CDC finger-friendly

Question

Hello,

I've been working in a Java mobile project using j9 as a virtual machine. So far the project has been developed for an stylus interaction using AWT components. We want to create a new version of the application more finger-friendly the internal logic is working OK so we wanna keep it, it is just the interface that we want to update. From what I´ve read the alternative is the LWUIT library, however it is just for CLDC configuration or for JavaTV, and the implementation on Java TV apparently doesn't work on J9.

So, any suggestion? anyone have done something finger-friendly using j9?

I'm thinking in develop buttons as images and give the fight against the layouts to make it look good, In other words, create the finger-friendly library from AWT, but I still having doubts about this approach, because there are some things that i don't know if possible, like the finger drag&drop to move between pages.

Anyway, any Ideas of how should I approach this challenge will be very appreciated!

Thanks,

Gustavo.

Answer 1

As far as mobile java on mobile windows, J9 is the way to go. I've used it for a few projects and it fit the bill perfectly. I used it on a rugged hand-held device and developed a few applications for measuring shellfish. The interface was geared for both left and right handed people and aimed at the stylus as well fingertip interaction.

I think the toolkits you're looking for are SWT and JFace. JFace is what gives you the flexibility to create really slick UI elements without a lot of code. There will be some small differences between your GUI designer and the actual device display - but nothing horrifying. Installing and configuring the jars on the device is pretty simple, and if you integrate rapitools and the cab wizard into your ant build you can come up with some slick deployment and installer solutions.

Grab this book and get started.