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Programming Wireless Devices with the Java(TM)2 Platform, Micro Edition (2nd Edition) Review by W Boudville
Upgrade to MIDP 2 and CLDC 1.1
The market for small devices (cellphones, PDAs, watches,...) with computational ability, but much less so than a standard PC or laptop is potentially vast. No one disputes this. Its allure is enhanced by there being no overly dominant player hoovering up over 50% of the profits, like Microsoft and Intel collectively in PCs.
Logically, Sun sees growth here and this book is part of its frenetic rollout. It differs from the first edition because of significant upgrades to the 2 standards its describes. The Connected Limited Device Configuration (CLDC) went from version 1 in 1999 to 1.1 in 2002. It added more features that the book describes in detail. Basically, they give a richer compatibility with standard java (J2SE). The other standard, Mobile Information Device Profile (MIDP) went from version 1 to 2 in 2002. To developers the key additions were APIs for sound and games. In retrospect, MIDP 1 was indeed primitive, to lack these.
Commercially, the MIDP 2 changes in the book may be more important than the CLDC changes. It means that you can now develop games and other applications using sound, at a high enough level of abstraction that they can be run on a broader range of hardware. Well at least that is the idea. I have not done so. But the book's explanation seems logical and thorough enough to make this plausible. Undoubtedly, if you and others follow this path, gaps or insufficiencies will be found, leading to the next increments of the standards.
If you are still clutching the first edition of this book, or any other book that only covers CLDC 1 or MIDP 1, then drop it. Obsolete. Upgrade here.