Product Description

This book explains the key features of Symbian OS and will help you to write effective C++ code. It focuses on aspects of good C++ style that apply particularly to Symbian OS. 21 items are used to target particular aspects of the operating system and provide a simple and straightforward exploration of coding fundamentals. Using example code and descriptions of best practice to deconstruct Symbian OS, the items guide you to what you should and should not do (and why), pointing out commonly-made mistakes along the way. Technologies covered include: * client-server architecture * descriptors and dynamic containers * active objects, threads and processes * leaves, cleanup stack and 2-phase construction * thin templates, good API design, memory optimization, debug and test macros * the ECOM plug-in framework Symbian OS Explained can be read cover-to-cover or dipped into as a reference that will improve your code style when programming with Symbian OS.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #314788 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 392 pages

Synopsis
This book explains the key features of Symbian OS and will help you to write effective C++ code. It focuses on aspects of good C++ style that apply particularly to Symbian OS. 21 items are used to target particular aspects of the operating system and provide a simple and straightforward exploration of coding fundamentals. Using example code and descriptions of best practice to deconstruct Symbian OS, the items guide you to what you should and should not do (and why), pointing out commonly-made mistakes along the way. Technologies covered include: * client-server architecture * descriptors and dynamic containers * active objects, threads and processes * leaves, cleanup stack and 2-phase construction * thin templates, good API design, memory optimization, debug and test macros * the ECOM plug-in framework Symbian OS Explained can be read cover-to-cover or dipped into as a reference that will improve your code style when programming with Symbian OS.

From the Back Cover
This book covers the fundamental aspects of C++ on Symbian OS, using simple and straightforward explanations to help you write effective code for Symbian OS smartphones.

Key technologies covered include:

• client–server architecture
• descriptors and dynamic containers
• active objects, threads and processes
• leaves, cleanup stack and 2–phase construction
• thin templates, good API design, memory optimization, debug and test macros
• the ECOM plug–in framework

Using example code and descriptions of best practice to deconstruct Symbian OS, each section guides you to what you should and should not do, giving cleasr explanations and pointing out commonly–made mistakes along the way.

Symbian OS Explained can be read cover–to–cover or dipped into as a reference that will improve your code style when programming with Symbian OS.

Source code is available from www.symbian.com/books

Symbian OS Explained is part of the Symbian Press series. Written by Symbian OS software engineers, titles in the series are replete with expert knowledge that will allow the reader to develop better software, faster.

About the Author
Jo Stichbury was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where she held the Stothert Bye-Fellowship. She has an MA in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) and a PhD in the chemistry of organometallic Molybdenum complexes. After a brief spell in postdoctoral research at Imperial College, she joined Psion Software in 1997, when Symbian OS was still known fondly as EPOC32. She has worked with the operating system ever since, within the Vase, Connectivity and Security teams of Symbian, and also for Advansys, Sony Ericsson and Nokia. As the contents of this book will reveal, Jo has a somewhat unhealthy interest in the Clangers and Greek mythology. She currently lives in Vancouver with her partner and two cats.

Customer Reviews

The first one to explain
I have read quite a few Symbian books. Jo's book is the first one to tell how things really work. It goes deep enough to give the reader an idea of how everything works but still avoids too much details.

There are so many details to Symbian programming. The details can only be kept in mind once you know the system as a whole. In order to get a holistic view of the OS this book is a must.

Jo's book is easy to read. Unlike many other IT books Jo's book is well written. She sure has paid attention to how things should be expressed.

The book is excellent. It can be recommended to anyone programming with native Symbian APIs or to anyone that needs to get an overview of how the OS works in general.

Great for what you really need to know when doing the hands on nitty gritty of Symbian OS development
I've read much of Tasker's Professional Symbian Programming, have had a good look at volume 1 of Harrison's rewrite of it and have flicked through several others.

I personally found Explained much easier to read and learned lots of useful programming advice as well as the theory I got from the other two books. Other books are useful for covering what you need to understand about the OS, this book covered lots of useful things to know to make developing for it easier and quicker.

Stichbury's book adopts a style that allows the book to talk in much more concrete terms about how to really think about and what to think about when designing and developing with Symbian OS.

A joy to read. Enjoyable to read so you want to keep reading, concise, insightful and very informative and the real issues one needs to be aware of.

Symbian OS C++ from the trenches
This book is going to be your only friend when everything else won't do - during that long coding session or while trying to really appreciate Symbian OS C++.

I've been coding for and inside EPOC and Symbian OS for the best part of a decade and still found this book useful. Jo Stichbury is one of those people who've been there, done that and actually did manage to write a book about it. We're lucky she did so, because as the book demonstrates, she is one of the few people (like Harrison) that know and can explain Symbian OS C++ so well.

I reviewed part of this book, while still in the making and did take notes. She has managed to distill so much good and relevant info in this book, that deserves a place in all Symbian OS C++ developers book collection.

If you do Symbian OS C++ and don't need this book, then you either know and can remember more than I do, or you need to be getting your hands on it pretty quickly ;-)