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<concept id="GUID-F6B9860A-E7F2-5B03-878D-9BCA0AF029C2" xml:lang="en"><title>Quick

Start</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>Generic OS Services is a collection of components and libraries that provide

generic OS level services to the Symbian platform components and applications. </p>

<section id="GUID-2705CC8F-AE74-4627-8A07-1FE48F187EE6"><title>Getting started with Generic OS Services</title> <p>The following

list briefly describes how device creators or Symbian Developers can use the

APIs of the components and libraries provided by Generic OS Services: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-E5E9B035-EA72-5931-9295-6601A5A202CA"><p>Use the Plug-In Framework

(ECom) APIs to register, discover plug-ins and load appropriate plug-ins. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-2C3836C2-5F9B-5E5B-95A8-725325956AFF"><p>Use the P.I.P.S. libraries

(<codeph>libc</codeph>, <codeph>libm</codeph>, <codeph>libpthread</codeph> and <codeph>libdl</codeph>)

to port POSIX-based applications to the Symbian platform. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-195FD344-AF6B-517A-869C-99A816FE45CB"><p>Use the Standard C++

libraries to develop or port Standard C++ applications or libraries to the

Symbian platform. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-71C8DD3C-9989-5EB0-AC01-BACACB0BB683"><p>Use the <xref href="http://refspecs.freestandards.org/LSB_3.1.0/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/librt.html" scope="external">Librt</xref> library APIs to port Librt-based applications

onto the Symbian platform quickly and easily. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-83754BD8-F2AA-55FC-999F-BF46BDD1CA61"><p>Use the EUser High Level

(EUserHL) library to do better string handling, resource management, and error

handling and object creation along the lines of standard C++ practices. EUserHL

library provides a usability layer to hide away some of the complexities of

the Symbian platform. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-6BEBEC4E-71F5-56F0-A731-DD498446B6BB"><p>Use the Zip Compression

Library APIs to perform file and stream compression and decompression. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-D62D3C16-0C6A-5569-BCD7-546EBF687282"><p>Use the task scheduler

APIs to develop applications with scheduling options and capabilities. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-26FD6D1B-5F7C-5C4B-8474-B5B7D4BB7D0F"><p>Use the Active Backup

Client APIs to create backup and restore software with complete control of

the data backed up and restored. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-D9B2CA30-9AA0-529C-B531-5B511BD05B7C"><p>Use the HTTP Utilities

library APIs to extract URI components, construct and modify Uniform Resource

Indicators (URIs), text utilities, and URI component utilities required to

work with URIs. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-4FC76033-12BC-5D76-AD3F-D4825E3D6C1B"><p>Use the MIME (Multipurpose

Internet Mail Extension) Recognition Framework APIs to implement data type

recognition using MIME recognizer plug-ins. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-22816C73-E2CC-57FD-BB18-8A3DA071F95B"><p>Use the Basic Application

Framework Utilities library (BAFL) to in turn use utilities, such as clipboard,

command-line parser, descriptor array, environment change notifier, incremental

matcher, resource files, localized names of plug-ins, system sounds and string

pools. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-B4CB6CF9-8022-55A8-9642-2F79306C6653"><p>Use the Base Services

Utility library (BSUL) to validate messages and handle errors. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-F239EF07-F3DC-5C23-8A21-44CDFE798322"><p>Use the Activity Manager

library to enable clients to monitor user inactivity (idle time) and user

activity (key press). </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-FFF66809-C883-570C-A741-9182280B2F7C"><p>Use the System Utility

library to perform the following tasks: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-62F47958-AFEF-5D09-BF39-88676E8E889B"><p>Retrieve software and

language package version strings for display purposes. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-B3726DF9-7108-5C0A-A713-2B0BAA36051A"><p>Check for free space

on a disk drive before file creation or writing. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-F47C051F-921C-5B72-8498-0D4AB4FB295F"><p>Get device type information

(phone model) for display purposes. </p> </li>

</ul> </li>

</ul> </section>

<section id="GUID-403DCD77-1F14-4E82-85DE-98419E629A47"><title>Architecture</title> <p>The Generic OS Services module is

a group of non-related components and libraries that provide OS level services

to other components of the Symbian platform. The components and libraries

in Generic OS Services are grouped into the following collections: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-D831C8AB-D3AF-57EB-81CF-E4EF1E57CBED"><p><xref href="GUID-9208E03A-CC7A-57A9-84BD-778B99040842.dita"> Compression

Libraries</xref>  </p> </li>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-E2DE2C6F-E071-5E88-96F1-D71DDED84609.dita">Generic Open

Libraries</xref></p></li>

<li id="GUID-5F25107F-DF98-5DB1-9D4A-B8A7B68B2919"><p><xref href="GUID-94215E49-605B-51BA-B215-10BDA1A0C013.dita">Generic

Services</xref>  </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-FE8F4625-0D24-5113-A72F-B9E70801284F"><p><xref href="GUID-324107D1-6E0B-56DD-BDC0-7296F688A9CF.dita"> Low

Level Libraries and Frameworks</xref>  </p> </li>

</ul> <p>The following diagram outlines the Generic OS Services collections

and components associated with each collection: </p> <fig id="GUID-3DCD7AF8-7355-5752-A569-EA4F9078C739">

<title>              Collections and components of Generic OS Services   

        </title>

<image href="GUID-AD95D78A-9323-5E97-96C4-FB4872B66755_d0e144346_href.png" placement="inline"/>

</fig> </section>

<section id="GUID-842B935E-D653-4EFD-9BB7-2E819BBE17DF"><title>Technologies</title> <p>Generic OS services enables, implements

or uses the following technologies: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-66896EAF-09A0-5EBB-A496-106F94A924EA"><p> <b>zlib:</b> The <xref href="GUID-5D14ADEC-ED83-5FA4-B551-C57CAE4F79BE.dita">Zip Compression Library</xref> (EZLib)

provides C++ wrapper classes that encapsulate the functionality of the Open

Source <xref href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zlib" scope="external">zlib</xref> library

v1.2.3. It provides stream and file compression and decompression functionalities. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-EF1DE4A8-CBE1-5DD3-9D89-E2EAC1CC1B29"><p> <b> Standard C++:</b> A

Standard C++ environment with IOStream and STL (Standard Template Library)

libraries enables you to develop or port Standard C++ applications or libraries

quickly and easily onto the Symbian platform. For more information, see the <xref href="GUID-4492D5C1-C64E-5561-8A3F-8D887603B6FB.dita"> Standard C++ Porting Tutorials</xref> section. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-95F58286-C65B-5EC3-A432-1C3C5CA02269"><p> <b>P.I.P.S. Is POSIX

on Symbian Platform (P.I.P.S.):</b> P.I.P.S. provides an API layer, above

the Symbian platform native APIs, that is more closely aligned with industry

standard APIs making Symbian software development more accessible to Symbian

Developers who program using the C language. Symbian Developers can use the

P.I.P.S. libraries (<codeph>libc</codeph>, <codeph>libm</codeph>, <codeph>libpthread</codeph> and <codeph>libdl</codeph>)

to port POSIX-based applications to the Symbian platform. For more information,

see the <xref href="GUID-C4C85189-BA6F-5F11-ABB3-727D8C1F5984.dita">P.I.P.S. Porting

Tutorials</xref> section. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-571DD883-A5A6-5A89-9092-47279A521685"><p> <b> POSIX.1b, Real-time

extensions:</b> The Librt library enables support for POSIX.1b, Real-time

extensions on the Symbian platform and is based on the Linux Standard Base

(LSB) 3.1 specification. It covers features such as shared memory, clocks

and real time emulation for timers. Support for the Librt library on the Symbian

platform enables you to port Librt-based applications onto the Symbian platform

quickly and easily. For more information, see the <xref href="GUID-6565B222-4036-5C3D-8319-4CDDA3F2098D.dita">Librt</xref> section </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-CBF47924-085E-5546-92D8-D9269072B816"><p> <b>MIME (Multipurpose

Internet Mail Extension):</b> MIME is an internet standard system

for identifying the type of data in a file or stream. Types can include graphics,

photos, audio, video files and formatted text. MIME type recognition enables

devices to identify data in streams or files and start appropriate applications

automatically. </p> <p>This technology is implemented by the MIME recognition

framework component. The MIME recognition framework implements data recognition

using MIME recogniser plug-ins. For more information, see the <xref href="GUID-F18D0E06-2FB8-5339-AF31-02CC7D5A8010.dita">MIME

Recognition Framework</xref> section. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-51BFDE39-44E7-51E6-82BC-2F45738A0ADD"><p> <b>ECom Plug-in:</b> The

Plug-in (ECom) framework is a generic framework that enables registration

and discovery of plug-ins, and the loading of an appropriate plug-in. The

Plug-In framework is intended to provide a common and system-wide mechanism

for instantiating a dynamically determined component. For more information,

see the <xref href="GUID-9E92EE30-F2E2-5F28-BB2A-391C09EC69D2.dita">Plug-in Framework</xref> section. </p> </li>

</ul> </section>