Symbian, the Web Runtime and Aptana

Hello,

Recently, I joined the Symbian Foundation which is at the epicenter of open sourcing Symbian/S60. The initial releases of the will based on S60 5th edition and is called Symbian^1. One interesting implication for open sourcing Symbian/S60 is the Web Runtime(WRT) is part of the mix. This allows programmers to use standard web technologies like javascript, html and css to deliver applications to the phone. Unlike native applications, no signing is required. In addition to extending JavaScript for the phone UI, the WRT allows to access the phone via the Platform Services API.

Aptana is an IDE which can be used to build web widgets for Symbian. It helps to create, edit and deploy applications to the phone. Unlike native S60 development, you can do all of this on Mac OS X because Aptana does provide a preview mode for the application. On windows, you still may want both Nokia's PC Suite and the SDK. The PC Suite makes pairing bluetooth devices (like your pc and phone) ease. The emulator in the SDK provides a much more faithful emulation of the phone.

While Aptana does not allow one to debug javascript, integration with firebug is on their roadmap.

-jk