Developing *mobile* applications; which platform has fewer serious problems - J2ME or Flash? | Hacker News Reader

Developing mobile applications; which platform has fewer serious problems - J2ME or Flash?

4 pointsjuwo12 comments

As of now, you cannot compare Flashlite and J2ME. Its almost like comparing Javascript with Java. Flashlite has very limited capabilities . Add to it the limited capabilities of a mobile device.

If your application want to access phone's file system(r/w), or want to access phone's camera, FlashLite alone wont help. [its only possible with a java or python wrapper]

From my personal experience Flashlite is most suited for making quick visual demos/prototypes [within hours].

Right now Adobe is working on Flashlite 3.0 , which is expected to be the most robust release ever, complete with flv video support.

One great thing about flashlite is that, if you build and test on a single device, you can deploy it on ANY flashlite enabled device without any change[subject to some device factors like support for screensavers, wallpapers etc.].This 'build once, deploy anywhere concept ' is unheard of in J2ME development world.

Yes, I need to access the file system rw and camera. With Flashlite, I wonder if you have to be online also.

You will have to use a custom built Java or Python wrapper to access filesystem /camera.

Here is an example for a python implementation: http://code.google.com/p/flyer

Once installed Flashlite acts almost like a flash engine from which you can run swf created for flashlite.

So how does flashlite manage to support all devices bug free? Do they just have better quality checks? Like phone might have differing sound chips or whatever, the VM has to account for it. Somehow I doubt that flashlight will be so much more successful than Java with portability?

Actually I think you can deploy Java on all Java devices, if you heed certain constraints. But then the application probably won't look very good and will lack some usability features (ie maybe you wouldn't use the soft-keys for navigation or you wouldn't use fullscreen mode, and no sound).

A big problem of mobile Java is the inconsistent font support, though - maybe if flashlights has better standards, it would be a huge improvement. With Java, you don't know how the fonts really look, and measuring the fonts dimensions is usually unreliable, too. So creating a decent layout is really difficult...

All of the high end (Nokia S80 style) phones can do flash light but there are still problems with it. J2ME runs across nearly all phones but some of the older phones (Nokia S40 style) have very small screens and the Java runtime seems to be painfully slow (the cpu's are quite beefy buy I suspect the memory access is slooooow). Be aware that despite it being Java there are quirks across the 50+ mobile phones that are in common use around the world. There are a lot of small companies that specialize in testing across this range though.

I thought Java was quite fast on Series 40, but of course it is slow on some phones, no question.

j2me is much more widespread. You could even give Hecl a whirl to put together a prototype ( http://www.hecl.org - just remember to get it from subversion rather than the SF download).

Thanks - I shall look into it. I remember reading that there were even more issues with J2ME running portably, than there are with Java in the browser on desktops.

oh boy, I can tell that just by asking this question you clearly know nada about the mobile world...

good luck, don't let it discourage you.

Yes, I am new to the mobile world - that is why I asked the question!

you're better off using wap/ mobile XHMTL

Windows Mobile

Reply on news.ycombinator.com