Motorola Seeks Mobile Unity at JavaOne

Mike Barton writes "InfoWorld's Paul Krill reports that Motorola and Eclipse will unveil open source mobile initiatives at the JavaOne conference this week to broaden Java's mobile and software ecosystem. From the article: 'Motorola also will develop under an open process a references implementation and compliance test for Motorola-driven Java Specification Requests, such as the Mobile Information Device Profiles (MIDP) 3.0 specification.' Motorola's goal is "write-once, run everywhere" implementation capabilities."

Wake me up when Verizon Wireless joins in

[feijai]

Until then, I'll still be stuck with intentionally Java-broken phones. Unity my butt.

Re:I think you mean...

[bladesjester]

I've said it before, and it should be said again. Most of the problems people have with java not being portable are due to stupid mistakes and shortcuts by the programmer.

The two most common problems (which should not happen) are use of non-core packages and hard coding of file seperator characters in pathnames instead of using File.seperator

Sun even takes pains to point these things out, but a lot of people don't listen, so those of use who write useable, portable code get to hear "java is teh suxor" too often.

MIDP, Cell Phone Vendors, and Carriers

[deanj]

I've been to many JavaOne conferences. I've heard the cry to develop for MIDP.

I listened to the vendors and Sun, and all the "There's lots of opportunity".

You know what? That was complete bullshit.

The hurdles a small development company (3 or 4 guys, or smaller) has to go through to get an app developed is one thing. That can be handled. Code is code. Even with bugs in some of their phones (Hi there, Samsung), issues can be worked around.

The real problem is dealing with the phone vendors and the carriers. The vendors less so than the carriers. They charge an enormous amount of money to do "compliance" testing, and then, IF you're lucky, you'll get picked to be put on their download lists. And then they take a massive cut of the purchase price.

Like I said, this is IF you're lucky. The last time we looked into it, small publishers had to get accepted by bigger publishers just to get your app noticed.

This is yet another instance of the unbridled greed that cell phone carriers have in this market; Handhelds, such as Treo (Palm & now, Windows), don't have the crap to deal with that Java apps do.

Stick with Palm/Windows unless you can get picked up by a big publishers (JAMDAT, etc). The headaches with working with Sprint's "support" (ha!) isn't worth it.

Re:I think you mean...

[molarmass192]

As a java programmer myself, I'd say that PART of the problem is that Java is "taught" as both an entry level language and an advanced language. The result is that programmers who shouldn't be programming wind up working in the domain. Let's face it, Java is a VERY forgiving language. You can get away with things in Java that would make a C programmer's head explode. If you've worked in C, you've learned to respect programming techniques. Sadly, Java-only progs who haven't worked in C are "typically" (not all) really sloppy careless programmers. It's the same cruft you see in VB programmers.