Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

No Java JRE on Pocket PC

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the please-help-out dept.

Ben writes "I have an Open Letter to Sun at the PersonalJava forum (7th June) requesting Sun Micrososystems produce a free Java JRE for Microsoft Pocket PC - its over year and a half ago since they stopped work on one. If you're wondering why you should care its because Microsoft is the only competitor in that market and has no real competition. Java should flourish on mobile devices, why is Sun letting Microsoft get a foothold with .NET? If you are a Java developer for mobile devices please add a note of support to this open letter."

5 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. Check out IBM... by (H)elix1 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, it use to be free and work in wince⦠Looks like IBM continues the care and feeding of itâ(TM)s J2ME / IDE combo that works on something other than a cell phone. (now Websphere Studio Device Developer, use to be VisualAge ME)
    The good news (and bad) is it is a full commercial offering, and I know there are other ones out there... Iâ(TM)m of the camp that Sun should produce reference JDKâ(TM)s rather than commercial / performance ones â" especially on the J2EE side. Way back when, I remember Sun seemed to be more worried about license revenue than shipping something compelling. Perhaps they did not want to compete with the partners⦠A functional SDK is nice, but not needed from them â" there are others.

    For me, I got seduced back into c/c++ when I dropped Familiar Linux on my pocket pc. Never went back.

    --
    +++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
  2. While you're at it by Boglin · · Score: 4, Informative

    Could you see if you could get them to support Java on the Palm as well. For a while we had KVM, but then Sun abandonned it to replace it with Personal Java, which they have since abandonned. What we are left with is waba, which, while nice, is not really Java.

  3. Superwaba by beru777 · · Score: 2, Informative

    What about Superwaba ? It's a JVM for palm and pocketpc....

  4. Probably too late by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    My last (bust) company backed Java on PocketPC, and as a result, the solutions were definately sub-standard. I mean sure, you could write a basic AWT client, (with various 'strange' interfaces) but nothing you would want to show a customer.

    Now my new (successful) company has us developing C# on PocketPC, and it is.. well.. after struggling so much with all the feature incomplete JVM's for PocketPC out there.. it is.. a dream :D

    Sure, I would prefer to be a Java developer, but Sun should be more serious about the 'write once, run anywhere' idea. This lack of support for a well established platform may well give many companies a reason to move to .Net if they want any serious work on mobile devices.

    A released JRE 1.2 would be nice, but with all the great features now available in Visual Studio 2003, I doubt it could make a serious comeback after so much neglect.

  5. .NET CF is winning by helix_r · · Score: 2, Informative


    My group has tried to use java (jeode) on an IPAQ. The performance was awful. Supposedly, NSIcom's creme is much better, but it STILL uses the old personaljava 1.2 spec (JDK 1.1.8 subset). We switched to .NET CF. Performance is good and we can use web services.

    SUN doesn't help matters by continuing to push a J2ME marketing blitz without a real and fast development effort behind it. All those dreamy J2ME whitepapers add up to little more than a small number of java apps on some cell phones (never actually saw one BTW), and ZILCH on PDA's.

    Its a shame. J2ME could have really flourished, but now .NET CF is poised to take over.