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Video: Bejeweled clone created in Qt, Nokia’s future smartphone programming enviroment, using only 343 lines of code

Categories: Applications, Nokia, Symbian
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 1:52 AM

Ask any mobile developer what they think about programming for Symbian, and they’re going to tell you about how impossibly difficult it is to create a polished application in less than 1 trillion lines of code. Programming for the iPhone is easier, plus the built in payment infrastructure that is tied into iTunes increases a developer’s probability of putting food on the table and maintaining his alcohol and Japanese hentai addictions. Nokia knows this, and they purchased Trolltech, who makes Qt, back in January 2008 with the intention of layering the Qt software on top of the Symbian and Maemo operating systems to make developer’s lives easier. We’re not going to see Qt fully integrated into Symbian for at least another 2 years, and the same can be said about Maemo, but the potential is already starting to show itself with “SameGame,” a clone of Bejeweled, being coded in less than 350 lines of code. To be more precise: “127 lines of QML and 207 lines of simple Javascript for handling the game logic” according to Qt Labs. Now I know what you’re thinking, TWO BLOODY YEARS?! The smartphone space is young, and growing rapidly. Nokia is going to lose market share just like they did when they missed the boat on creating clamshell devices, but they’ll bounce back if the promises of Qt end up becoming a reality.

[Hat tip to @ecyrd]

About The Author

Stefan Constantinescu

Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.

  • Mark Wilcox

    We’re not going to see Qt fully integrated into Symbian for at least another 2 years

    More like 18 months to the first devices and Qt libraries in firmware with the possibility to do stuff like this (even if all the mobile specific stuff and re-written UI isn’t included yet) in about a year. Even so, it’s still a really long time…

  • Stefan Constantinescu

    so is it 18 months or a year? I’m confused.

    oh and by the way, disclosure for people reading this who don’t know who you are, you are Mark Wilcox from Symbian.