Saturday, September 30, 2006

When Magic The Gathering met Python S60



What does Magic The Gathering (the card game) and Python in common? Just my first python project for my Nokia 6600. During the last year I've been playing Magic The Gathering with some friends. In this game you fight with spells and creatures represented by the cards against your opponent. You start with some life points and you loose the game when your life points decrease to 0. So you need a way to keep the state of your life points. Usually you use some kind of tokens such us, coins, little stones, etc... What about using a python program to keep this points and easly add or substract life points using the cellular arrows? That's how MtgLife was born.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Python & Symbian 60. First Steps



After fighting against java and the C++ Symbian SDK to be able to tweak your cellular, finally Python arrives to the rescue. Since I knew Nokia had finished his Python porting for Symbian 60 SO, I´ve been trying to get some spare time write python scripts for my Nokia 6600. And this summer all happened.


First steps were to get information, information is power, and here below is what I gathered:
  • Python Interpreter for Symbian60
  • You need to get registered at Nokia Developers Homepage
  • Then get in the Python for S60 and download the SDK for your cellular (for Nokia 6600 download this file
  • PythonForSeries60_for_2ndEd_fp3_SIS.zip)
Python for Symbian60 documentation
Within PythonForSeries60_for_2ndEd_fp3_SIS.zip you can find 3 interesting PDFs. Read'm all and keep API_Reference_for_Python.pdf. near your desk before you can start playing.

Code samples

  • Jurgen homepage. I don't like this guy, I don't like his photo, but I have to accept that he gives nice code snippets to start with Python. Little code examples with a clear objective that helps you understand the API.
  • After understanding almost all the examples at Jurgen homepage you can try this. More complex examples but very useful.
  • More code examples from several spanish programmers.
  • If you have a bluetooth GPS, then you will like this web.
Tools
  • You will find, EasyEdit, a free text editor very useful to fix little bugs in your Python scripts or even to code from your cellular.
  • YEdit is another text editor alternative.

No need of Python language documentation, because as Neo would say, "I know Python".