S60 Open to new features

I've found Python for S60 great for all sort of applications. At the moment we are currently field testing a pys60 application that enables medical field workers to interface with a 200,000 patient database out in remote Kenyan villages. We've got the phones connecting over GPRS and are using some of Python's standard XML parsing and editing modules. Besides the GPRS connectivity, I've found it critical to have access to the location module so we can verify (to some degree at least) the location where the field workers are collecting the data. We've got interest from World Bank representatives as well as the United Nations in Nairobi, and have had many organizations conducting similar field work contact us asking how they can start incorporating phones into their field work. These organizations seem to typically be looking to dump their PDA field data collection systems in favor of mobile phones. IMHO, Python provides a great way to port an existing system to a mobile phone platform and perhaps most importantly, offers functionality you just can't get on a standard $250 Palm Pilot - namely voice, data and location.

Besides health care applications in the developing world, I've found Python to be a fantastic teaching tool. Next week I'm headed to Ethiopia to teach an introduction to Mobile Phone Programming course which will essentially be a crash course in Python. Students, once given some simple API documentation, are almost immediately empowered to take advantage of a phone's full functionality - the students who have already dappled with Symbian enough to feel the pain and MIDP enough to know the limitations seem to get especially (and justifiably) excited. Again, the most popular applications typically take advantage of having full access to phone functionalities - this has enabled all sorts of really complex location-based / context aware apps that would be impossible to implement in languages such as MIDP and really painfully time-consuming in Symbian.

I hope Python is able to continue to stay as open and as easy to use as it has been with these N70s we are using here in Africa. In my mind, porting Python to Series 60 has been a real gift to both the academic and research communities around the world.

Thanks Nathan. I forwarded your comments to Kevin.

Having been mentioned by Kevin as proponent of Python in his original Blog I would re-iterate my comments there and offer supports to Nathan’s comments that Python is an invaluable tool in teaching (see my Blog the joys of teaching with python on the Forum Nokia website) and extremely useful in engaging students in mobile development.

I would further say that as someone who also develops commercially it is often invaluable in producing prototype alpha applications quickly that we can test ideas in the wild prior to producing a more stable beta version. I would be extremely disappointed if Python disappeared from S60 and we only have to look at the use of Python in more general computing to see that it deserves it place in the mobile arena.

opps. sorry about the repeated posts guys. I was connecting over the local Kenyan GPRS network and getting a lot of network time-outs. next time i'll wait to see if my comments show up once I've got a more reliable connection...

No worries, Nathan. I just removed the duplicate comments. The problem might have been also at this end - sometimes you have to force the browser refresh to see the new comments.