MIDP2 Layouts

[splay]

Guys Hi,


I am at quite a frustrated stage with MIDP2.

Every phone we get, shows the application in MIDP1 style, all nokias.

Has anybody ever seen a phone that actually shows the layouts like the emulators?


The jad fle is configured correctly, so there should be no excuse.

Its like the holy grail at this point. Java and the manufacturers release this MIDP2 and it looks good for employment prospects.

My boss is waiting for me to show hime the app looking good on
a device. I say, buy another phone. And guess what, it doesnt work again.

IS IT REAL ?

IS MIDP2 A MYTH ?

Please let me know if I am missing something or if anyone else feels the same.


Cheers

Splay
splaymobile.com

[zkarpati2]

Hello splay!

I feel the same. MIDP2 defines some rules, and
the actual appearance is defined by the manufacturer.
It is crazy how much item layout and command
appearence differs between Sun's emulator and on my
5140. I have to download my app to my mobile every time
I modify an Item or a Command.
The lack of knowledge and practice is amazing among
the board members. There is almost no correctly answered
question. I had many questions and I have never found an
answer in the replies. But I had the same problem as
was questioned by someone else many times.
NOKIA's documentations and whitepapers are next to
useless. They follow the same tradition as the MIDP2
documentations: they are general and your special
questions never get answered.
Sorry to be so pessimistic, I am fed up with this J2ME
stuff.

Regards,

Zoltan

[enough]

Hi guys,

check out the GUI of J2ME Polish, which not only allows you to use MIDP/2.0 features on MIDP/1.0 phones, but which also can be designed using simple CSS-textfiles:

	background-color: yellow; 
	border-color: red;
	font-color: green;
	font-style: bold;
	font-face: proportional;
	layout: center;

Find more info at http://www.j2mepolish.org

[splay]

Hi, Mr enough,


I have been chatting to you about your Polish product before and its fantastic, REALLY IS.

Thats what is needed, product like yours.

I have been involved in the J2ME for 2 years and Polish is a breakthrough.

I am feeling a lot like Zoltan with regards to J2ME, the limitations are just downright frustrating.

I was involved in qiute a good project with a good company and was relying on the possibilities with MIDP2. I spent over 3 months trying to get the application to look somewhat like a reasonable UI design.

I have never got the application to run like it does on the WTK2 on a real device (6600, 7610, 5310)

I then moved into the Networking capabilities with it over Bluetooth.

Gues what? Another absolute farse.

The bluetooth capabilities have another whole heap of barriers to entertain you.

I lost my job yesterday beacause J2ME could not deliver the technology.
What are the guys up to in the J2ME community?

I am moving into C++ because, quite frankly, it would be much easier to move language than deal with the time spent on trying to get around J2ME limitations.

Hope somebody benefits from my misfortunes.

ADIOSS

[enough]

Hi Splay,

it really sucks with your job and I can understand your move to C.

When I read about the MIDP/2.0 design possibilities I was really enthusiastic about it - wow! But when reality came, the enthusiasm quickly faded away.

This was one motivation for creating J2ME Polish. The GUI works fine on all J2ME devices (well, all I and the community knows about - I have around 160 downloads each day), Symbian, Motorola and whatever - and no source code changes are necessary in existing application. So the developer can code happily the application and the designer can take care of the appearance. And J2ME Polish takes care for the adjustments needed for the different devices.

Bluetooth is another matter, though. It really is - judging from the many problems I hear everywhere - only for the brave-at-heart. But then again, this is also true for the different OS-bluetooth stacks. So I think the preprocessing capabilities of J2ME Polish are making device-specific adjustments much easier to cope. And who knows, maybe someday there will be a J2ME Polish bluetooth-wrapper handling all those differences.

So J2ME certainly has its shortcomings and a lot of bugs on the actual devices, so "porting" and testing is often needed. But it is much easier compared to C/C++.

Best regards, good luck in the future, and thanks for the kind words,
Robert

[splay]

I appreciate your response.

I will no doubts use Polish in some future applications.

thanks for your educated insights.


Splay