Wasn't the idea of JavaFX, and the upcoming jigsaw, amongst other things, to actually do what y'all are asking for? Eliminate J2ME as a separate entity stuck in the past and just make it a lighter profile J2SE?
You must have some respect for the idea that java 1.5, as is, works with a new class file format which those older phones cannot deal with, so updating J2ME would involve stripping some functionality which cant be retrofitted to the older class spec (example: annotations), and down-compiling everything else (I forgot the name but there used to be a tool that took java v1.5 classes and rewrote them to be compatible with v1.4 and below runtimes, though of course it would just strip out annotations wholesale, and you obviously couldn't use any newly introduced API (including generics reflection). So, sure, it's not impossible and it would have been nice if the J2ME build tools got updated so you could just program with generics, and even use J2SE-targeted libraries which a 'devolving compiler' will downgrade to whatever works on J2ME, and if it detects usage of API or features that just cannot be downgraded, an error with a useful message would result. Just saying its somewhat harder than it might seem. On Feb 17, 2:38 pm, Jess Holle <[email protected]> wrote: > Brian Frank wrote: > > You are correct - J2ME is still basically stuck at a subset of 1.4. > > Unbelievable as that it is, those of working with embedded systems are > > still stuck in 2002. > > > Personally, I find the fact that there is even the notion of a J2ME > > silly. If Java had a proper module system in the first place, then > > J2ME would just be the kernel/VM module and could have easily tracked > > the core language. > > The notion of J2ME would still be there, I believe, but just be easy to > keep in sync with J2SE. > > Whether or not they made it easy on themselves, though, it is hard to > justify leaving J2ME back in 2002 -- /especially /with all the renewed > focus on mobile via JavaFX mobile, etc. > > Above and beyond anything else, leaving J2ME back in Java 1.4 > unnecessarily fragments Java mindshare. Anyone but the most > stick-in-the-mud, ultra-conservative (those on old versions of > WebSphere, this does mean you amongst others) should be on Java 5 or > higher -- except, of course, that Sun gives the J2ME world no choice, > thus forcing part of the Java community to live in the past and making > it harder for all of us to move forward together. > > -- > Jess Holle --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
