J2ME Development Tools

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Walter - 09 Jul 2005 15:24 GMT

Hi all

I have found this forum about Java and as I have seen, it is very active and
useful in order to solve Java problems or doubts.
The fact is that I am going to use J2ME and I have to decide what the best
development tool is, I have read different articles and there's an extensive
list of tools: Sun J2ME Wireless Toolkit, Sun One Studio 4 Mobile Edition,
Netbeans, Eclipse, etc.

I have some good references about Eclipse but maybe there are better tools.
What do you think? Are you happy with Eclipse? Are there some important
advices about its usage? I need some information about it because I must take
a decision and it's important to begin in the right way, I hope you convince
me to use it and forget the other options (Netbeans, Sun J2ME Wireless
Toolkit,etc).

Moreover, I would be very grateful if you could say to me if there are other
interesting forums about J2ME and Eclipse.

Thank you very much for your cooperation and help.

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IchBin - 09 Jul 2005 16:42 GMT

> Hi all
>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Thank you very much for your cooperation and help.

Take a look at
http://eclipse.sys-con.com/read/84537.htm
http://eclipseme.org/

Signature

Thanks in Advance...
IchBin, Pocono Lake, Pa, USA
__________________________________________________________________________

' If there is one, Knowledge is the "Fountain of Youth"'
-William E. Taylor, Regular Guy (1952-)

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Martin Brehovsky - 21 Jul 2005 12:43 GMT

For J2ME development the best tool around is NetBeans Mobility Pack - no
other tool gives you so much power (for example mentioned eclipseme is a
joke compared to netbeans mobility pack).

You can get more information from
<http://www.netbeans.org/kb/41/mobility.html>

-mx

> Hi all
>
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Thank you very much for your cooperation and help.

Reply to this Message

AlecB - 07 Aug 2005 23:39 GMT

> For J2ME development the best tool around is NetBeans Mobility Pack - no
> other tool gives you so much power (for example mentioned eclipseme is a
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
>> interesting forums about J2ME and Eclipse.
>> Thank you very much for your cooperation and help.

Please ellaborate, I use EclipseME on a daily basis, why should I
migrate to netbeans?

Alec

Signature

When the speaker and he to whom he is speaks do not understand,
that is metaphysics. -- Voltaire

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Martin Brehovsky - 08 Aug 2005 14:26 GMT

>> For J2ME development the best tool around is NetBeans Mobility Pack -
>> no other tool gives you so much power (for example mentioned eclipseme
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
> Please ellaborate, I use EclipseME on a daily basis, why should I
> migrate to netbeans?

Because with EclipseME you get just basic functionality for compiling
and running the J2ME/MIDP projects. On the other hand, in NetBeans
mobility you automatically get:
- integrated commenting preprocessor with code highlighting (so you can
have several versions of your code, e.g. one for Nokia, other for
Motorola, etc ...)
- ant based project environment (just take you ant build scripts and
build the projects on a machine which never saw the IDE)
- integrated WTK 2.1
- many MIDP examples
- integrated ProGuard obfuscator
- visual designer for visual development of applications (not just UI,
but also flow between the screens)
- wireless connection wizard to easily connect MIDP application to
servers and web services
- automatic deployment of the built apps to servers via copy/scp/ftp/webdav
- and many, many more

Actually there is a review available on devx.com site - see
<http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/28559/0/page/1>

On the other hand - what features are available in EclipseME and does
not exists in NetBeans Mobility Pack? (I'm really wondering, because I
don't know any, but may be I'm wrong ...)

I personally use Eclipse for general Java development and NetBeans +
Mobility Pack for my J2ME/JSP/Servlets projects ...

-mx

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AlecB - 08 Aug 2005 18:46 GMT

>>> For J2ME development the best tool around is NetBeans Mobility Pack -
>>> no other tool gives you so much power (for example mentioned
[quoted text clipped - 39 lines]
> have several versions of your code, e.g. one for Nokia, other for
> Motorola, etc ...)

This functionality is present in EclipseME 0.9.0

> - ant based project environment (just take you ant build scripts and
> build the projects on a machine which never saw the IDE)

The ant build scripts can be exported using the context menus

> - integrated WTK 2.1

EclipseME has does not have an integrated WTK, you configure your
project to work with whatever WTKs are present.
<Opinion>I personally feel that this is a better way to do it.</Opinion>

> - many MIDP examples

I have internet access, so a must have feature, this does not make.
(Wtks have MANY example applications also)

> - integrated ProGuard obfuscator

Feature is available a.s standard

> - visual designer for visual development of applications (not just UI,
> but also flow between the screens)

I personally like to have this stuff planned out before I get anywhere
near the IDE.

> - wireless connection wizard to easily connect MIDP application to
> servers and web services

> - automatic deployment of the built apps to servers via copy/scp/ftp/webdav
> - and many, many more

Ain't Ant great.

> Actually there is a review available on devx.com site - see
> <http://www.devx.com/wireless/Article/28559/0/page/1>
>
> On the other hand - what features are available in EclipseME and does
> not exists in NetBeans Mobility Pack? (I'm really wondering, because I
> don't know any, but may be I'm wrong ...)

They are similar products.

Please don't get me wrong here, I personally don't care what another
developer uses to create magic. Just, I am not seeing anything here that
says 'switch to netbeans / IDEA / $GREAT_IDE'.
As I stated eclipseME & Eclipse 3.1 are perfectly good tools for what I
need.

> I personally use Eclipse for general Java development and NetBeans +
> Mobility Pack for my J2ME/JSP/Servlets projects ...
>
> -mx

Alec,

Reply to this Message

Martin Brehovsky - 09 Aug 2005 07:38 GMT

<snip>

>>> Please ellaborate, I use EclipseME on a daily basis, why should I
>>> migrate to netbeans?
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> This functionality is present in EclipseME 0.9.0

I'm not sure about that - you are telling me, you can edit source which
has several configurations (for example one configuration of the source
is using Nokia's FullCanvas and other standard Canvas) and you can do it
seamlessly in EclipseME? When working on such source in netbeans, I can
easily identify blocks not used in the given configuration (they are
automatically commented), so the source is always valid (no errors,
because of missing classes).

>> - ant based project environment (just take you ant build scripts and
>> build the projects on a machine which never saw the IDE)
>
> The ant build scripts can be exported using the context menus

I still think there is a huge difference between importing the ant
script and having a build system completely based on ant. For example
all changes you do via project properties are automatically made to the
scripts, so if you decide

>> - integrated WTK 2.1
>
> EclipseME has does not have an integrated WTK, you configure your
> project to work with whatever WTKs are present.
> <Opinion>I personally feel that this is a better way to do it.</Opinion>

The same works for netbeans - download emulator you would like to use
and add it to your J2ME platforms. On the other hand having WTK bundled
with the IDE is IMHO better out of box experience ...

>> - many MIDP examples
>
> I have internet access, so a must have feature, this does not make.
> (Wtks have MANY example applications also)

You are right - again only better out of box experience for some users.

>> - integrated ProGuard obfuscator
>
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> I personally like to have this stuff planned out before I get anywhere
> near the IDE.

Perhaps a choice of taste - I used to be against UI designers, but now I
think some of have are giving me quite a productivity boost ...

>> - wireless connection wizard to easily connect MIDP application to
>> servers and web services
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>>
> They are similar products.

I always thought EclipseME is inferior to NetBeans Mobility pack, but
perhaps I was wrong (the last time I was looking at EclipseME was over a
year ago). I need to download it and look at the progress EclipseME guys
did ...

> Please don't get me wrong here, I personally don't care what another
> developer uses to create magic. Just, I am not seeing anything here that
> says 'switch to netbeans / IDEA / $GREAT_IDE'.
> As I stated eclipseME & Eclipse 3.1 are perfectly good tools for what I
> need.

I understand - I was just giving my preference based on my experience to
the original question on the newsgroup.

-mx

>> I personally use Eclipse for general Java development and NetBeans +
>> Mobility Pack for my J2ME/JSP/Servlets projects ...
>>
>> -mx
>
> Alec,

Reply to this Message

Benjamin Lorenz - 06 Oct 2005 10:54 GMT

>For J2ME development the best tool around is
>NetBeans Mobility Pack - no
>other tool gives you so much power (for example
>mentioned eclipseme is a
>joke compared to netbeans mobility pack).

Can someone of you compare to IntelliJ IDEA 5.0?

Benjamin

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Roedy Green - 07 Oct 2005 09:49 GMT

>Can someone of you compare to IntelliJ IDEA 5.0?

Eclipse is free. Intellij is $500 US.

Signature

Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
http://mindprod.com Again taking new Java programming contracts.

Reply to this Message

Martin Brehovsky - 07 Oct 2005 14:44 GMT

>>Can someone of you compare to IntelliJ IDEA 5.0?
>
> Eclipse is free. Intellij is $500 US.

NetBeans Mobility Pack is for free as well and has the richest set of
the features from both EclipseME or Idea.

The best thing is simply to look at mobility pack homepage, download it
and try it yourself - 5.0 beta has been just released a week ago:
<http://www.netbeans.info/downloads/download.php?type=5.0b>

a happy mobility pack user,
Martin

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