Symbian OS C++ for Mobile Phones: vol 3 (Symbian Press): v. 3
Customer Review: Book fully updated for Symbian OS v9, with some new content
Amazon are still showing reviews for previous volumes of the book, but this new version has been fully updated for Symbian OS v9.

Some of the chapters have had basic updates (for example, the first chapter now uses Nokia’s free Carbide.c++ rather than CodeWarrior), other chapters have been completely rewritten (such as the chapter on Descriptors) and some chapters are completely new (the chapters on Debugging & Emulator and on the new Symbian SQL implementation).

We’ve also re-ordered the chapters, so that they progress from the basics of Symbian OS itself, through the core concepts to the UI, finally looking at some of the most useful system services. The book also uses newly revised and simplified example code.

The book is now ideal for those developers who know C++ but want to learn about and work with Symbian OS v9. It took us well over a year to produce, and we hope readers will find it a worthy companion to the two previous volumes, and to other Symbian Press books.

Mark Shackman

Lead Author for “Symbian OS C++ for Mobile Phones: vol 3″

Customer Review: Detailed but dull writing style
There is a huge amount of information in the book - all the details about creating and using resources, different naming conventions, why you should implement things using Symbian’s way of doing things, rather than the standard C++ ways (sometimes because it’s just not supported, sometimes because of memory restrictions).

There are bits of sample code, but the explanation is very much geared towards someone who is most likely from a Microsoft MFC background, and certainly towards experienced C++ programmers. As someone who can write C++ code, but more often works with VB, .NET or another higher-level language, the explanations are verbose to the point of tediousness. At the point of getting halfway through the book you still probably wouldn’t feel comfortable trying to start writing your own Symbian UIQ programs.

There is lots of genuinely useful information, so I guess the problem is in the approach - it explains a lot about the Symbian platform, then explains the minutae of how to approach Symbian differently to desktop platforms, then moves back towards how to code for it, rather than starting with a good example, explaining the major aspects, then delving the depths, the details, and the reasons behind things.

If you’re wanting to learn about the Symbian platform, its origins, its limitations, its memory management, the mind-set that you should approach it with, and then, finally, how to code for it, then this book will help you with that… otherwise, it’s good bed-time reading to help you sleep at night.

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