[PRL] perl running on your cellular phone?

[Dale Vaillancourt]

I thought people might be interested to hear about this; the full 
article text is pasted below for those who don't feel like following 
the link:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/64/34943.html

-Dale
----

Nokia to release Perl for smartphones
By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco
Posted: 16/01/2004 at 22:41 GMT
Get The Reg wherever you are, with The Mobile Register


Nokia will make an internal version of the Perl scripting language for 
Series 60 smartphones available to its developer community, Lee Epting, 
Nokia's VP of Developer Relations, tells us. Nokia acknowledges a 
demand for more developer options as Nokia's Symbian-based Series 60 
platform reaches mass market volumes.

Right now developers have two choices if they want to be sure an 
application will run on a Series 60 device. There's the native Symbian 
C++ APIs, which offer lots of power but a steep learning curve, and 
Java. But even Java is overkill for simple forms-based applications 
that are typically knocked up by business managers, rather than 
developers; and Java doesn't always offer access to native resources 
such as vibrating alert or SMS.

There's no timescale set, but Epting hinted that it shouldn't take too 
long. She also had positive things to say about the venerable 
BASIC-like language OPL, which is the cheapest and easiest way for 
novices to write Series 60 applications. Symbian open sourced the 
language - which can trace its lineage back to the Psion Organizer in 
the mid-1980s - a year ago. Compared with AppForge's Booster, which 
allows Visual Basic 6.0 applications to run on SymbianOS (and Palm and 
Pocket PC), OPL doesn't require an expensive developer add-in and the 
runtime footprint is much smaller, which handset manufacturers value. 
It's potentially a killer app, and the project, and developer Ewan 
Spence who freed it from Psion's cold dead grip, could certainly use 
some TLC.

"It requires some funding to complete it," Epting told us, "and it 
needs some buy-in from the rest of Nokia." Ensuring that OPL and Perl 
developers get the same level of support is a consideration, she added. 
Although the community has done a fine job with the Wiki.

Coins in, software out

Lee Epting joined Nokia a year ago from Handpring and she's a breath of 
fresh air for a company that has had to learn about nurturing an open 
development platform for the first time. (She was Handspring's 15th 
employee, she tells us, and joined from Palm). Forum Nokia, the 
developer community, is part of her group and in the recent 
reorganization was given a horizontal role that feeds into the four 
vertical business groups at Nokia: mobile phones, multimedia, networks 
and enterprise.

Amongst her priorities, she told us, was documenting APIs - a constant 
demand from developers - optimizing porting, and better integration. 
She also pointed to models such as superdistribution, an umbrella 
buzzword that covers a few different things: smart downloading and 
billing, as well as DRM forward lock. (That's when you own the full 
copy of an application or game, but can beam a demo or trial version to 
a friend).

Nokia also wants to get the word out that development makes money. 
Nokia has an intriguing distribution vehicle in Asia in the form of 
kiosks: distribution points similar to theWide Ray familiar to many 
tech conference attendees - and an idea which we've noted before, has a 
lot of potential. Nokia's kiosks allow phone users to drop in coins, 
and receive software by Bluetooth or Infra Red. Epting cited the Puzzle 
Bubble game, which has sold 22,000 out of 240,000 from kiosks. Even in 
its early stages, Series 60 has spawned an impressive amount of 
software. Nokia says six figure sakes are not uncommon, although 
developers earn more for premium Series 60 smartphone applications than 
for cheaper Java games. For example, MobiMate sells 15,000 of its 
WorldMate a week - at $25 a pop - across three OSes including UIQ and 
Series 60.

That's a tidy sum. ®