While there isn't any outward indication on the Symbian website, anyone downloading the OPL runtime for their Nokia Communicator will download the first full version (version 1.0) of the runtime. After extensive testing by Symbian (both in-house and by external developers), OPL has been updated and is now badged as version 1.0 Good news indeed. We've got more comments available behind the headline.

OPL version 1.0 is a big step for Symbian, even though it hasn't yet been fully announced over their site (surely this will be coming up in the near future?). Many regular users have been wary so far of installing OPL as it has had a beta / pre-release tag on it. This has now been removed, and having a version 1.0 available should mean more people can install the runtime and be able to run more applications from Hobby Developers.

Applications such as ABP and Clock6 from FreEPOC, RMRBank, RMR Art and more from RMRSoft can now be used with confidence. The slew of hobby developers (like our own Dazler) can now program away, knowing that Symbian has been paying attention to user requests.

It now remains for the community to stand up and show that OPL is somehting that we want to use - All About Symbain is helping with our Tutorials and Developer Competition and FreEPOC have a skeleton Event Core to help you get started.

And if we can get enough applications out there, perhaps Symbian may consider the other OPL request that keeps popping up in the Forums. That of OPL support on the Nokia 7650 (and other Series 60) smartphones....