Wirelesss Technology on Ulitzer
Recursion Software is about to say that it’s ported its high-performance C++ Toolkit to five of the most popular mobile operating systems so programmers can finally write a single app that can run on any phone using those systems with virtually no modifications.
The Symbian release is available now, with iPhone, Android, Windows and Linux support planned for release this winter.
The package includes all the source code and carries no runtime fees.
Recursion’s Symbian kit is available until November 13 for a promotional price of $1,999, including a year of maintenance and support, a 25% discount off the regular price.
Versions of the company’s C++ Toolkit have been used for application development by enterprises and government agencies for years on a wide range of hardware platforms including numerous embedded systems, Windows PCs and servers running Unix, Solaris, Linux and Windows. Recursion claims its code has been compiled over a million times on those systems.
The cross-platform mobile toolkit includes numerous code libraries and templates, plus some 500 program examples, all of which make it easier for C++ programmers to create high-performance apps for communications, collaboration, data collection, media streaming and gaming, the stuff that requires sophisticated computing and information-handling functions, fast program speeds or small program sizes.
The toolkit includes optimized versions of the C++ Standard and Extended Template (STL/ETL) and Math libraries for common programming functions, plus Recursion’s Foundations and Communications libraries for more advanced functions.
Foundations includes Helper, Time and Threading class libraries that aid in developing complex multi-threaded applications by reducing the number of functions programmers must write from scratch.
The Helper library provides non-intrusive generic extensions to the STL, like regular expressions algorithms, helper functions and sub-string support.
The Time library provides a set of 64-bit time and date classes for date, time period, time zone, stop watch and other time-related program functions.
Threading enables advanced cross-platform synchronization, including support for semaphores, barriers and monitors.
Threading also allows developers to write applications for the target phone device and redirect input and output from their application to other computer systems, i.e., Windows/Linux, making applications debugging and testing mobile apps much easier.
The Communications toolkit consists of multiple advanced class libraries: streaming provides for high-performance cross-platform and cross-device object serialization for persistence and object mobility; network adds object-oriented classes for socket programming and I/O multiplexing; pipe provides named pipes support; file enables platform-independent manipulation of files, paths, directories and record locks; security allows the manipulation of users/groups; input/output adapters and interfaces support sockets, pipes, files and I/O streams; and the framework library includes the Singleton and Observer design patterns to restrict object instantiation and enable distributed event handling, respectively.
These design patterns can be applied to any class and let developers build apps that are more flexible and require less maintenance.
The company reckons it has bottled lightning with an offering that is years ahead of the competition, protected by dozens of patents, and has a potential market of hundreds of millions of phones. But, just to hedge its bet, the company has also retained marketing magician Tim Negris, ex of Oracle and IBM and well-known for his technology evangelism skills, to help get the word out.
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