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Preliminary document - subject to change!
What is NS Basic/Symbian OS?
NS Basic/Symbian is a complete, easy to use BASIC development environment for Symbian
OS devices, with a look and feel similar to Visual Basic. NS Basic/Symbian OS provides a full, modern implementation
of BASIC, with proper subroutines, user defined data types
and no line numbers. The development environment runs on a
Windows desktop.
NS Basic/Symbian OS includes over 150 statements
and functions. Support is provided for file handling, TCP/IP, graphics and more. A full set of standard screen
input and output objects and dialog boxes are included. Applications you create are freely distributable and are write-once, run anywhere. A 150 page spiral bound Handbook and lots of sample code is included.
The environment
features a Visual Designer, which allows you to graphically
lay out your objects, set their properties and write code that responds to and controls them.
What devices does it run on?
NS Basic/Symbian OS runs on all Symbian smartphones based on UIQ 3 or S60 3rd Edition.
When will it be available?
We plan to beta test late in May, 2008 and release soon thereafter. Please send an email to support@nsbasic.com to get progress reports.
Who uses NS BASIC's tools?
Close to 20,000 developers in over 80 countries use NS BASIC's tools to develop apps for handheld devices. The full spectrum of developers is included: enterprise, small business, government, education and personal use. Many of the world's largest corporations use NS Basic.
For Windows CE, it is the most popular third party development tool. For Palm OS, it is the most popular commercial tool.
Who is NS Basic/Symbian OS designed for?
NS Basic/Symbian OS is designed to appeal to developers with Visual Basic experience, to developers that do not have the time or background to master Carbide.c++ and to experienced programmers that need a RAD environment to quickly produce apps or prototypes. It is not intended to replace Carbide.c++, but rather to enable more programmers to be productive.
NS Basic/Symbian OS will also be very interesting to developers who have been using NS Basic/Palm. Most of their apps will run on Symbian devices without change, other than a recompile.
How does it work?
NS Basic/Symbian OS code is developed on the desktop. The compiler translates it into a threaded p-code file. Once on the device, it is processed by a runtime engine. The engine is ARM Native, yielding excellent performance. System calls are mapped to StyleTap CrossPlatform during execution. The StyleTap runtime is automatically included in the NS Basic installer, so there are no additional license fees or installation steps for this.
Is it like Visual Basic?
The language itself is a subset of Microsoft's Visual Basic, with extensions for a handheld environment. The development environment has a look and feel very similar to VB6, the most widely used development environment on computers.
Is it like AppForge?
AppForge had an ambitious product, however it ended up being slow, large and expensive. Unfortunately for their customers, they are no longer in business.
Many developers have converted from AppForge to NS Basic. Here are their comments.
Is it like NS Basic/Palm?
It is very much the same. Code is 100% compatible, except for hardware dependent features. The same objects (fields, buttons, etc.) appear in both products and work the same way. Each product has extensions to take advantage of the specific features of the platform it runs on.
Where can I buy it? What does it cost?
Pricing and availability will be announced when the product is released.
How fast is it?
Applications written in NS Basic/Symbian OS appear to run at a similar speed as the built in applications. Our test show a speed of execution of around 25,000 loops per second, which is more than fast enough for any app except extreme number crunching.
For a more detailed analysis, see this document.
What support is there?
NS BASIC
provides support by email and on our web
board. We post bug fix updates to our support site on a regular
basis. Check the Web Board for the latest announcements. The
web board is a very active and enthusiastic community.
What documentation is included?
NS Basic/Symbian OS comes with
a 150 page handbook. It's spiral bound,
so it lies flat. In addition, documentation and examples for
commands and functions are available in on line help. There
is also a series of handy Tech
Notes.
There are many additional
samples in the files section of the Web
Board.
What other languages are supported?
The Handbook is initially available
in English. Other languages will be added as needed.
The IDE is currently available in English, German, Japanese, French and Spanish. NS Basic/Symbian keeps all its messages in a open string table. By translating the string table, versions of
the IDE can be easily produced for other languages. If you're interested in creating a version for your own language,
please contact us.
Can external routines be called?
Yes,
through a variety of mechanisms:
- API
functions can make OS calls directly within an NS Basic
program.
- Standard Libraries can be called.
- External apps can be launched
There is also a mechanism to call Symbian OS dll modules. Additional documentation on this feature will be available soon.
Is there an emulator?
Sorry, no. Symbian does not provide a native emulator like Microsoft and Palm do. Symbian's emulator requires that out code be compiled by an x86 compiler instead of an ARM compiler. We feel the differences this would introduce would make any test results on the emulator invalid for actual devices.
You will need an actual Symbian device for development.
Can I use the full screen?
Symbian OS devices come with screens of all different sizes: 176x208, 352x416, 320x240, 800x352, etc. We've designed NS Basic/Symbian OS to make it easy to create apps that will look pretty much the same on any device. To do this, we've standardized on a 160x160 grid on form design. If the screen has enough pixels, it will be automatically scaled up by a factor of 1.5 or 2. The extra pixels will increase the sharpness of images.
Will it run on a Mac?
We like Macs here. On Intel Mac, use Parallels or VMWare with a Windows OS.
We have also tested NS Basic/Symbian on a Mac running Virtual PC.
Will it run on Linux?
Yes. It works well on Win4Lib and VmWare.
Who is NS BASIC Corporation?
NS BASIC Corporation's tools are the most widely used third party tools for handheld devices. NS BASIC Corporation has been a leading creator of development tools for handheld devices since 1993. Close to 20,000 developers in over 80 countries use NS BASIC's tools for Palm OS, Windows CE and Newton.
You can contact NS BASIC
Corporation by email at info@nsbasic.com, phone at 1 888 NSBASIC
(416 264-5999) or fax at 416 264-5888.
So what does the "NS"
stand for, anyhow?
Nice
& Smart.
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