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 20070719 Thursday July 19, 2007

Unified, Smunified - Program Java ME widgets instead

Tom Yager's blog post makes the wrong assumption that applications should run exactly the same on a Java ME cell phone as they do on a desktop PC. Bzzzt! Wrong answer. Developers and content developers should be able to program and develop the same way on a cell phone and PC (like use the same NetBeans IDE) and use the same programming language, like Java technology. But, the same bits should not necessarily need to run on the two different types of devices.

Although in theory the Grand Unified Theory of apps running the same way on a phone as a PC as a TV, etc. has been around for years and sounds good on paper, in practice the reality is that the form factors (input devices, keyboards/keypads, screen res, etc.) are too different. For example, you do not run a Nintendo GameBoy DS game the same way as on the Nintendo Wii game console--two different paradigms, two different user experiences, therefore two different apps. The same bits should not run on the two different types of devices. A lot of people don't get that.

See:

Tom Yager's doesn't get the difference

Here's a quote:

 It's thrilling to imagine rich, 
 responsive, attractive client 
 applications that run identically 
 on desktops, notebooks, and 
 mobile devices, as well as over 
 remote connections. Java promised 
 us that. 
Java ME technology promises a small learning curve for programmers of small devices (if you know Java SE you know Java ME). And, the new concept of widgets (small integrated services that run in a minimal Java GUI, not full blown apps) applied with Java ME addresses running on desktops, notebooks, and mobile devices. Creating small chunks of Java code to be widgets, like a weather report widget, or a traffic report widget, or cheapest gas locater widget, will make the "write once, run anywhere" promise a reality on Java SE desktops/notebooks and Java ME cell phones and TV set-top boxes. The bits linking the different types of Java widgets together then becomes the only difference (such as, an app manager or a "browser"), but the widgets are where unification happens, not the browser.

[Java ME and J2ME] ( July 19, 2007 09:01 AM ) Permalink Comments [1]


Comments:

hi, Like to point you to this http://www.youtube.com/mobiko and have a look at all the rich applications built using J2ME... and let me know what you think... I think iPhone is a wake up call to Sun... it's the UI... user experience matters, without a sexy, high impact and easy-to-use UI, it does not matter what your application does. I have no doubt J2ME has been very successful for developing mobile games, but what about the other camp of developers, those that want to create software for business and other non-game types? LCDUI is clearly inadequate.

Posted by mika on July 21, 2007 at 03:51 AM PDT #

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