Perhaps the biggest improvement in Carbide.c++ v1.2 is nothing to do with the technology, it is in the licensing. Quite a number of developers we have spoken to expressed reservations about Carbide.c++ because the free Express Edition was available for non-commercial development only. In reality, as there was no practical way to detect commercial use of Express, Nokia probably turned a blind eye to it. However, particularly for developers who were or wanted to foster a closer relationship with Nokia, the risk of being seen breaking the licensing agreement meant they did not look at Carbide.c++ Express seriously.

Now there should be no such issues, every Symbian C++ developer can tool-up with Carbide.c++ Express Edition for their commercial software development. While Express may be a useful way to evaluate Carbide.c++ we can not see many commercial developers sticking with it, because of the benefits of the commercial versions of Carbide.c++.

While v1.2 is an improvement there is still something of a divide in the support for UIQ and S60 developers, with S60 developers winning out. While unsurprising, this is none the less disappointing.

This latest release should have started to redress the balance. Support was to be provided for UIQ in the TRK on-device debugger in Carbide.c++ Developer Edition. In addition, a UIQ version of Performance Investigator is documented in the help for Carbide.c++ Professional Edition. However, the TRK and Profiler for UIQ both appear to be missing from the current "final" download. Hopefully this is only a temporary problem, no doubt caused by signing requirements for the two applications.

However, there is no sign of UI Designer providing UIQ support.

These negatives aside, we have been "playing" around with Carbide.c++ for a few weeks and the improvements are significant. Project properties are now much easier to maintain. Direct access to the content of the build and makmake files offers greater compatibility with command line development. Compilation time is also improved.

On-device debug support remains robust and Performance Investigators has become much more functional. The addition of key stroke capture in Performance Investigator makes comparison of traces much more reliable. The ability to record battery (where a device has power management hardware) and memory usage means that all the significant aspects of performance can now be analyzed.

The other significant part of the v1.2 release is the OEM Edition. This version is designed for device manufacturers. This means that Carbide.c++ at last can fulfill the development tool role across the entire Symbian ecosystem.

Any Symbian C++ developer who has not assessed Carbide.c++, or was not impressed with the earlier versions, would be well advised to check out the latest version. It can be downloaded from Forum Nokia with an 8 day trial license key for the commercial versions. Once that license has expired, Developer Edition costs 299 Euro and Professional Edition 1299 Euro.

Read the release press here.