Bill Day's Blog

Java for Palm OS Devices, Act 2

Way back in July 2003 I blogged about palmOne licensing IBM's J2ME implementation (WME) for its Tungsten devices. Tungstens with built in Java support are now in use, but as I noted back in that blog:

When will all Palm devices, much less all Palm OS based devices, include a built in Java runtime, not just the Tungstens? Time will tell, but my gut says very soon: If they don't, they'll suffer the consequences as J2ME rolls on to the tune of millions of Java developers and hundreds of millions of consumers with Java devices everywhere.

Time has in fact told, as PalmSource, the makers of the Palm OS, announced at their developer conference recently that they will be including WME in Palm OS, too. Burried at the bottom of the press release are the bits we developers want to get at:

It is anticipated that IBM WME will enable the support of the industry standards for the Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) 1.0 and 1.1 and Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) 1.0 and 2.0 in compliance with the Sun Technology Compatibility Kits (TCK), which will allow Palm Powered smart mobile devices to seamlessly execute J2ME-compliant MIDlet Suite applications. PalmSource intends to offer Palm OS licensees the WME JVM and runtime licenses on Palm OS Garnet and Palm OS Cobalt later this summer.

What's the net-net? Soon all manufactuers of Palm OS based devices (Garnet and Cobalt based) will have an optimized J2ME runtime to build into their smartphones and PDAs.

At long, long last I'll be able to target Java apps at all upcoming Palm OS devices knowing they'll pass my "Mother Test". Now the question that remains: Will Palm OS/Java powered smartphones by able to regain the ground they've lost to Series 60/Symbian during the last couple of years of J2ME development and deployment? Time will tell, indeed.

Comments

• Too little
  And are we ever going to get an api that allows access to the actual guts of a Palm device? If I want to create an application that downloads data and displays it, then all well and fine. When I need to get something out of the address book what do I do then?

  I gave up using J2ME for Palm and now only use SuperWaba (www.superwaba.org). For me, J2ME just isn't enough. There seems to be plenty of support for games in MIDP 2.0, what about PIM functions? Isn't this the main reason people buy Palms?

  Posted by: uhf on February 16, 2004 at 12:37 AM

• Info on WME and
  You can get an idea of where Palm is headed with J2ME by going through the PDF from the January 20, 2004 Java Developer Day with palmOne. It is available within the palmOne "Plugged In" program - you have to register with them to even view it, but it's free. The section titled "MIDP and Palm OS Comparison" may be of interest.

  Start here (http://pluggedin.palmone.com/regac/pluggedin/index.jsp), and after registering go to "Lessons and Samples", where you will find the PDF download mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

  Regards,
  --
  Barry C. Hawkins

  Posted by: barryhawkins on February 16, 2004 at 09:22 AM

• JSR75???
  There seems no mention of optional packages not even JSR85 - Bluetooth.

  Looking at JCP.org, I see that there is indeed a JSR for PIM functions - JSR75. The specification leads are none other than PalmSource and IBM (http://www.jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=075). What happened to this then? The api was finalised last year and looking at the JavaDocs, javax.microedition.pim allows contacts, calender and todo list.

  Can anyone shed light on why we're waiting for this? This is fairly vital to making J2ME a success of Palm devices, surely?

  Posted by: uhf on February 17, 2004 at 04:08 AM

• MIDP 2.0 on Palm, when?
  I'm doing a project at a university where I need to be able to push alerts to a java application. Unfortunately MIDP2.0 - which would suit this project perfectly - keeps us waiting on the Palm... I've heard rumours about a beta floating around, but thus far I haven't been able to find it.

  Are there any other 'full-size' (so no pda-enhanced phones, but phone-enhanced pda's) PDA's which will run a MIDP 2.0 compliant JVM, available in Europe?

  Posted by: sammy on February 18, 2004 at 12:43 AM

• MIDP 2.0 on Palm, when?
  Go to http://pluggedin.palmone.com/regac/pluggedin/Java.jsp you'll have to register, then look at the downloads. There are two IBM WME toolkits one for MIDP1.0 and a beta for MIDP2.0 which is enhanced for Arm processors.

  The toolkit contains Java VMs for the actual device and for a simulator, plus a program to magically turn Midlets from jars into prcs.

  Posted by: uhf on February 19, 2004 at 12:30 AM

• What about SavaJe?
  Thanks alot uhf!

  I also found this Java OS (www.savaje.com) which looks very promising, but there aren't any user-groups or forums on it. Plus they didn't answer my email inquiries, and they're quite vague about the supported hardware... is this something to investigate any further?

  Thanks for your time!
  Sander Mak

  Posted by: sammy on February 19, 2004 at 12:52 AM

• What about SavaJe?
  SavaJe have been around for a while, they released an OS that supported Java 1.3 on an iPaq - it was a complete replacement OS in fact. They seem to have dumped all this in favour of J2ME and cell phones it seems.

  I don't think that you'll get hold of anything from them, they look like they only deal with companies. Have a look at their project faqs. Esmertec are similar.

  Posted by: uhf on February 19, 2004 at 08:28 AM

• What about SavaJe?
  Hm, that really sucks... every good solution (SavaJe, Kada, JBed) seems to be swallowed by Esmertec! It's not that I'm not willing to pay for a solution, but these companies don't even respond to e-mails!

  I've checked out dozens of options, but there is no viable option it seems. Why are there so many phones with MIDP2 support and almost no PDA's?
  The IBM Websphere Palm beta seemed like the ticket, until I read about the fews thing which weren't implemented yet: indeed, AMS and push registry...

  If you have any more pointers, I'm all ear! Otherwise thanks anyway :)

  Sander
  

  Posted by: sammy on February 19, 2004 at 12:04 PM

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