Future Directions
Just a day after Java ME SDK 3.0 release we decided to have the first meeting about features for next Java ME SDK version. It was a nice sunny day in Prague and we were sitting on the grass in front of our building to get fresh ideas on the fresh air. We put together long list of enhancements and new features but we would also like to know your opinion. Do you miss some feature? Do you think something should be improved? Share your mind with us, we will very appreciate it.
From left to right: Radko, Martin, Tomas, Ondra, Lubo, Igor and Pavel behind the photo camera.
Well, I would have had some input if only I could test it. But there is no version for Linux or Mac. I think this should be the top priority.
Posted by perja on April 27, 2009 at 11:58 AM CEST #
+1
Posted by jor on April 27, 2009 at 12:20 PM CEST #
It's good that Mac and Linux community is doing a lot of noise ;) Believe me we are seriously looking at requests for another platforms. Do we need to prove it? Look at previous version of WTK 2.5.2 (http://java.sun.com/products/sjwtoolkit/download.html) it has been ported to Linux and with Netbeans Mobility it is still No.1 for CLDC/MIDP development on Linux.
But back to Java ME SDK. Considering that right now we support cldc (MSA1.1), cdc and bd-j stacks and all have to be TCK compliant the amount of work for engineering and testers is significant. This has to be carefully considered in relation to a volume of users on particular platform. To my disappointment download data say that linux is only about 10% of users.
Posted by Tom on April 27, 2009 at 01:47 PM CEST #
Can you guys make a platform independent emulator? And platform dependent emulators for specific devices. That way you can have other OS-es supported, but real devices only on the manufacturer choice of development platform?
Posted by 12.30.196.14 on April 27, 2009 at 04:15 PM CEST #
It's really depressing that we linux and mac mobile developer are left behind. Again.
I mean, I could understand if we are talking about the Xmanufacturer SDK that only works in windows because they have no development culture, but this is Sun!
The JavaME 3.0 SDK Early access was published months ago, people kept begging for a linux version, for a platform independent emulator. Now the release is made, people still begging.
No answer.
Posted by hazam on April 27, 2009 at 07:51 PM CEST #
Hi guys,
I'd really appreciate it if you added support for JSR-82 development with the debuggable Windows Mobile CLDC VM.
Posted by Bruce Hopkins on April 27, 2009 at 10:06 PM CEST #
Hi,
I'll love to see:
- Inter-MIDlet communications.
- Support for more fonts specially custom fonts.
- Ability of detecting pixel level collision and pixel information(transparent ,opaque)..
- Ability of detecting simultaneous key presses.
- Standard keycode in canvas for general button and at least two softkeys.
- Multitouch support for pointerEvents/motionPointerEvents could be interesting.
- Possibility to retrive IMEI or phone number in a standard way to help us securing our MIDlet.
- A better math class, (atan, log, pow, round ecc... is required by default).
- Secure RMS stores.
- Shared libraries for MIDlets.
- We want MSA/MSA2 on all phone, JavaME has a lot of JSR but if the phone doesn't support it we can't use it.
- We need a GOOD JVM for Windows Mobile.
There are too many other things that I hope to in JavaME but now I need to go :)
see you soon...
PS: What do you think about Sun + Oracle? I'm quite warried...
Posted by sblantipodi on April 28, 2009 at 05:35 PM CEST #
Congratulation on the new release.
If there is one thing that I like to see is the elmination of using certificate authority to enable feature support in j2me phone. Using CA to enable File connection API, LocationGSP etc features should be eliminated or rework as CA is complicated to work with and dealing with CA support in phone is unweldly. It will be hard for j2me device to compete against the likes of iPhone and Android phone since these devices offers umlimited freedom over features without using CA. As long as the feature is present in the phone, it can be programmed and I prefer this approach over J2ME's CA and security approach. Fragmentation and compatibility is another big issue with J2Me application as I realize that J2SE application develop with s40 nokia phone does not work at all with s60 phone.
Posted by GeekyCoder on April 29, 2009 at 09:33 AM CEST #
" I realize that J2SE application develop with s40 nokia phone does not work at all with s60 phone."
Correction.
"I realize that J2SE application develop with s40 nokia phone may not work with s60 phone."
I have developed application with J2Me and it is quite frustrating that one need to test the app with each j2me phone. Windows Mobile platform seems to have lesser "compatibility" issue.
Posted by Geekycoder on April 29, 2009 at 11:14 AM CEST #
Would be nice if it were easier to run apps on devices that require digital signatures. Fetching a certificate from Verisign is both cumbersome, expensive and uninteresting if one intends to deploy a program internally within an organisation. The same applies to people creating hobby projects. Remember that programmers often start out with hobby projects when they learn or test a new platform. If deployment becomes to cumbersome, chances are they will lose courage rather than graduating to more advanced projects.
Posted by Josef on May 05, 2009 at 04:22 PM CEST #
Ok, I understand that focus on Windows is top priority and that we all would also like to have a Mac and a Linux version. I for one have a Vista box that I use for all my development, but a MacBook to take with me to wherever I'm going to test out new stuff people tell me about.
Why not post a comprehensive tutorial on how to use it in VIrtual Box on a Mac and on Linux?
That would buy you some time to get the real deal out.
And then for the feature requests:
- Easy way of integrating the NetBeans mobile libraries (SVG for example) in the SDK.
- Documentation on how to use the 'pro' features like profiler from within NetBeans.
- Dockable emulator. Why does the emulater not dock into the IDE? That would be very helpful, especially when using hot-deployment.
Iwan
Posted by Iwan on May 06, 2009 at 02:22 PM CEST #
Hello,
Here at my company we have been using WTK 2.5.2 for some time now, and I was excited when Java ME SDK 3.0 was released. But there is a critical feature for us that is missing: Memory Monitor!
The only reference I found to the Memory Monitor was on the Java Platform Manager -> J2ME -> Tools & Extensions. But everything is disabled. As for the the device Properties, no sign of Memory Monitor...
So I searched the SDK Help, and the closest thing I found was a reference to a Java Heap Memory Observe Tool. Which has to be executed from the command line(?). But even though it shows the heap blocks (which is nice) all the rest is just not as good as the Memory Monitor from WTK 2.5.2. The is no Memory Graph, the object statistics are not properly updated (realtime), we can't make a GC (this one is a minor thing).
I want to change to SDK 3.0 but at this time I can't because of this.
Apart from that, I liked what I saw on the new SDK.
So I leave the following question, when will there be a proper Memory Monitor for SDK 3.0, with the same integration and information that we had on WTK 2.5.2?
Thanks,
Carlos Gamito
Posted by Carlos Gamito on May 22, 2009 at 03:02 PM CEST #
To Carlos: We are working on Memory Monitor with the same functionality we used to have in WTK 2.5.2 and hopefully will deliver it in the next version of Java ME SDK or we will publish it sooner on our autoupdate center. Please stay tuned and thank you for your comment.
Posted by Richard Gregor on May 25, 2009 at 04:42 PM CEST #
@Tom:
To my disappointment download data say that linux is only about 10% of users.
Well, if you kick out Java ME SDK for linux & Mac, I believe there will be more than 10% linux-users that download the SDK.
Hope, really, will available soon on linux.
Thanks, cheers
Posted by tonny on June 03, 2009 at 09:39 PM CEST #
I really hope to see Linux and Mac version of this SDK in the near future.
Posted by Pierre-Yves Aillet on June 15, 2009 at 12:48 PM CEST #
@Tom
Eclipse statistics from the latest survey show that one third of developers work on Linux.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/sr.aspx?sm=bKNBxgKzbKzowkAOTMijPkpFhFbRCzoenXxak5KSEuU_3d
Don't forget: cross-platform compatibility is Java's no 1 strength.
Posted by Josef on June 15, 2009 at 01:57 PM CEST #
From a company that used to be so keen on the cross-platform idea, that has shown increased support in open source and linux, bought by another one who's reasonably like-minded, I'm really surprised a linux version is still debated!
I can understand from the point of view of resources there may be a need to release for a platform first and others after, but I can't understand this pondering about a linux release. For me there should be no "why" question, only a "how"!
Between no linux release and having a complete linux TCK compliant release, there must be middle-way. How about getting the ball rolling and making sure linux developers get something to play with, even if it means no bd-j stack for example.
While you see an half-empty glass I see an half-full one. 10% is great and would even be greater if you were continuing your part in supporting linux. Having Netbeans and JDK on linux is fantastic and we definitely appreciate this. Even better would be a JavaME SDK for linux. Otherwise what kind of message are you sending to the community? That linux is a second rate choice?
Don't even dare complaining about windows anymore...
Posted by Francois Rey on July 09, 2009 at 10:36 AM CEST #
Maybe if you guys use something called "JAVA" for developing these tools you may not have cross-platform porting problems.
It is quite shameful act that Sun does not support solaris and linux.
If you guys do not take is serious enough maybe JavaME developers will become "only" 10% compared to Android, iPhone & Palm Pre SDKs.
Posted by Ahmed on July 19, 2009 at 07:52 PM CEST #
@Tom: I'm not sure about other Linux users, but I get my Java JRE/JDK from the Ubuntu repositories, not java.sun.com
Posted by Michael on August 19, 2009 at 01:32 AM CEST #
Hi, congrats on the new release. Most pressing item for me would be a Linux version of this release. My development platform is Debian (Stable) + Sun JDK 1.6 + Eclipse + Eclipse MTJ (mobile tools for Java). I do not intend to use Windows for development, so giving other platforms an equal footing would be most useful to me (and I am sure, to a number of other linux developers who are currently put off developing for J2ME).
Posted by Joe on September 03, 2009 at 11:31 AM CEST #