Will app developed for Symbian s60 3rd edition work on s60 5th edition phones?

Question

I don't know which SDK should i download from this page: http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/ec866fab-4b76-49f6-b5a5-af0631419e9c/S60_All_in_One_SDKs.html

I want my simple app to work on as many phones as possible. Is it ok if i download "S60 3rd Edition SDK for Symbian OS, Feature Pack 2"? Will my app also work on s60 5th edition and others?

Answer 1

Will app developed for Symbian s60 3rd edition work on s60 5th edition phones? I want my simple app to work on as many phones as possible.

See binary compatibility report between S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition on ARM generated by the abi-compliance-checker tool for the detailed comparison of these platform versions.

See also Nokia Developer's Library] > S60 5th Edition C++ Developer's Library v2.1 > Designing applications for S60 5th Edition > Porting applications to S60 5th Edition > Binary compatibility:

Changes in header files and libraries affect the binary compatibility between S60 platform versions. This section describes the changes from the S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 to the S60 5th Edition and from the S60 5th Edition to the Nokia N97.

Answer 2

Applications built on 3rd Edition SDK are binary compatible with 5th Edition. But you won't be able to take full advantage of 5th Edition features such as touch input.

On the other hand, applications built with a 5th Edition SDK can possibly be run on a 3rd Edition device, provided that you only use platform features that are available there.

To get the best out of both touch and non-touch UIs, you could build two versions of your application from the same source tree, with appropriate flagging, and distribute separate installation packages for each edition.

Answer 3

AFAIK S60 3rd has no compatibility with S60 5th. In fact when you look for Symbian software it accurately asks you what version do you own about that matter.