys understand that? It's NOT ok to install your stuff into the root folder. Not even if you can't make stuff work with spaces. Because the correct thing to do is fix it so that it does.
So now I have to save my Qt projects somewhere else than all other projects I do, just because Nokia can't get SDKs done right? That's sooo cool.
Oh well. Let's see if I can at least get the device connected to Qt Creator and get stuff in it. USB connected, drivers installing... And no, I will NOT install Ovi Suite to this machine!
CODA installed on device. Reboot. USB cable in, device says that debug services are available. Qt Creator won't show the device in project settings. I didn't expect anything else...
Setting Up Development Environment for Symbian has been read and done. But noo, naturally it won't work. So what's next? Maybe it won't work with CODA, you have to have App Trk? Though the documentation doesn't say so. Let's try that...
Nope. Not available in Qt Creator still...
Well, let's just make a SIS out of it and send it to the device without Qt Creator. But, how? Build, done. No SIS file. Deploy? No, that would require a connection to the device. Which I don't have. So...? I'm a total newbie with Qt Creator and it clearly isn't as simple as it could be. It seems that I have to create a new build step that runs make sis. Manual work is always great.
But that requires manual installation of Qt on the device. Not nice. So I have to use make installer_sis. Now I get a package that doesn't complain. Testing on device...
Installing... This'n'that... Error: device not supported. Oh really? Why not? E7 isn't supported? That's not going to help. Let's try installing the sis package from the SDK manually. As I said, I do like manual work when developing. It'd be much better for the end users, too, if they had to install Qt manually, don't you say?
Installing... Installation complete! So, yes, E7 is supported. Just not by the smart installer. Ok, this whole thing is beta (even by name, I think it will be beta quality for a long time still), maybe they'll fix it soon.
Try installing the smart version again. No go, not supported. Install without the "smart installer" and it went through. Not so smart after all.
But woohoo, it runs! So, all I have to do now is send the SIS file manually every time I build, since the connection from Qt Creator to the device won't work. And I can't use the "smart installer" since it won't work with an actual device.
So, anyone more familiar with Qt Creator and development who can tell me what I'm doing wrong? It must be me doing things wrong, it can't really be that these things don't work, can it?
Also as a side rant: why the heck hasn't Nokia implemented a better support for Symbian in Qt Creator? "Oh, you can use the testing UIDs when developing and when you want to send the app to Symbian Signed, you must remember to change the UID by hand to another value." Umm, hello? Isn't this supposed to be done by the IDE, not by the developer? Ah, sorry, forgot: manual work is fun. And not error prone.
And it's nice that compiling Qt application for Symbian causes hundreds of warnings. No, not a single one from my code. They're all from the Qt code! Developer 101 time: warnings are bad. You shouldn't get any when compiling. Even if they're "only" warnings. Clearly Nokia doesn't know this.
What the heck?!? When I copied the project to another location (because the Symbian SDK can't handle spaces), cleaned everything many times, but STILL the Qt Creator loads QML files from the wrong place! That is, when I double-click a file to open it in editor, it loads it from newpath\test.qml. When I build the app (for the simulator, at least), it loads it from oldpath\test.qml. Which obviously doesn't work. Separate path handling for project viewing and building? Hello? Idiots anyone? Sheesh!