Programming Wireless Devices with the Java(TM) 2 Platform (Micro Edition) (Paperback)

by Roger Riggs (Author), Antero Taivalsaari (Author), Mark VandenBrink (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
(Pearson Education) Provides programmers an introduction to the Java 2 platform, Micro edition, with a general description of wireless technology, an overview of the J2ME platform, and information on the small-footprint K machine. Features numerous sample applications, including a Sokoban game application. Softcover.

From the Inside Flap

In the past three and a half years, Sun has collaborated with major consumer device manufacturers and other companies to create a highly portable, secure, small-footprint Java application development environment for resource-constrained, wireless consumer devices such as cellular telephones, two-way pagers and personal organizers. This work started with the development of a new, small-footprint Java virtual machine called the K Virtual Machine (KVM). Two Java Community Process (JCP) standardization efforts, Connected, Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) and Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP), were then carried out to standardize the Java libraries and the associated Java language and virtual machine features across a wide variety of consumer devices. Twenty four companies participated in these standardization efforts directly, and more than five hundred companies and individuals participated indirectly by sending feedback while the standardization efforts were in progress. Major consumer device companies such as Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Palm Computing, Research In Motion and Siemens played a key role in these efforts.

This book intends to make the results of the standardization work in the wireless Java technology area available to the wider software development community. At the high level, this book combines two Java Community Process Specifications, JSR-30 (CLDC 1.0) and JSR-37 (MIDP 1.0), and presents them as a single monograph. We have added a general introduction to the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), provided more background material, and included a number of sample applications to illustrate the use of CLDC and MIDP in the real world. We also provide some guidelines and instructions for getting started with Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition.

A reference implementation of the software discussed in this book is available from Sun Microsystems under the Sun Community Source License (SCSL). Intended Audience

This book is intended for software developers, content providers and other professionals who want to develop Java software for resource-constrained, connected devices. The book is also targeted to consumer device manufacturers who want to build small Java Powered devices and would like to integrate a compact Java application development platform in their products. Objectives of This Book

This book intends to

provide an overview of Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME),

provide a general introduction to the application development platforms defined by the J2ME standardization efforts,

explain the technical aspects of the J2ME Connected, Limited Device Configuration (CLDC),

explain the technical aspects of the J2ME Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP),

provide sample programs to illustrate the use of CLDC and MIDP,

help you write your own J2ME applications. How This Book Is Organized

The topics in this book are organized as follows:

Chapter 1, Introduction, provides a context for Java 2 Micro Edition and the CLDC and MIDP Specifications.

Chapter 2, Overview of Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), provides an overview of Java 2 Micro Edition, its configurations and profiles.

Chapter 3, Goals, Requirements and Scope, defines the high-level goals, requirements and scope of the CLDC and MIDP standardization efforts.

Chapter 4, High-Level Architecture and Security, presents the high-level architecture of the CLDC and MIDP standards, as well as discusses the security features of these standards.

Chapter 5, Connected Limited Device Configuration, introduces the CLDC standardization effort and summarizes the supported Java programming language and virtual machine features compared to the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition.

Chapter 6, CLDC Libraries, introduces the Java class libraries defined by the CLDC Specification.

Chapter 7, Mobile Information Device Profile, introduces the MIDP standardization effort.

Chapter 8, MIDP Application Model, introduces the MIDlet application model defined by the MIDP Specification.

Chapter 9, MIDP User Interface Libraries, introduces the user interface libraries defined by the MIDP Specification.

Chapter 10, MIDP Networking Libraries, introduces the networking libraries defined by the MIDP Specification.

Chapter 11, MIDP Persistence Libraries, introduces the record management system (RMS) defined by the MIDP Specification.

Chapter 12, Additional MIDP APIs, introduces some additional MIDP application programming interfaces (APIs) such as Timers.

Chapter 13, Sample Applications, illustrates the use of CLDC and MIDP libraries through some sample applications.

Chapter 14, Summary, provides a summary of the topics discussed in the book, as well as outlines some future directions. Related Literature and Helpful Web Pages The Java Language Specification by James Gosling, Bill Joy, and Guy L. Steele. Addison-Wesley, 1996, ISBN 0-201-63451-1
The Java Language Specification, Second Edition by James Gosling, Bill Joy, Guy L. Steele, and Gilad Bracha. Addison-Wesley, 2000, ISBN 0-201-31008-2
The Java Virtual Machine Specification, Second Edition by Tim Lindholm and Frank Yellin.In this case, however, an unusually large number of people around the world have worked to make the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition--and hence this book--a reality. What started out as a two-person research project at Sun Labs grew rapidly into a highly collaborative product development and standardization effort involving hundreds of people in different companies. It is impossible to name all the people who participated and contributed to this work without inevitably forgetting many key names. The summary below is an attempt to give a high-level glimpse into the different groups of people who participated in this journey. To these and many others too numerous to mention, we give our thanks and appreciation for what they did to make these ideas and this book possible.

Many people read draft versions of this book, making comments that improved it substantially. The authors would like to thank David Baum, Bill Bush, Cristina Cifuentes, Greg Czajkowski, Steffen Grarup, Dean Hall, Laura Hill, Karen Hsiang, Tim Lindholm, Stuart Marks, Tasneem Sayeed, Howard Thamm, Ravi Viswanathan and Frank Yellin for their willingness to send comments and constructive criticism on the various versions of the book and the sample MIDlets. As usual, any remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the authors. Special thanks to Mark Patel for contributing the animation code in Chapter 9.

The authors would also like to thank Lisa Friendly for allowing us to publish this book in Sun's Java book series and for lending us capable technical writing resources to finish this book. Jim Holliday, our technical writer and editor at Sun Microsystems, edited various versions of this book tirelessly. Without his expertise in the mysteries of desktop publishing, grammar and that pesky topic known as punctuation, this work would have been much worse for the wear.

Numerous companies have been involved in the standardization efforts related to the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition. The following companies participated in the CLDC and MIDP standardization efforts discussed in this book: America Online, Bull, DDI, Ericsson, Espial Group, Fujitsu, Hitachi, J-Phone, Matsushita, Mitsubishi, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Oracle, Palm Computing, Research In Motion (RIM), Samsung, Sharp, Siemens, Sony, Sun Microsystems, Symbian and Telcordia Technologies. We would like to thank all the CLDC and MIDP expert group members and other individuals from the aforementioned companies for their active participation and contributions.

In addition to the companies listed above, hundreds of other companies and individuals sent us feedback while the CLDC and MIDP standardization efforts were in progress. The authors found it amazing how much of their time people were willing to contribute to ensure the progress of the Java technology in the wireless space.

From Sun, we would like to thank Bert Sutherland and Neil Wilhelm at Sun Labs for their initial support and encouragement to start the Spotless research project that led to the development of the K Virtual Machine (KVM) and the subsequent product development efforts. Bill Bush, Doug Simon and Bill Pittore played an essential role in the development of the Spotless system--the precursor of the KVM. Thanks to the continued efforts and support by Jon Kannegaard, Jim Mitchell, Bob Sproull, Mario Wolczko and many other people at Sun Labs, the active exchange of ideas and technology--and sometimes people--has continued even after the Spotless system had been successfully transferred into a product organization.

Like Bert Sutherland constantly used to remind people when he was the director of Sun Labs, technology transfer is a contact sport. Alan Brenner, Bill Bush, Mitch Butler, Mike Clary, Jim Mitchell, Moshe Gotesman, Frank Yellin and many others had a central role in ensuring the successful transfer of the Spotless technology to the Java Software product organization. Alan Brenner, who subsequently became the director of the Java Consumer Software organization, nurtured the initial product teams and visited numerous companies to gain support for the proposed standardization efforts in this area.

Various product groups in Sun's Java Software division participated in the design and implementation of the CLDC and MIDP reference implementations. The authors would like to thank the KVM team, MIDP team and Wireless Toolkit team members who worked on the reference implementations of the standards and products discussed in this book. The TCK (Technology Compatibility Kit) and Quality Assurance teams at Java Consumer Software also played a critical role in ensuring the quality and compatibility of the products. Special thanks go to Karen Hsiang for keeping all the teams coordinated, as well as to Alex Kuzmin for his relentless pursuit of quality and his willingness to go that extra mile (and spend those extra hours!) to make things happen on time.

From Motorola, we would like to thank Jim Van Peursem for co-representing Motorola in the MIDP expert group. Every project has its genesis, and the KVM project within Motorola had its start with the team of Bala Kumar, Matt Long, Jim Lynch, John Osman, Iris Plaxton, Paul Su and Ranjani Vaidyanathan--thanks guys for being there from the beginning and making CLDC and MIDP happen in Motorola.

Someone once said that hardware without software is a space heater. Similarly, without products, the CLDC and MIDP specifications are limited in their value. Thanks to Jyh-han Lin's Florida-based iDEN team for taking the earlier KVM efforts seriously, putting KVM in their product roadmaps, and shipping Motorola's first CLDC and MIDP compliant phone. In a similar vein, thanks to Michael Chu's Beijing-based "Tai Chi" team for their support. Finally, a big thanks to the Austin-based Wireless Software and Services (WSAS) team under Anne-Marie Larkin, in particular to Scott Osborne who managed the CLDC and MIDP engineering team, and to Jim Erwin who managed the CLDC and MIDP test team.

The preparation of this book has been a rather challenging endeavor itself. All the authors are located in different states and time zones, and because of the extensive amount of travel involved in standardization and product development work these days, a significant portion of the text in this book was written in airplanes, airports and hotels. Luckily, the advances in wireless technology have made it easier for people to stay in touch regardless of their physical location. Unfortunately, it also means that it is increasingly difficult to avoid those after 8 pm phone calls and urgent text messages and e-mails, especially from your co-authors and colleagues located in more Western time zones. The standards defined in this book, for better or worse, will probably only accelerate this trend.

And finally, but most importantly, Roger would like to thank Cathy, Kimberly, Brian and Catie for their support and forbearance during this exciting and intensive endeavor.

Antero would like to thank Leena, Eva Maria, Eetu and Ella for their love and support.

Mark would like to thank Joy, Zachary and Abby for their love, support, patience and understanding about those long trips and time away from home.

Roger Riggs, Burlington, Massachusetts
Antero Taivalsaari, Cupertino, California
Mark VandenBrink, Austin, Texas
April 2001 0201746271P04232001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 345 pages
• Publisher: Pearson Education; 1st edition (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201746271
• ISBN-13: 978-0201746273
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,590,399 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Programming!?, August 2, 2002

By A Customer

For a book with programming in the title there is precious little programming in this book...

The editorial review from Book News, Inc has it right: this is a general MIDP information book. If you are after a book about how to program some MIDP specific features you will not find it here. Contrary to the other reader's review there is actually little low level technical information.

No treatment on general programming tips either, for example, why threads are more important in MIDP wireless programming than traditional Java programming. Or how to change your style to be less Object Orientated for speed and memory efficiency (Nokia forum has good tips on these areas).

In short, good review but bad for programming.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of "Programming Wireless Devices with the J2ME", October 16, 2003

By	Joseph (Honolulu, HI, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming Wireless Devices with the Java(TM)2 Platform, Micro Edition (2nd Edition) (Java Series) (Paperback)

So I have been programming with J2ME and DOJA for a while on various Japanese Cellphones. The Japanese cellphones that do support the full MIDP/CLDC combination do not yet support the MIDP 2.0 that this book is covering, but I thought it would be a good idea to check out what I might be able to use when they do, and also try and clear up my own confusion about what precisely the CLDC and MIDP actually are.

Having read the book I think I have a better idea of the distinction between CLDC and MIDP, but still don't feel wonderfully sure. The impression I come away with is that the CLDC is about ensuring a basic level of functionality and the MIDP describes a wider range of functionality such as GUIs and Advanced communications features. This would make sense then if the Japanese Docomo Java framework was CLDC and AU/Vodaphone framework was both CLDC and MIDP.

The book itself was reasonably informative as to the new MIDP 2.0 features, and I was interested to see some good code samples for things like the MIDP Game and Multimedia API - however the code samples don't yet appear available for download. I hope they'll be up soon so I can check them out.

Overall I found the book a little difficult to read - it is kind of more of a reference book - I would imagine myself dipping into it to get things I need, rather than reading through it to get an understanding of J2ME. In some ways the book would almost be better as a more condensed reference work. There are a number of good wireless programming tips such as making all communications run in a separate thread to improve user experience, but these are a little thin on the ground and the book is dominated by working through each detail of each of the APIs. I think is an important book to have if you are working against the MIDP2.0 specification, but I don't think I 'd recommend it to a beginner trying to learn J2ME.

I would imagine that successive iterations of this book will lead to major improvements, such as breaking the book into a Reference work, and a J2ME programming tips guide. I think another couple of years of explosive growth in J2ME wireless devices and programmers will make the latter work possible.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I want to learn coding not reading..., December 2, 2004

By	sorry - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming Wireless Devices with the Java(TM)2 Platform, Micro Edition (2nd Edition) (Java Series) (Paperback)

This is NOT the book to learn how to programming in J2ME! You need a great imagination to learn the content of this book, if you have never experienced J2ME before, beacause it contains little code example. In spite of this, the book contains only 7 compileable code example, all others are code segments -- that is you need to do a lot of tedious coding your self to get it running.

This book should more likely be used as a reference manual by experienced J2ME programmer. The structure of this book is clear, so it is easy to retrieve information. But the authors of this book seems have a tendency to fill pages, as they use "Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition" and "Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition" (and other similar) instead of "J2SE" and "J2ME" through out the book, as if readers can't remember an acronym!

If you are looking for a book for learning "how to program with J2ME" you should not choose this one. [...]