Mobile development barrier to entry

Question

I plan to create mobile applications in my free time and want to post them on the Internet so that someone can use them (and possibly open source). I worked with PyS60 a while ago, and I really liked it.

My problem is that I don’t want to spend money on these applications (I don’t plan to make money on them in any way), and for me to correctly distribute PyS60 applications, I seem to need to buy an expensive publisher license. then pay every time I want to sign the application. I know that I can just distribute the scripts, but this requires the end user to download the pys60 interpreter ...

I would be happy to look at other languages ​​/ platforms. IOS applications require a dev license, and to compile the code I need a Mac (which I don’t have, I am a Linux x86 user).

J2ME applications must be tested in Java to be in the OVI store. I suppose not if they spread in other ways?

Basically, I want to write applications that will work on my phone (N95), and if someone else sees this, I can say just get it from www.example.com/myapp and it will work. I would also be interested in using things like the OVI store as a way to distribute it. But I do not want to spend a lot of money.

Does anyone have experience or knowledge on this? Is J2ME my only option?

Answer 1

You can probably also install unsigned SIS files. Check the App Manager settings that the “Software Installation” option is “All,” not “Signed.”

To get signed SIS files, Open Signed Online , which allows you to download your SIS files for free, although with IMEI and some irrelevant platform security restrictions. If you adhere to the test UID range and do not plan to have a wide audience, you can specify your users there.

PyS60 runtime installation files are already signed and are best shipped separately anyway.

Answer 2

Using J2ME will also require you to pay for a subscription if your application uses "secure" APIs (for example, using a network). Another disadvantage of J2ME is that consumer phones support different sets of certificates depending on the operator’s security policies. See this article for more details.

I recommend sticking with PyS60 for your needs. This is a great development tool, but you will need to grasp the certification costs for distribution.