Android - Estimate port of BlackBerry app with PIM and networking

Question

I have a J2ME CLDC Blackberry app which I need to port to the Android. Some of the features:

• client/server communication using HTTPS
• reading/writing PIMs, files on device memory, SD card
• listeners on PIMs changes
• small UI: login page and simple status screen

Lines of code: 4000

Any idea what is the amount of work to do that? Let say if Blackberry app took X days, is the port going to take X/4 days, X/2 days, X days?

Laurent

Answer 1

About 15-20 days, for a first beta. Very very wild guess though.

Answer 2

I would say 6 to 8 weeks.

Answer 3

My opinion is android has better API in common:

• networking is simple and auto configured, but may be extended as well, use javax.net.ssl or android.net
• PIM is accessed by ContentProviders, which may take a little time to port
• IO operations are simple, use files or sqlite
• PIM listeners - can't tell anything need to be investigated, see Contact Listener
• UI design - completely different approach, ui (usual) is declarative, saved in xml, so this will require redesign and resources prepare.

Be prepared to redesign application totally, even business part may be improved with typed lists, extended math functions and db functionality.

But still, it depends on you're skills, so if you good in android I'd say it's x/3, otherwise x/2.

Answer 4

Best guess is 8 weeks