The J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition) technology is still relatively new. Strong mobile development tools, especially IDEs, will greatly help J2ME’s adoption among wireless application developers. In this article, I review four J2ME IDE products:

• Borland JBuilder 7 Enterprise with MobileSet 3
• Sun Microsystems’ Sun ONE (Open Network Environment) Studio 4 Mobile Edition
• Metrowerks CodeWarrior Wireless Studio 7
• S5 Systems’ jVise (based on IBM Eclipse technology)

Landscape of J2ME development tools

Different wireless devices have different limitations in terms of memory size, screen size, input methods, and computing speed. Also, vendors’ J2ME implementations might contain vendor-specific add-on APIs that leverage special underlying hardware/OS features.

The diversified device market naturally results in diversified development tools. Each device vendor has its own SDK, device emulators, and performance analysis tools. Some SDKs even come with their own build project-management and source-code editing tools. One example is Sun’s J2ME Wireless ToolKit (J2MEWTK). J2MEWTK contains a reference implementation of J2ME/MIDP (Mobile Information Device Profile) and has multiple device emulators that run on Unix/Linux and Windows platforms. J2MEWTK also has performance profile tools and real memory usage monitors. All those tools can be administrated from a central control panel called kToolBar. kToolBar can also build and package ready-to-deploy JAR/Jad programs from development directories. However, mastering all these tools and testing applications on all emulators can prove tedious.

A J2ME IDE eases development by integrating device vendor SDKs with other tools. Developers can then have a unified IDE interface for all supported SDKs. IDEs also improve developer productivity and the quality of deliverable applications.

JBuilder 7 Enterprise with MobileSet 3

Borland JBuilder is a renowned Java IDE with three editions: Personal, Standard (SE), and Enterprise. All JBuilder editions can run on multiple platforms including Windows, Linux, Solaris, and Mac OS X. To support J2ME development on JBuilder, you must install an add-on module called MobileSet. Currently MobileSet only runs on Windows, but support for more platforms is planned.

Sun ONE Studio 4 Mobile Edition

Formerly known as Forte for Java, Sun ONE Studio uses NetBeans technology to integrate external modules into the IDE. Sun ONE Studio comes with three editions: Community, Mobile, and Enterprise for Java. The Community and Mobile editions are free; Enterprise for Java costs ,995 and has sophisticated J2EE development and deployment features. You can obtain a 60-day free trial license for Enterprise for Java from Sun’s Website.

Sun ONE Studio is distributed online and on a CD. The CD contains all editions of Sun ONE Studio 4 on all supported platforms as well as J2SE and J2EE. Installation is easy.

Metrowerks CodeWarrior Wireless Studio 7

Metrowerks CodeWarrior Wireless Studio 7 Professional Edition comes with two installation CDs and two guidebooks. One guidebook shows you how to get started with Wireless Studio; the other is a general CodeWarrior IDE manual, which is not Java specific.
CodeWarrior does not have a free or evaluation edition. The Professional Edition I reviewed costs 99 if you buy online. However, the company does have discounted software for noncommercial academic users (19 per license). CodeWarrior Wireless Studio 7 only runs on Windows platforms.

jVise from S5 Systems

The jVise IDE is based on the open source Eclipse project. Eclipse itself only provides a core set of IDE functionalities in a runtime engine. However, the design philosophy behind Eclipse is to leverage the open source community efforts. Vendors or individual mobile developers can add additional features and extend the Eclipse IDE through plug-ins. The plug-in specifications and standards are completely open. Since Eclipse source code is covered under the IBM Public License, vendors can bundle and distribute value-added plug-ins with the entire core IDE in their product CD or download.
S5 Systems develops J2ME/MIDP compilers, libraries, and runtime environments as Eclipse plug-in modules. Those modules enable Eclipse to compile J2ME source code and execute J2ME applications. J2ME-compatible Eclipse plug-ins are only a small part of jVise. Its real value comes from S5 Systems’ proprietary J2ME obfuscation, code reduction, J2ME application verification, and Java Post Processor tools that are built into jVise.

Each of the four IDEs reviewed in this article provides reasonable J2ME application development support. If you are already comfortable with a particular IDE’s standard or enterprise version, you don’t need to switch to another.

Source: javaworld.com