Just Starting - Which Tools

[siggy]

Hi Guys

I've been looking into developing for the Zaurus (SL-5500).
This is a new to me, so I've been searching & reading all day.  
Reading faq's and tutorials, etc.  

After reading about the 'cross-compiling option' (for which all the info is aimed at a linux development platform) I decided that using Java might be a more straightforward way to get some app's up & running using my winXP PC as the development platform.

Anyway, I read a 'Java Programming on the Sharp Zaurus' article, which gave a simple java example, but which went into PersonalJava & personal profile java 'standards', which in turn confused the hell out of me!

So I thought I'd ask for a little help here, as I've not come across a noob type faq or tutorial so far & I'm starting to go cross eyed ).

I'm downloading j2sdk-1.4.2 at the moment (but I could have chosen j2sdk5 - what's the difference!?).  

Will this sdk be okay to produce Java app's for the Zaurus?
Does anyone have any suggestions as to which dev tools to use?

Thanks in advance for any help

Cheers

Siggy

[stupkid]

The SDK that offers the most compatibility is JDK 1.1.8, which targets personal java.  Here is something I put in another thread on this subject:

"Java Personal Profile (J2ME PP) with CDC included with C series is J2SE 1.3 based. This not to be confused with PersonalJava or Jeode which are JDK 1.1 based ( http://java.sun.com/products/personaljava/index.jsp ). This should also not be confused with Java Personal Basis Profile (J2ME PBP) ( http://java.sun.com/products/personalbasis/index.jsp ). Several aspects of the PP and PBP APIs are replaced with leaner JDK 1.1 and neither have the swing API.

This page has info about J2ME PP:

http://java.sun.com/products/personalprofile/index.jsp

You can download the J2ME PP specification here:

http://jcp.org/aboutJava/communityprocess/...r062/index.html

To quote the J2ME PP specification:

"Personal Profile 1.0 is based upon J2ME Foundation Profile (JSR-46), version 1.0. Specifically, Personal Profile 1.0 includes Foundation Profile 1.0. It is also a superset of the J2ME Personal Basis Profile (JSR-129), version 1.0. With respect to APIs in the java.* packages, it is a subset of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE), version 1.3.1. Applications written to these APIs in Personal Profile 1.0 are therefore upward-compatible to J2SE 1.3.1."

To read about the various revisions of J2ME here:

http://java.sun.com/j2me/

Confused yet? You should be. "

If you look on Sun's J2ME site you can download all sorts of software tools and documentation.  All of the Zaurus Java VMs are a subset of the desktop versions.  So, you will not be able to take advantage of everything that is on the "full" versions of Java on your Zaurus.

Good Luck!

-Bryan

[kopsis]

After reading about the 'cross-compiling option' (for which all the info is aimed at a linux development platform) I decided that using Java might be a more straightforward way to get some app's up & running using my winXP PC as the development platform.

I normally don't try to "evangelize" Java alternatives in a Java forum, but it sounds like you don't have your heart set on writing Java. If that's true, you may wish to consider Python as an alternative. You can develop and run PyQt apps (using the free 2.3 version of Qt) on your XP box and then run them on a Zaurus with a Python environment with little or no modification and no need for any cross development tools or special SDKs. Have a look at the topics in the Python section (particularly the references topic) for more info.

[siggy]

Hi Guys

thanks for the replies.  I'll follow them up with some reading tomorrow.

You're right about not having settled on a development language / route as yet!
I'm just trying to get an overview of developing something for my zaurus, which is easier said than done (at least for me so far).  It's all so confusing....  but I'll keep going for a while    

Thanks again for all replies & advice offered.

Cheers

Siggy

[Tehas]

Just to add my $.02.  I've been using the Sun J2SE 1.4 SDK to write apps for both the PC and for they Zaurus.  When writing stuff for the Z, I restrict screens to only use AWT components and not Swing.  

I've been using the Netbeans IDE from netbeans.org.  The main reason that I went with it is because of its built-in screen painter.  It allows you do design screens similar to how you'd do it with VB.  It writes all the background code for listeners and events so you can concentrate on the "business" code.

[siggy]

Hi Tehas

do you have to set any compile options (ie. -target 1.1) to get it to work through netbeans?
I ask because I comipled a helloworld prog but it didn't work.

Cheers

Siggy

[Tehas]

I didn't use any special compile options.  What's the error?