The S60 Platform SDKs for Symbian OS lets you develop and test applications written in C++ for S60 devices. For this purpose, the SDK provides a range of tools, APIs, libraries, documentation, examples, and a free GNU C Compiler Embedded (GCCE) compiler to build applications for mobile devices. You can view and test applications on an emulator provided with the SDKs.
The S60 platform comes in various versions with corresponding SDKs, see S60 Platform SDKs. During the analysis and design phase of your project you must choose the target devices best suited for your application and then choose the corresponding platforms. Different S60 mobile devices run different versions of the S60 platform. However, in many cases applications built with one S60 platform SDK will also work on devices based on other S60 platform versions. For information on which platform releases the target mobile devices are based on, see the Device Specification on Forum Nokia.
Note: Coding with C++ for S60 has some unique features compared to standard C++. For more information, see S60 Platform C++ Coding Conventions.
Determine which version of the S60 SDK you need, as follows:
Find out which S60 platform your target devices are based on. For example, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is based on S60 5th Edition and the Nokia E63 on S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1 (FP1). Devices based on a certain platform edition are compatible with the core software of that edition. Later platform versions may introduce new functionality as lead features (Feature Packs), but they are not allowed to introduce breaks or incompatibilities to the core software of that edition.
To develop an application for a certain mobile device, use the S60 SDK version which corresponds to the platform edition on the mobile device. For example, to develop an application for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, use the S60 5th Edition SDK. For more information on:
S60 platform editions of mobile devices, see the Device Specifications page.
S60 SDK versions, see the Tool Details (S60 Platform SDKs for Symbian OS) page.
Applications developed with a particular S60 SDK run on mobile devices that are based on the corresponding S60 platform version. Generally, they also run on more recent platform versions, because S60 aims to maintain backwards binary compatibility with older S60 platform versions. For example, if you have developed an S60 application with the 3rd Edition FP1 SDK, you can install it on a mobile device that runs the S60 3rd Edition FP1 platform version and, usually, also on devices that run the more recent S60 3rd Edition FP2 and S60 5th Edition platform versions. For more information on compatibility, see Porting guide for S60 5th Edition.
Note: S60 3rd Edition is not binary compatible with the S60 2nd Edition and earlier releases. For more information, see S60 platform evolution.
You can develop applications across multiple platform releases by using one base SDK. For example, Nokia recommends that you use the S60 3rd Edition Maintenance Release SDK (version 1.1) to develop applications for S60 3rd Edition FP1 and FP2 devices.