Qt for Symbian VS. Qt for MeeGo

Question

What is the difference between Qt for Symbian and Qt for MeeGo? I know Qt is a cross-compiling platform. Does this mean that if I use a library from Qt the exact same library works on all devices which support Qt (e.g. Symbian, MeeGo)?

For example:

QtDesktopServices can launch a web browser. Despite the name 'Desktop' is confusing for mobile devices can I launch a web browser on every device which supports Qt? If I look at MeeGo, MeeGo is used for different kind of devices e.g. In-Vehicle, TV, media phone

Is it guaranteed that every device has a web browser on it? I don't think so and that's why I'm asking. If a browser is guaranteed, which browser is it? Which features does it have? I know there is WRT, but a user here stated that WRT has discontinued. So what now?

Do I have to choose between Qt 4.7 and Qt Mobility 1.0?

Answer 1

What leinir said - Qt Mobility is a module that implements common features for mobile devices. Qt's API is the same on all platforms, though there are some platform-specific functions (mainly dealing with low-level stuff).

While the API (the interface) is the same, the implementation of course may be different. I suggest looking at the Qt online documentation - the pages linked under "Platform-specific Development"

According to "Platform notes - Symbian", the Symbian port is not complete and lacks some features (e.g. OpenGL support is "planned for a future release", while printing probably never will be supported). I'm pretty sure that the MeeGo/Maemo version supports OpenGL ES, as I've seen a Qt-based application using it (Stellarium on a Nokia N900).

Answer 2

QtMobility is an extra module for Qt, which provides a bunch of extra functionality which is more esoteric than the other 13 or so Qt modules, but functionality which is really useful when you are building applications the way you suggest.

So no, you don't choose between Qt 4.7 and QtMobility 1.0, because you have to use Qt to be able to use the extra module QtMobility :)

The browser will always be whatever is set up as the default browser on the system. So, no, there is no guarantees - for Windows, for example, you might have people using Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer 6 and many others. This is the nature of platform integration, i'm afraid :)