Other runtimes
m
m is a scripting language designed specifically for small, portable devices. The m Runtime Environment, mShell, is a Symbian application with a virtual machine that takes care of pre-emptive multitasking, garbage collection etc; all m scripts run from within that application. The system includes tutorials, reference code and an extensive set of libraries.
mShell was written by infowing and can be downloaded from the m-shell web site, which also contains example scripts and programs.
.NET
Microsoft provides the .NET Compact Framework for devices running their Windows Mobile operating system. Red Five Labs has created an implementation of the Compact Framework for Symbian OS smartphones and the Red Five team is presently finalizing the v1 release of their product. Full details of how to install the framework and deploy an application are given in the quick start guide.
OPL
OPL began life on the Psion Organiser device in 1984, and is an extensible, BASIC-like interpreted language purpose-built for Symbian OS. It is freely downloadable from the open source opl-dev project, but is not available for Symbian OS v9. The best source of information for OPL is the book, Rapid Mobile Enterprise Development for Symbian OS.
Perl
Perl has become a popular scripting language, particularly on the PC and in web environments. The base programming language, compatible with Perl 5.9 has been ported to Symbian OS and is freely downloadable - this version is not available for Symbian OS v9.
Ruby
Ruby is a programming language that, in the last few years, has gained much popularity. See Symbian's Ruby Page for an implementation of Ruby 1.9 from Symbian Research (released October 2008), as well as an earlier Ruby 1.8 implementation.