This new book, first in the Academy series, is the official guide to the ASD exam, priming candidates for the exam, explaining exactly what they need to know.
The Primer explains the knowledge tested in the Accredited Symbian Developer exam, identifying and explaining the topics examined. Each of the exam's objectives is succinctly described, with the appropriate concepts explained in detail. Both standard C++ and topics specific to Symbian C++, such as Symbian Types and Declarations, Platform Secuirty, and Cleanup Stack, are covered.
The authors are experts in the field of Symbian C++ and contributed extensively to the design and creation of questions for the ASD exam. Jo Stichbury is the author of Symbian OS Explained and both authors are, of course, fully qualified Accredited Symbian Developers.
The Accredited Symbian Developer (ASD) Examination is fundamentally based on the content of existing Symbian Press books, with the C++ curriculum deriving from general C++ literature. Arguably, if you own the core Symbian Press titles and a solid C++ reference book, you will have all the information you require to get through the exam. So why do you need an ASD Primer?
The problem is that there is a lot to know! Although the exam objectives are published, it can still be unclear what is really relevant and what is not.
To address this, the Primer is a pragmatic restructuring of a number of existing Symbian Press titles, primarily Jo’s Symbian OS Explained: Effective C++ Programming for Smartphones. It also borrows from Richard Harrison’s Symbian OS C++ for Mobile Phones, Volume 2 and Steve Babin’s Developing Software for Symbian OS. Where necessary, material from those books has been updated to meet the needs of an audience working with Symbian OS v9.1 and beyond. To do this, we took guidance on Platform Security and EKA2 from Craig Heath’s Symbian OS Platform Security and Jane Sales’ Symbian OS Internals, respectively.
We have organized the information in such a way that the reader can dip in and out of sections to refresh their knowledge and understanding of the fundamental concepts of Symbian software development. In this sense, the Primer can also serve as a desk reference for both Symbian OS programming and, more modestly, C++, as well as a revision guide for ASD exam candidates.
