Python on Symbian: Mobile app development made easy

by Bogdan Galiceanu

We are pleased to announce the release of a new book – “Python on Symbian: Mobile app development made easy”! The book is available to purchase on Amazon.com and an online version of the book is available here.

Python on Symbian book cover

To put is simply and somewhat cliché, it’s a book written by the community, for the community. We have worked on it from summer 2009 until late October 2010.

Who is this book for?

If you want to develop powerful mobile apps with the minimum effort and learning curve, this is the book for you!
It’s intended for readers of all levels of experience, from beginners to advanced users of Python on Symbian. We don’t assume any knowledge of Python and we cover (almost) everything from basic Python concepts, such as variables, functions and classes, to advanced concepts like platform services and advanced network programming.

What is covered in the book?

It covers pretty much every domain you can use Python on Symbian (aka PyS60) in. We’ve done our best to explain how everything works so that anyone, no matter their experience (or lack thereof) as a programmer can learn how to develop mobile applications quickly and in a fun manner. By that I mean that there is even a chapter about the Python language which teaches you everything you need to know, from the very basics to advanced tricks. After that the reader is taught what tools to use and how to use them, and is taken through a different area in each chapter (from PIM to multimedia to location, everything is here). The material refers to Python on Symbian 2.0, but most of it also applies to earlier versions (1.4.x and such). We point out where it doesn’t.

Throughout the book you’ll find illustrations, screenshots and example code. It’s a book to boost your knowledge of mobile phone programming and make it fun!

The book has been added to the Forum Nokia list, which is a great honour for us, the people who worked on this project. We learned a whole lot while writing the book and it also proved to be a fun experience. We really hope we’ve managed to convey that fun and knowledge in a way that will make this book useful for people interested in Python.

More news about this project will likely come in the near future.

Ackowledgements

We would like to thank everyone associated with the project –
Co-authors: Marcelo Barros de Almeida, Mike Jipping and Hamish Willee
Technical reviewers – Aapo Rista, Christophe Berger, Herb Jellinek, Jouni Miettunen, Marcel Caraciolo and Rafael Szuminski
Editors –  Jo Stichbury, Satu Dahl and Tim Williams
Designers – Annabel Cooke and Anna Alfut

We would also like to acknowledge the help from Forum Nokia, Symbian Foundation, Jürgen Scheible, Mark Wilcox, TS Vijayan and PyS60 team during the project.

– On behalf of Bogdan Galiceanu and Pankaj Nathani

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