The Planetarium

What with the release of JavaFX 1.2 and JavaFX phones on sale to developers, and on view, for example here and here, the fact that the JavaFX language and common APIs are the same whether you are on the desktop or on a mobile device (or a TV set top box) is worth chatting about.

Of course, there are design considerations when creating applications for the smaller screen. And you need to take some care over input methods (keys, mouse, touchscreen). And of course there are times when you want to write an application that uses a feature that is totally specific to the underlying client device.

Like SMS on a mobile phone. So reading this article should give you a really clear picture of how to take advantage of the underlying messaging capabilities on a Java ME phone, and combine it with the fit and finish of a JavaFX UI layer to make a professional SMS client, with all the visual cues and polish that are both desirable and required now in a phone application. And along the way, put together an on screen keyboard with the minimum of fuss.