First steps to begin developing with J2ME

Question

I am a .NET programmer who needs to port one good Desktop OTP system already at work to be used into cell phones. As far I know J2ME is the correct answer to do it. I'll appreciate any good advice about IDE, first steps, books or any other information.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Well, Eclipse IDE have good J2ME support, or so I've heard.

For api, read the javadocs: http://java.sun.com/javame/reference/apis.jsp

You'll have to figure out which device you want to target, and grab its emulator.

Then, proceed making a hello world app with the aid of tutorials.

Answer 2

I would give NetBeans a try as well. Eclipse and NetBeans are very similar, but the differences can be night and day depending on your personal preferences. NetBeans also has great J2ME project support, and it is plug and play for any emulator of a device you may need to target, though I recommend sticking to the default or SonyEricsson's. Motorola's was always buggy and never reflected the device at all, and Nokia's was always sloooow.

Also, there are a ton of devices out there. Before you jump head first into this you should define a scope of exactly which devices you will need to target. This will have a huge impact on scheduling as porting is no small task.

Finally, just get your hands on the actual devices you need to target. Emulator is a good way to start, but there are always so many nuances and problems that pop up once you throw the app on the device that it's best to have your target devices from day one.