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J2ME/MIDP is crippleware

 
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This implementation is very nice as long as you don't need to interact with _ANY_ other information on the device. Anything you build is TOTALLY isolated from any other application or data on the device. I consider this to be a major flaw in the implementation. At the very least, we should still have access to the equivalent of the com.sun.kjava.Database class so we can access the address book, memos, etc. No App is an island!
Due to this one limitation I am forced to continue to use the "old" CLDC/KJava classes...
If anyone knows any way to access a Palm Database (PDB) from within a MIDLet, PLEASE let me know!
Thanks,
jck
John C. Kendall
johnlkendall@palm.net
jkendall@technologist.com
 
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"johnckendall",
The Java Ranch has thousands of visitors every week, many with surprisingly similar names. To avoid confusion we have a naming convention, described at http://www.javaranch.com/name.jsp . We require names to have at least two words, separated by a space, and strongly recommend that you use your full real name. Please log in with a new name which meets the requirements.
Thanks.

--Mark
 
Mark Herschberg
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Originally posted by johnckendall:
This implementation is very nice as long as you don't need to interact with _ANY_ other information on the device. Anything you build is TOTALLY isolated from any other application or data on the device. I consider this to be a major flaw in the implementation. At the very least, we should still have access to the equivalent of the com.sun.kjava.Database class so we can access the address book, memos, etc. No App is an island!
Due to this one limitation I am forced to continue to use the "old" CLDC/KJava classes...
If anyone knows any way to access a Palm Database (PDB) from within a MIDLet, PLEASE let me know!



Three comments
This is a major limitation of Java in general, that it is on top of the OS, and cannot interact with it as easily as C/C++, Just as J2SE has gotten better over the years, so will J2ME.
Companies are producing Java OS, which will have much better support for JVMs, and allow easier interactions with the OS.
Talk to the JSR-75 spec lead, he works at Palm, and it looks like you do, too :-)

--Mark
 
johnckendall
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I was kind of hoping someone would correct me and tell me there is a way to get info from the databases! I hope you are right and the API's will be addressed in the jsr-75, but I've heard that they won't...
Actually the palm.net e-mail is for my palm viix (i don't work for palm).
--Mark


Companies are producing Java OS, which will have much better support for JVMs, and allow easier interactions with the OS.
Talk to the JSR-75 spec lead, he works at Palm, and it looks like you do, too :-)

--Mark



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John C. Kendall
jkendall@technologist.com
johnlkendall@palm.net
 
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There are a couple of reasons why Sun avoided access to the various parts of a device:
- security
- ease of defining an API suitable to the tens and tens of device manufacturers
I think what you'll see is improvements in two areas:
- new APIs will get defined once the initial release J2ME is out there on rela devices, and stable. Let's say in 6-12 months.
- device manufacturers will add their own device-specific libraries to give you access.
It will come, but don't forget, when plain old Java arrived in the mid-90s, it didn't have the rich API it has now, and it was still reasonably successful. I think J2ME will go the same way - its no miracle cure for mobile programming right now, but if Sun and other vendors (s/w & h/w) persevere, then it will become successful. But give it a year or two more, eh!
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Richard Taylor
Author of Professional Java Mobile Programming
 
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MIDP is meant to be portable across a wide range of devices. It is NOT a Java implementation geared specifically for Palm devices. Besides that, there are political issues to contend with -- as I understand it, in the United States the FCC places strict limits on the interaction between the "computing" and "phone" sides of a Java-enabled phone....
Eric
 
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