Questions and Answers with Pro J2ME Polish: Open-Source Wireless Java Tools Suite Author Robert Virkus

Date: July 12, 2005
By Robert Virkus
Article is provided courtesy of Apress.

Featured Title Pro J2ME Polish: Open Source Wireless Java Tools Suite | Q: What is J2ME Polish and what can I use it for? J2ME Polish (http://www.j2mepolish.org) is a collection of open-source tools for creating wireless Java applications. The most important components are the build tools that allow you to build your applications for multiple target devices and locales, the user interface that lets you design your application outside of the source code with simple CSS text files, and the game engine that allows you to use the MIDP 2.0 game API on MIDP 1.0 devices as well. Q: A friend of mine is just learning J2ME programming—can he use your book? In the book, I assume that you’re already familiar with J2ME programming. So beginners should read this book in conjunction with an introductory text such as Beginning J2ME, by Jonathan Knudsen and Sing Li. My book will certainly help beginners adapt to the requirements of wireless reality sooner, as it not only discusses the J2ME Polish framework, but it also explains how you can overcome the quirks and issues of real-world devices.  Books on Related Subjects   Java Open Source Software Development Wireless New Releases Best Sellers   Q: I’m earning my money with wireless Java applications, and so far I’m doing fine. Can you tell me what benefits your book will have for me? We both know that the complexity of wireless Java programming is increasing with each new device generation. Customers are constantly demanding more, and they want stable applications that are fun to work or play with. J2ME Polish is simply the best tool for this task, and this book will help you get the most out of this framework. Q: The fragmentation of J2ME devices is a bit heavy for me—can your book help me with this? In theory, there’s no difference between practice and theory—but in practice there is. This pretty much sums up the reality of J2ME programming. The J2ME standard itself is quite easy to understand, but in the real world, there are many differences between devices that you need to be aware of. This book helps you to cope with the fragmented wireless Java world in a number of important ways. It discusses the differences between popular devices, as well as the common quirks and issues that arise when using them. It explains several ways of dealing with such challenges, including the use of defensive programming, preprocessing, and device-specific source folders. It shows how to implement these strategies with the help of J2ME Polish. Q: What’s in it for developers that already deploy J2ME Polish? This book is a practical guide to all aspects of J2ME Polish, so you’ll learn how to solve common challenges with it. The book also explains in detail how you can adjust and extend this framework to your advantage. Additionally, the book shows you how to optimize your applications for speed, memory consumption, and JAR size. Q: What do J2ME and Poland have in common, anyway? While there are many great wireless Java programmers in Poland, the name "J2ME Polish" actually derives from the idea of "polishing" your applications. Q: Where do you see wireless applications in five years? J2ME is currently the standard for building wireless applications, and I don’t think this will change much. Sure, there are many gripes about device fragmentation and inconsistent implementations, but the wireless Java standard is still relatively young and will mature. While trying to predict the future is always difficult, I think we’ll develop some exciting new ways to communicate and interact with each other, as well as with mobile services. In contrast to the personal computer, the mobile phone is a very personal and mobile-by-nature device. Location-based services (such as friend finders, navigation- and location-based advertising), will become quite common. Mobile services will be much more user-centric than computer-based applications—for example, consider an email service that forwards only important mail when you’re in a meeting. J2ME technology will be the melting pot for most mobile services, simply because it provides a solid base for creating applications for many target devices at once. Q: What future improvements do you plan for the J2ME Polish framework? The Scalable 2D Vector Graphics API (JSR 226) and the Mobile 3D Graphics API (JSR 184) introduce exciting possibilities, so we plan to provide different implementations of the user interface. You’ll be able to continue using the high-level MIDP UI API in you applications and choose the actual GUI implementation in the build phase. Depending on the implementation, you’ll be able to have different interaction modes with the user elements—such as a button that starts to spin when the user moves to the next element, for example. Another possibility is to use the native Blackberry GUI elements for Blackberry devices while using the J2ME Polish GUI for other devices. On a more down-to-earth level, we’ll continue to improve the Eclipse plug-in. With auto-completion of preprocessing statements, a debugger, and the automatic invocation of the correct emulator, the development of wireless Java applications will be eased considerably. Another interesting possibility is to circumvent device-specific issues automatically. Right now, we’re discussing various ways of achieving this. It currently looks like as if we’ll have to create a solution similar to aspect-oriented development. Last but not least, the utilities will also be improved so that you’ll be able to do things such as let devices vibrate, play sounds, and carry out network operations much more easily than you can now.