Reading this (long) discussion on GPL/LGPL and the new SW 5.0 it convinced
me to give j2me a try.
In just half a day, I was able to setup some j2me (MIDP 2.0/CLCD 1.0) env
*free* from Sun, IBM or Nokia.
Env come with library, documentations and emulators, in another half a day I
was able to run my Tennis Point Counter on top of j2me.
Algorithm is of course the same and it runs on both env, only the UI (in two
separate packages) is different. Thanks to OO, I can share some common
behaviors.
After setting up JAD for the Midlet it now runs on my Nokia phone, something
I'm still waiting for SW.
Partial conclusion.
-----------
J2ME:
Pro:
- THE standard
- runs on PPC, PalmOS (even OS 4.0 if you stick to midp 1.0), and lot of
phone (read more profit for shareware dev.)
- many tutorials, forums, codes, samples to find on Internet
- Free
- You can developp commercial, GPL or LGPL software, give the source or
not. You're *free*
Cons:
- SW has *many* more features
- Poor user interface
- You must test on more real devices because behaviour and presentation
change between devices
-----------
SW
Pro:
- clearly a better system
- good compatibility from devices to devices
- more classes, more features
Cons:
- no more free
- evolution unsure (SW 6.0 will change with native compiler? no more
java?)
- price could rise again
- if SW team do not success with the new biz model, we take a risk.
Partial conclusion:
For the moment I will stay with SW 4.5a but also will make more and more dev
with j2me.
Just in France, there are around 1M tennis player and at leat 200000 of them
play in tournament, if I suppose that 25% of them have a J2me compatible
phone, or they soon will have (50000) and 10% (5000) of them are ready to
pay 5$ to download my soft, I can expect 5x5000 = 25000 $.
**** I can expect more revenues from j2me than from SW and it's FREE!!
Many thanks to SW new biz model, I've seen the light!!!!