[BlackBerry-Python] Looking for examples and howto for Python/QML with Tart on BB10

[Peter Hansen]

On 2012-12-08 06:56, George Ruinelli wrote:
> To speed up development and testing, I am looking for a way to run my apps on
> the device without packing and deploying it.
> One way would be to copy them with secure copy (scp) to the devuser home
> directory and start it from there via SSH.
...
> One then simply could edit his Python/QML files on the PC, copy them over and
> start them over SSH.

I'm only 99% sure this isn't possible for any GUI app, because only apps 
launched through the Navigator will be granted the required permissions 
and/or given a screen context.  Without that, they can run so long as 
they just use non-GUI stuff (and probably don't interact with the user 
through keyboard etc either).

It's not necessarily a problem though. I actually do all my development 
"on the device" and probably achieve almost 100% of the benefits, and 
perhaps with some extra advantages thrown in too.

First off, you start with a "stub" program that is packaged with just 
the executable (tart-launch in this case), the icon, and the manifest 
file.  Pretty much a near-empty .bar file, which you deploy the usual 
way.  That gives you the app icon on the screen so you can tap it, 
though if you wanted programmatic control you could use the 
launch/terminate options of blackberry-deploy.

You grant the access_shared permission in the bar-descriptor file as 
well, and configure the executable so that it looks to a folder like 
shared/misc/ZombieSlayer for the rest of its code and assets.  This can 
be done through command line options, a configuration file, or other 
mechanisms as appropriate.  The tart-launch binary uses command line 
options and a tart.cfg file, though what's there is just hacked together 
and could stand some cleanup and rationalization.

To edit the other files, you can connect to the device's Samba network 
share, and edit directly over wifi if you like.  I used to do that, and 
still do, but rarely.  Several times I lost critical edits as a result, 
such as when my Dev Alpha froze just before Jam Americas and the only 
solution was a full wipe.

What I do now is use a utility that basically does an "rsync" from my PC 
working folder tree to the shared/misc/AppName folder.  It's actually a 
Python utility (if you knew me well you'd say "of course" :-) and for 
now uses the win32file.ReadDirectoryChangesW() routine which monitors 
the directory for changes.  It more or less instantly mirrors any 
updates from my PC to the Dev Alpha, so by the time I've hit Save on the 
PC and moved my finger over to the Dev Alpha to launch the app, the 
changes have already been transferred.

On the plus side, I can't lose edits any more... :-)

With some cleanup, this tool (mirrordir) could be made available to 
others... there are a few minor bugs which would make it a pain for 
beginners.

An alternative that might work well enough would be to edit over wifi, 
but have a background script running that did an rsync *back* to the PC, 
thus ensuring that you've always got an up-to-date copy of the latest 
changes preserved there. I sometimes find edit-over-wifi slightly 
sluggish myself so I didn't go that route.

-Peter