- MIDP Applications on the Pocket PC
- PersonalJava
- Third-Party Solutions
- Conclusion
- Resources
Third-Party Solutions
There are also third-party solutions, which help you on your way. Waba from Wabasoft is a programming platform that defines a language, a virtual machine, a class file format, and a set of foundation classes. It is quite similar to Java; in fact, it is so similar that developers can use the same development tools. Waba is not a derivative of the Java language, but it is a strict subset of the language. For anyone who knows Java, developing with Waba should be relatively easy. Listing 2 shows a simple application that draws a simple text to the screen.
Listing 2 A Simple Waba Application
import waba.ui.*; import waba.fx.*; public class HelloWorld extends MainWindow { public void onPaint(Graphics g) { g.setColor(0, 0, 0); g.drawText("Drawing text...", 0, 0); } }
The source code for Waba seems to be free, and Waba itself is free. Some of the tools and portings to other operating systems or platforms have been made by those other than Wabasoft, and there seems to be quite an active community around Waba.
There are also companies that make and sell virtual machines (VMs). Some of the best-known VMs are Jbed and crème. Jbed, formerly known as Jeode, was recently sold to Esmertec and is not sold in customer markets. However some devices have factory-installed Jbed/Jeode.
But crème, a virtual machine from NSICom (http://www.nsicom.com), is still available and supports PersonalJava, J2ME Personal Profile, and MIDP. It installs on the web browser (Windows CE, handheld PC, and Pocket PC) and can then run Java applications. There's a free trial, so give it a try if you're interested.