Talk to us?

Hi Monica,

It's been a while (1.5 years) since I last downloaded Java and Forte, and I am more confused than ever. We are three Software Engineers trying to get it to work, and we have now spent a week on this. Perhaps we are missing something, but I would bet that so are you guys. Our goal was very simple. We wanted to download latest J2SE and J2ME and write a server and a midlet. We decided to use Sun One, as we had previously used forte. We have yet to get a functioning environement, and have almost given up on Java and Sun One. Here are the exact steps we took, I hope others will learn from this, and maybe you (monica) can offer us some guidance in how to reach our target...

1. Went to java.sun.com and started browing around. Downloaded J2SE 1.4.2_01. Piece of cake.

2. Found link to Sun One, and after much reading of documentation also found the right version, 5. Downloaded and installed. Piece of cake.

3. Wrote a simple demo server, compiled, ran, pirce of cake.

(this is were the bad part starts)

4. Now we realised we needed MIDP2.0. We looked all over. First we went to java.sun.com, clicked on J2ME, found MIDP2 which links to J2ME wireless toolkit. Not quite what we expected, we just wanted the classes (and source code) installed with the J2SE SDK. Apparently not how this works. Eventually after much reading we downloaded WTK2.0.

5. No good. Sun One still did not understand what a midlet was, and although we brosed a lot, we could find no help.

6. Next day, tried again. When I started Sun One, it asked if I wanted to update, and miraculously I said yes, and was led to the update choices that included J2ME for Windows. I would NEVER have found it otherwise. Knowing this, I actually managed to find this documented somewhere in Sun One studio. OK, so we downloaded that, rebooted Sun One, and were now able to create a midlet.

7. Midlet cannot compile. javax.microedition is not recognised. My new midlet project doesn't work. In desperation I switch back to my server project. That cannot compile either now. Java.net is mysteriously missing. During one of my trials, I close studio and opens it again. Now my server works, yeah, java.net is found! I switch to see if the midlet project works too. Nope. javax still not found.

8. Next day. I start Sun One (remember last project open was the midlet project). IT COMPILES. However the editor shows a lot of errors (the internal compiler or parser or whatever). But apparently the errors indicated in the editor are not real, since it actually compiles. I switch to my server. Java.net not found. Hmmm a pattern. I realise that the last project that was open before I close studio is the one that works when studio is reopened.. Aha. The solution is to have TWO versions of studio open at the same time, with different projects. Of course, First I open one, which works. Then I open one more, switch projects, close it, reopen it, and now that works with the OTHER project. Nice GUI if I ever saw one :-(.

9. Errors and warnings in editor will not go away. I browse the help, and the only information about the internal compiler says there are some settings under Options. I go there. The tab that is shown in the help does not exist. I give up.

10. I browse the forums and find your plea to talk to you. I do.

Here is what you (SUN) needs to do, very specifically, to get back on track (I'm talking J2ME specifically, you can extrapolate to other technologies).

1. Create 1 page, easy to find under J2ME, that describes the EXACT steps to get J2SE, J2ME, Sun One, working together seamlessly on one machine. Step by step, no links to other places, no references to obscure documents. PLEASE MAKE IT EASY FOR US. We want to DEVELOP, not fight the environment. I consider myself and my friends fairly smart, we are senior developers, and maybe others here will disagree, but if we can't figure it out, others can't either.

2. Simplify your web page. It was great 2-3-4 years ago with one Java technology. It is an eternal maze of links now, mostly circular, sometimes useful, mostly not. The amount of repeat information is HUGE. Write information ONE time, ONE place, and make sure links go to places that actually helps the user. Maybe we missed the critical information we needed. But it really should not be necessary to read document after FAQ after FORUM after Document to install a simple thing like this.

3. Provide ALL the modules with Sun One, OR, create a specific J2ME version that forces the download of the correct ones.

4. Fix (or help us) with the very annoying problem of the inline parser, since most of our midlet code is still marked as full of errors, and fairly hard to read. I have no clue after several days how to fix this.

Sorry about the long reply, we got frustrated, and we WANT Sun to DO WELL. Java is great, Sun One could be. Currently I think we'll go with Borland (although it kills us!).

I hope you can write this all down to me and my friends being a bit dim without a clue, maybe we did something wrong, maybe our story is exceptional. I hope you would be right in that, but.... not so sure.

Take care, hope to hear from you.

Anders Heie at 2007-7-1 20:41:56 >

Great input, guys.

Does anybody have any suggestions about technical articles, though? My project is really focusing on articles for the enterprise developer. For example, does anybody want to take a look at this one and comment on it?

http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/wspde/reference/techart/jaxrpcs2/index.html

or this one?

http://developers.sun.com/tools/javatools/articles/photoalbum.html

monicap at 2007-7-1 20:41:56 >

Unable to install Sun ONE Studio 4 on Redhat 9.0 Linux system. From the looks of posts on this forum, it looks like I'm not alone. Also noticed people with SuSE 8.2 and Mandrake 9.0 having similar problems.

It appears that the problem is with the Installation program and not with Studio software. Which makes the lack of support for newer Linux versions even more disconcerting. Has Sun given up on supporting non-Sun Linux with their tools?

Mark Waage at 2007-7-1 20:41:56 >