Release Notes

These release notes provide detailed information about the Developer Library v6.1 release including new features, as well as known issues, defects and omissions at publication time (Q2, 2002).

This C++ edition of the Developer Library updates previous releases, and is intended to support all developers writing C++ programs for Symbian OS v6.1. It documents the APIs and technologies common to all Symbian OS phones based on v6.1, including changes from v6.0.

Major new content introduced in this release includes:

• Reference documentation for APIs introduced in v6.1 (Audio Streaming, Bluetooth, Calendar Conversion, Localised Names of Plug-ins).

• Reference and overview documentation for the following previously undocumented APIs which existed before v6.1: Application Architecture Framework, Application Architecture Services, Application Utilities, Array Keys, B-Trees, Clock, Incremental Matcher, Media Server Common Classes, Message Window, Messaging Architecture, Open Font System, Panic Categories and Numbers, Persistent Paged Sets, Print Preview, Printing, Recognizers, Reference Counting Objects, System Sounds. Reference documentation only is provided for: Encrypted Streams and Stores, Memory Streams, Stream Buffers, Support for Implementing Stream Stores, UI Graphics Utilities and Uikon Resources.

• New guide documentation for the following APIs: DBMS, Reference Counting Objects, Array Keys, Lexical Analysis, Handles, Dynamically Loading Link Libraries, Bluetooth.

• Updated tools documentation to describe the new help compiler GUI, application development wizard (MEAD), menu builder, SIS file creator (Sisar), messaging tools (mtmgen), character set converter (charconv), and on-target debugging using GDB.

Major new content introduced in v6.0 Developer Library editions included:

• Reference documentation for new v6.0 APIs, including Character Conversion Plug-In Provider, Front End Processors, Global Find, Media Server (Audio Sample Player, Audio Sample Editor, Audio Tone Player, Image Converter), Log Engine, System Agent, View Architecture and InfraRed Transfer Picture Protocol, WAP Stack. The coverage of UIKON Core and UIKON Core Controls APIs is now complete.

• Reference documentation for previously undocumented APIs, including Application Engines (Agenda and Contacts), Application Services (Alarm and World Servers and Versit), Bitmaps, Character Conversion, Embedding, File Stores, Font and Bitmap Server, Fonts, Graphics, Telephony, and Window Server. The Character Conversion API has been updated to v6.0.

• New guide documentation for the following APIs: Character Conversion, Clipboard, CommDB, Contacts Model, Critical Sections, Embedding, File Server Client Side, File Stores, Interface to Resource Files, Maths, Memory Allocation, Messaging, Mutexes, NifMan, Notification Services, Print Framework, Printing, Semaphores, Serial Comms, Singly and Doubly Linked Lists, Socket Server Protocols, Stores, Store Streams, Streaming, TCP/IP, Threads and Processes, UI Control Framework, Versit.

• Thumbnail overview for every documented API.

• Documentation for the new build toolchain and development platform.

The Developer Library was significantly restructured for v6.0, with many minor changes made to improve clarity, accuracy, and usability.

The following APIs, listed by subsystem, are public and intended for use by developers but are currently not documented in the API Reference. Full details are provided in the topic Omitted APIs.

Chart.

Task Scheduler.

Fax Client MTM, IMAP4 Client MTM, SMS Client MTM, SMTP Client MTM.

Plug In File Systems

The following issues affect the content of the Developer Library 6.1 edition at publication date, Q2 2002:

Example code referred to in the documentation may not be present on all SDKs. This includes the Hello World example described in Developer's Guide, Hands On, and the examples used in the Context Sensitive Help Guide and the Installation Guide, both located in the Tools and Utilities section. See Symbian's Developer Network website for example code downloads.

In some parts of the Developer Library, Symbian OS is referred to as EPOC. Also, Symbian OS versions may be referred to using terminology that is now deprecated. For instance, EPOC Release 5 or ER5 refers to Symbian OS v5. ER5U or ER5.1 both refer to Symbian OS v5.1.

The following tools, documented in the Tools And Utilities section may not be present on all SDKs: the command line CSHelp compiler, the CSHelp Compiler GUI, the Application Development Wizard (MEAD) and the Menu Builder.

The documentation of the font compiler, fnttran.exe is incorrect for Symbian OS v5.1 and onwards.

There are occurrences of the macro _L in code fragments in the documentation. This usage is now deprecated in all but a few exceptional cases, and should be replaced by the use of _LIT and explicit constants.