Developing a software application for N900 today

[sramp]

Hello,
I'm a software developer and I had previous experience with mobile devices like Newton, Palm and iPhone.
I am committed to make an application for a customer that requires the use of a smartphone and a multitasking operating system.
After having carefully examined the hardware specifications and knowing Qt, I decided to buy two Nokia N900 and start to develop on this platform.
Unfortunately, I encountered several difficulties in setting up the development system (Scratchbox first, then Madde) without being able to start developing the application.
After the release of the new Qt SDK beta I finally understand that it is (will be) available a development environment easy to use and able to produce Symbian and Maemo/Meego applications from a single source.
But I also understand that I must wait for the release of pr1.2 to test my application on the N900 and finally to deliver the application to my client.
So keeping in mind that I'm already very late with my client, my questions for the forum are :
-What tools could I use today to create a Qt 4.6 (qt mobility) application and install it on the Nokia N900 ? Is it possible ?
-Is it possible, under NDA, to have access to pre-release versions of the operating system / firmware in order to continue my development in an easier manner? Is there a specific developer program where I can register ( as Apple, Palm, RIM ) ?

Please excuse me if the questions are too naive, but I am really new to Maemo and Nokia. I've tried to follow the Maemo forums, but I'm pretty confused.
N900 is a very interesting tablet, but I'm going to switch to other platform if I'm not able to be productive in few days.
I'd really appreciate if somebody could point me in the right direction.
Thanks
Stefano

[divanov]

-What tools could I use today to create a Qt 4.6 (qt mobility) application and install it on the Nokia N900 ? Is it possible?

Yes, it's possible. You can use scratchbox 1, which is the best way for Linux experienced developers,
http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/...K_Installation
MADDE for pure Qt development on Windows
http://wiki.maemo.org/MADDE
or Nokia Qt SDK, which is based on MADDE
http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.n...ia_Qt_SDK.html
As a last resort you can develop your Qt application for desktop and then port it to Maemo. This way may be the best for beginners, as you can learn Qt and Maemo separately in two steps.
Testing could be performed in scratchbox i386 target or you can install Qt 4.6.2 and Qt Mobility libraries on your N900 manually
http://repository.maemo.org/pool/fre...ree/q/qt4-x11/
http://repository.maemo.org/extras-d...q/qt-mobility/
Note, that these are not the latest versions.

-Is it possible, under NDA, to have access to pre-release versions of the operating system / firmware in order to continue my development in an easier manner?

Sure.

Is there a specific developer program where I can register ( as Apple, Palm, RIM ) ?

You can start with Forum Nokia Launchpad program
http://www.forum.nokia.com/Premium_S...aunchpad.xhtml