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Title: Enterprise J2ME: Developing Mobile Java Applications by Michael Juntao Yuan ISBN: 0-13-140530-6 Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR Pub. Date: 20 October, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $49.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A great survey of mobile technologies
Comment: I go to Java Users Groups (yes, I'm struggling to get in touch with my inner geek) once every two or three months. Sometimes there's an engaging speaker, but most of the time the fellow up front looks like he's just swallowed a hot pepper, speaks like he has a permanent stutter, and answers questions like I'm speaking Greek. (I'm not making fun; I had a hard time when I was in front of a JUG too.) Regardless of the quality of the speaker, I gain something just by watching the presentation--he points out interesting technologies and usually has a list of resources at the end that I can use for further research.
I think Michael Yuan would be a great speaker at a JUG, as he seems to have a masterful understanding of Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME). However, the true value of his book, Enterprise J2ME, was in its introduction of new ideas and concepts, and the extensive resource listings. This book is a survey of the current state of the art in mobile java technology. Whatever your topic is, except for gaming development, you'll find some coverage here. Securing information on the device or network, XML parsing strategies, messaging architectures, and data synchronization issues are all some of the topics that Yuan covers.
My favorite chapter was Chapter 7, 'End to End Best Practices.' Here, Yuan covers some of the things he's learned in developing his own enterprise applications, and offers some solutions to five issues that differ between the J2ME world and the worlds familiar to most Java developers: J2EE and J2SE. He offers capsule solutions to the issues of "limited device hardware, slow unreliable networks, pervasive devices, ubiquitous integration [and] the impatient user." Later in the book, he explores various architectures to expand on some of these capsules.
However, the strength of this book, exposing the reader to a number of different mobile technologies, is also its weakness. JUG speakers very rarely dive into a technology to the point that I feel comfortable using it without additional research; I usually have to go home, download whatever package was presented, and play with it a bit to get a real feel for its usefulness. This book was much the same. Some of the chapters, like chapters 12 and 13, where issues with databases on mobile devices (CDC devices, not CLDC devices) weren't applicable to my kind of development, but you can hardly fault Yuan for that. Some of the later chapters felt like a series of 'hello world' applications for various vendors. This is especially true of chapter 12, and also of chapter 20, which is a collection of recipes for encryption on the device.
Additionally, I feel like some of the points he raised in Chapter 7 are never fully dealt with. An example of this is section 7.3.3, "Optimize for many devices." The project I'm on is struggling with this right now, but I had trouble finding any further advice on this important topic beyond this one paragraph section. However, these small issues don't take away from the overall usefulness of the book--if you are developing enterprise software, you'll learn enough from this book to make its purchase worthwhile.
However, I wouldn't buy the book if you're trying to learn J2ME. Yuan gives a small tutorial on basic J2ME development in Appendix A, but you really need an entire book to learn the various packages, processes and UI concerns of J2ME, whether or not you have previously programmed in Java. Additionally, if you're trying to program a standalone game, this book isn't going to have a lot to offer you, since Yuan doesn't spend a lot of time focused on UI concerns and phone compatibility issues. Some of the best practices about limited hardware may be worth reading, and if it's a networked game, however, you may gain from his discussions in Chapter 6, "Advanced HTTP Techniques." In general though, I'm not sure there's enough to make it worth a game developer's while.
I bought this book because I'm working on a networked J2ME application, and it stands alone in its discussion of the complex architectural issues that such applications face. It covers more than that, and isn't perfect, but it is well worth the money, should you be facing the kind of problems I am. Indeed, I wish I had had this book months ago, as I'm sure it would have improved the my current application.
Rating: 4
Summary: Advanced J2ME
Comment: Unlike many J2ME books that focus on CLDC/MIDP, this book also covers CDC/Personal Profile and J2ME support for high-end (32Mb+) PDA devices. I've been using IBM's pervasive tools to develop Java for PocketPC. In this book, Michael Yuan has answered questions I've had about IBM's SMF that IBM consultants could not answer.
As of December, 2003, the content in this book appears to be all up-to-date. Mobile computing is a fast changing world and having a current reference is very valuable to me.
One topic that Yuan has omitted: SWT. I develop rich GUI applications for PocketPC devices where AWT and SWT are the only two choices for UI components. I'm not a big fan of SWT, but given the choice I usually pick SWT over AWT simply because the SWT pallet is much richer than AWT.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great for experienced J2ME developers
Comment: Review
Michael Yuan has done a great job on writing a book that goes well beyond the basics. While the concept of developing mobile applications with Java has seen much hype over the years, the actual software has yet to hit the critical mass. Yuan goes beyond the basics to take the developer to the next level of mobile development.
The book assumes more than beginning level J2ME knowledge. If you've never dealt with J2ME, you'll need to start with a book such as Wireless J2ME Platform Programming by Vartan Piroumian. This will give you the foundation you need in order to tackle the concepts here.
The layout of the book is well done for combining both conceptual and practical knowledge. The author starts out with a brief discussion of the subject, such as why best practices are necessary when developing for a mobile platform. The end of each chapter lists a number of additional resources (both books and web sites) that provide additional information on the subject. In between those two feature is plenty of practical knowledge, along with actual code you can use to implement the type of application being discussed. If you already have the prerequisite background in J2ME development, you'll get a lot out of this book.
Summary
For those who are tasked with building J2ME software, this is a book you need to read. There is plenty of solid material, both concepts and actual code, to take you to the next level of mobile application development.
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Title: Wireless Java: Developing with J2ME, Second Edition by Jonathan Knudsen ISBN: 1590590775 Publisher: APress Pub. Date: 26 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $34.99 |
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Title: J2ME: The Complete Reference by James Keogh ISBN: 0072227109 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media Pub. Date: 27 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $59.99 |
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Title: Java Development on PDAs: Building Applications for Pocket PC and Palm Devices by Daryl Wilding-McBride ISBN: 0201719541 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 04 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: MIDP 2.0 Style Guide for the Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition by Cynthia Bloch, Annette Wagner ISBN: 0321198018 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: 10 June, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.99 |
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Title: Mobile and Wireless Design Essentials by Martyn Mallick ISBN: 0471214191 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 23 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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