Pocket Programming Language 1.30 released! - Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General

ArianeSoft Inc's PPL 1.30 has finally been released!
The easiest Smartphone and PocketPC developement tool is now faster, slimmer, more stable and cheaper. Build amazing games and GUI applications for the Smartphone and PocketPC today.
PPL Profesional has a new low price of only $69.95 USD. The Standard version is $35.95 USD.
Get PPL Pro now http://store.esellerate.net/s.asp?s=STR5900755369&Cmd=BUY&SKURefnum=SKU92325858335
PPL 1.30 includes:
- Brand new installer that supports Smartphones, PocketPC and PC all in one.
- Brand new compiled file (.PPC) loader, which is a lot faster and requires less memory.
- Multiple control selection support in the PIDE visual form builder.
- Multi-layer alpha transparency support for sprites and surfaces.
- Many GameAPI enhancements, including fixes, optimizations, new functions and features.
- Support for PNG file format added on the PC and PocketPC.
- Tons of new integrated functions to simplify your life.
- SQLite v3 database engine support on PC and PocketPC.
- FMOD and BASS sound libraries support.
- New Phone API library to access Smartphone's features.
- Package file enhancements allow working directly from disk to save precious memory space.
- Huge compiler memory optimizations.
- Reduced footprint of each linked list element by more than 75%.
- New memory management functions for lighting fast allocation of small blocks of memory.
- Tons of bug fixes and other optimizations.
Download PPL 1.30 now http://arianesoft.ca/download.php?view.36
Learn more about PPL at http://www.arianesoft.ca/page.php?1 and visit our forums if you have questions http://www.arianesoft.ca/forum.php

What an advertisement...?

Keyone said:
What an advertisement...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt it, probably a subtle hint to guys like AC to try his slidelock program with the new version. There may be performance increases, as well as new functionality that his already great program might be able to take advantage of. Just a guess though.

Well don't forget, the famous slide 2 unlock application is created by using the ppl programming lanquage. So those wishing to tweak their own version of a s2u might be interested in using it with the available source code or other applications / games for their pocket pc for that matter.
sorry didn't see your post above nmeister.

What are the limitations of the trial version??

i already tried compiling slide2unlock with the latest beta version.. didn't solve the OS compatibility issues still

Related

What are the best books on WM5

Hi all,
I am new to WM5.0 programming but programmed for Winodws so i have some questions plz :wink:
does eVC++ 4.0 support developing for WM5.0?
what are the best books available for learning WM5.0 programming?
Mohammad
Best Book? You mean "Any"?
We have the same problem. The only book on CE 5.0 is in Chinese.
We ordered the newest CE book avilable, it's from 2003.
But there's a lot of CE documentation from Microsoft, and of course you can learn a lot here.
this is really strange, we find thousands of books about VC++, VB and others... isnt there a bool on WM5??
Not even CE 5.0, let alone WM 5.0.
But a lot of those VC# and C++ books are very pertinent.
Don't know of any books, but I can answer you question about eVC 4.
You can develop apps that will run on WM5, but you can't use WM5 SDK.
Mainly, this means that if you want to use a WM5 specific functions (not many of those) you have to go through LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress instead of direct linking.
Thanks, but I have installed eVC++ 4.0 and its sp4, when I try to run it, it tells me that it cant run because no sdk was found, so what to do if WM5.0 sdk cant be used with eVC++ 4.0??? do I have to use VS .NET 2005?
thanks all
Mohammad
mohgdeisat: You need to install the previous WM2003 SDK and can then develop apps in the normal way, that will run on WM2003 and WM5. What you can't do without WM5 SDK is develop apps JUST for WM5.
However, I imagine that you can install the WM5 SDK anyway, and directly use the Libaries and Headers manually, just by pointing the project settings to load libraries from the WM5 directories.
I do this in quite a few of my WM2003 apps anyway.
This will still make a WM2003 app, but it will support WM5 features, if you're lucky.
I don't suggest installing Visual Studio unless you have to, but if you're serious about developing on WM5, then I very much recommend it.
And remember, Microsoft gives a free trial version of the Professional version, for download (2.7gb).
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=59991&highlight=visual+studio+trial
If you have to reinstall every 3 months, it's still cheaper then buying it I guess. :wink:
V
Actually, you can't install the WM5 SDK unless you have the studio. I tired and got the message "You have no products that can use this SDK installed ..."
It wouldn't let me continue.
If someone knows of a workaround for this (that does not include installing VS 2005) I would be glad to hear it.
Take apart the cabs/installers and extract the headers and libraries.
I can zip them up if you want, I suppose.
I may be confusing myself with Platform Builder, but that's how I'd do it if I had to.
V
Thanks for the idea V and the offer. No need to zip the stiff though.
Thanks guys,
I am really interested in building WM applications as I believe that WM development will have a giant jump in then next years.
I am ready to install VS .NET 2005, but I am not interested in developing .NET applications for WM5.0 environment, I read about CF and CE programming and I came up with a conclusion that if I want to develop serious commercial and robust applications then I should use C++, either pure WinAPI programming or at least use miniMFC library.
I really care very much about robustness and resource usage of applications, I also want to use a productive development tool/environment.
My question is, when you compare between miniMFC vs pure WinAPI programming you find miniMFC more productive, yet WinAPI is more robus,portable and efficient, so I have to compromise here... What do u think should I use miniMFC or WinAPI? does the development in WinAPI bring great performance advantages over miniMFC?
Thank you
Mohammad
I think you are missing something here.
MFC (mini or not) is basically a collection of prepared code. It still uses win32 API (there is no getting away from them unless you are using .NET) but it raps them up in convenient classes. If you are writing a large app, with a lot of interface components (multiple dialogs, view windows etc) MFC can save you a whole lot of coding, though statically linking it will add about 0.5MB to your app size.
Using MFC also doesn't exclude using win32 API directly to reclaim functionality that MFC skips.
When writing small utilities or system add-ons like today plug-ins it is best not to use MFC to reduce app size.
While I agree with you 100% that .NET CF is still to resource hungry for Pocket PC and Smartphone devices, it should be noted that when writing large GUI rich apps that require database or other outside components using .NET saves a whole lot of work for the programmer (while the user pays the price in speed and memory).
Thank you,
I know that MFC wraps win32 api in classes for the ease of use, it has also a good OO hierarchy, and this is very good, it increases productivity but as far as I know there are costs when using MFC library, those include Exe file size, memory usage, and even cpu resource usage.
As I read from many books, programming windows applications using pure Win API enhances performance (speed/resource usage) but I dont know to what degree it enhances performance.
in short, MFC is more productive, easy and well managed.. but WinAPI is more efficient.. but when I use Win API program development will take longer time than it takes with MFC, so is using Win API (no MFC) is justified by its performance advantages over MFC (or miniMFC)??
Thanks
Does .Net have something like JIT Compiler?
mohgdeisat, sorry, I misunderstood you. When you asked if you should use MFC or pure win32 API I assumed you thought they were mutually exclusive.
I haven't actually measured this with any tool, but from writing apps both ways I can tell you that while file size can get significantly larger (by as much as 0.5MB maybe more) as far as speed is concerned there seem to be no noticeable difference.
Also you have the option to link to MFC dynamically which will eliminate the increase of your exe size.
The difference in programming effort is very noticeable, specially when building dialogs and handling their controls. What needs only a couple lines of code with MFC is likely to take whole functions without.
So for a large program I recommend you to use MFC or look in to some alternatives like ATL.

The (Java) MIDlet Bible

(Note that this Bible does NOT discuss Java applets or applications. For more info on running applets under Windows Mobile, see the Web Browsing Bible; for application-related info, see my generic Java articles.)
You may have already heard at least of Java games (more precisely, MIDlets) running on almost all current “dumb” phones. These games are all the rage today, especially with teenagers, which also means there are thousands of sometimes really high-quality games for ordinary phones, all written using the portable Java language, ready to be played on (almost) any kind of mobile phone. Just an example: in THIS HowardForums thread, the topic starter post lists some (but not all!) games available for the Samsung QVGA 240x320 phones (d600, d900, e900 etc – not only Windows Mobile ones!). Quite an impressive list, isn’t it? And it’s just the tip of the iceberg – there are a lot more games, all waiting for you to purchase, download and run!
No, don’t think MIDlets are only for gamers and are absolutely useless otherwise. You can make a good use of them in the enterprise too. There are several solutions already for, for example, mobile payment, reservations etc. done using a MIDlet as opposed to the Web, which is, in a lot of cases, is much harder to access / operate on a small-screen device. Controlling for example your bank transfers via SMS can also be less intuitive and/or require a lot more work / data entry than using a GUI to do this. Other, known enterprise-related MIDlets are Jupiter, which is basically a financial data streaming program (also see THIS) and Betfair (also see THIS). Should you be interested in these “MIDlets in the Enterprise” questions, I really recommend Michael Juntao Yuan’s excellent book “Enterprise J2ME: Developing Mobile Java Applications” – I’ve learnt a LOT from it. Highly recommended!
1.1 Microsoft and third party MIDlet manager developers
Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t support Java (and its, in this Bible discussed subset, MIDlets) at all. The sole reason for this is the fact that Java is a direct competitor to the .NET (Compact) Framework, and is (also) supported by almost all major competitors of Microsoft; in the telco area, most importantly, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson (S-E), the two major players in producing “consumer”, “entertainment”, “not-strictly-enterprise” handsets.
This, unfortunately, means that, under Windows Mobile, MIDlets are not as widely supported as on competing mobile platforms; most importantly, Symbian. Nokia, S-E and the rest have spent a lot of $$$ on implementing really usable and top-notch MIDlet runner environments (MIDlet managers or KVM’s) in the last few years. Microsoft didn’t do the same, only third-party developers, who, because they considered Windows Mobile not to be a gaming platform, didn’t pay much attention to implementing a very good MIDlet manager on the platform (back then, there were far fewer enterprise / productivity MIDlets than today). Just an example: while the mid-2003 Nokia N-Gage certainly lacked at the MIDlet department (very few current games run on it and if they run – for example, the River Storm chopper simulator -, they are almost unplayably slow, as opposed to current Nokia handsets like the N95), the year 2005 Nokia 6680 already had almost flawless MIDlet support. For example, it even supports Bluetooth, which still (as of late 2007) hasn’t made it to the Windows Mobile MIDlet managers, “thanks” for the third-party, uninterested, unmotivated software developers’ neglecting the platform.
1.2 Is it worth it for gaming?
The lack of Microsoft’s commitment to the decent support of MIDlets, unfortunately, means Windows Mobile users are, generally, in a far direr situation than owners of phones from manufacturers involved in developing Java further and spending a lot of $$$ on making their Java support as good as possible. A perfect example of this is, as has already been stated, Nokia. Nokia’s latest, gaming-enabled, top-of-the-line smartphones (most importantly, the PowerVR 3D-accelerated N95 (-3 / 8GB ), the N93(i) (the jBenchmark page is HERE) and E90; the complete list of current phones, based on their 3D benchmark results, can be found HERE) run truly three-dimensional (and, therefore, hardware accelerated) MIDlets considerably faster and FAR better than anything on Windows Mobile. S-E, with its 3D accelerated, touchscreen Symbian UIQ 3 models like the W950, the P990 and the M600, shouldn’t be forgotten either.
1.2.1 3D support
Currently, I don’t know of any Windows Mobile devices with 3D hardware accelerated Java (MIDlet) graphics. The Aplix folks (developers of Jblend) told me their KVM does support the underlying 3D hardware accelerator. Unfortunately, the (very few) models available outside Japan that it comes with preinstalled do not have 3D acceleration and the (comparatively old) Jblend version available for installing on any device don’t show any kind of 3D acceleration support (I’ve tested this on my 3D accelerated, 2700G-based Dell Axim x51v). Therefore, I’m not really sure it will indeed work with, say, future GoForce 5500 (currently, the O2 XDA Flame and the Toshi G900 has the CPU (neither of them come with Jblend)) and/or the new Qualcomm 7200 chipset, which is to be found in several last-generation HTC and just-announced I-Mate handsets. I don’t think they’ll come with Jblend (why would HTC change their MIDlet manager OEM again, only about a year after switching to Esmertec from the dying TAO?) either. Let’s hope for the best (for example, Esmertec’s (re-)introducing M3G support with support for hardware acceleration into Jbed), though.
The situation, now that – unlike with the 2700G and the GoForce 5500 – the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset will be a de facto standard in many current- and most next-generation WM phones, will surely change in the future. I’m, however, pretty much sure you won’t see a 3D accelerated MIDlet manager any time soon under Windows Mobile. Again, software developers still consider Windows Mobile a non-gaming platform not really deserving 3D MIDlet acceleration.
What does this all mean? If you’ve got used to the quality of game MIDlets on your favorite Nokia N93(i)/N95/E90 or Sony-Ericsson handsets, you’ll be pretty much disappointed; particularly if you want to run 3D and/or Bluetooth (multiplayer)-based games.
1.2.2 Bluetooth support
Yes, the lack of Bluetooth is another major problem with all current Windows Mobile MIDlet managers. Don’t think of only multiplayer games – there are other uses of Bluetooth used from MIDlets; an example of them is Blooover (a great Bluetooth Sniffer), data exchange over Bluetooth and so on. You can find more information on the latter for example HERE.
Note that, as opposed to what the 4pda.ru folks stated, few games refuse to deploy / run because of the lack of the Bluetooth support. (See the main games compatibility chart for more info on these titles.)
1.2.3 Sound issues
There will be other problems too if you plan to play the HUGE library of MIDlet games available today. The most important of them is the bad sound emulation, which is quite big a problem with some MIDlet managers severely affecting the gaming experience. Actually, currently, it’s only Esmertec’s Jbed that didn’t have any problems playing back ALL the midi music I’ve thrown it at (and, of course, that of Nokia on Symbian); all the other (Windows Mobile) MIDlet managers had a much worse sound. In many cases, the music they produced was very hard to even recognize – in a way, they sounded like for example an SNES emulator running on a not-fast-enough Windows Mobile or Symbian phone.
1.2.4 Control issues
Furthermore, you’ll surely be faced control problems. Depending on the MIDlet manager you use AND the game you’re trying to run, you will face sometimes severe control problems. Either the two softkeys won’t work (not even on Pocket PC’s, where you can also try to use the stylus to “press” them) or the D-pad / Action button, or both. Note that there are some solutions to this problem (particularly if you have a Smartphone (or an, in this regard, similar Pocket PC phone like the Asus A525) with a hardware phonepad). I’ve elaborated on these questions in a separate article HERE (cross-posted to PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PocketGaming.de).
1.2.5 Screen size issues
The question of the screen size and MIDlets displayed in full screen mode should also be mentioned. As MIDlets are, generally, written for a multitude of different devices (to maximize revenue and minimize developing costs), they, generally, support three screen resolutions: 176*208 (the traditional Nokia screen size), 176*220 (the traditional Sony-Ericsson screen size which is, incidentally, the same as that of the traditional Windows Mobile Smartphone) and, finally, QVGA (240*320) – the screen size of the latest Nokia / Ericsson handsets and, of course, higher-end MS Smartphones. And, naturally, Pocket PC’s as well, which, in addition, may also have VGA (640*480) or even WVGA (800*480) screens.
MIDlet games come in two flawors: either dynamically stretching themselves to fill in the entire screen estate of the device they run on in-game (while, in most cases, using the least common denominator, that is, 176*208, to display menus), or fixed to a given resolution. Of course, using the former is preferable (when possible) because you will have a great chance of being able to run it on your even WVGA Pocket PC full-screen. Interestingly, the game speed will, in many cases, remain acceptable even at such high resolutions. This was one of the best surprises I’ve encountered during my thorough tests.
As opposed to the, technically, much more superior and mature Nokia MIDlet Manager, Windows Mobile KVM’s aren’t, generally, full-screen, which, unfortunately, mean some 20-25 or even 40-50 pixels at the bottom of MIDlets hard-coded to the QVGA resolution will be not shown on QVGA screens, depending on whether the actual MIDlet manager shows both (top and bottom) screen bars (TAO, IBM J9 or Jeodek M3G on the Smartphone platform) or “only” the top bar (Jeodek M3G on the PPC platform; non- M3G-capable Jeodek on both WM platforms, Jblend). Nevertheless, there will be missing information; in most cases, the softkey labels, but, with many games, also status messages, speedometers and the like. You can find a lot of comparative screenshots in both the previous 3D MIDlet article and the main game compatibility chart. In all these cases (when the missing information does get into your nerves), you will want to try very hard to, first, find a KVM that does full screen (Jbed or, if you can live with the bad or non-existing audio support, the full screen version of Jblend) and if they turn out to be unable to run your title, switch to a MIDlet version written for a device with a smaller screen (for example, the 176*220 version instead of the QVGA one). In the latter case, however, a large part of your screen estate will remain unused.
As far as application programs (Opera Mini, Gmail, Google Maps etc.) are concerned, they all dynamically stretch themselves to make use of the available screen estate; therefore, you won’t have problems with them on any device, with any MIDlet manager.
1.2.6 (Free) alternatives to MIDlet gaming
As several MIDlets are just rewrites of old classics like Bonk, you may find it useful to look around any online console ROM or abandonware game repository for versions of the game you plan to play. In a top-notch emulator like SmartGear, they might run FAR better than ANY MIDlet manager on your particular handset. Make sure you read ALL my previous, emulation-related articles (the Emulator category of my blog is HERE) to see what gaming console platforms there are and how they are emulated by Windows Mobile.
Just an example. The recently released Bonk’s Return runs MUCH slower (and/or using MUCH more battery) on all my test Windows Mobile devices than the same title under a PC Engine emulator like SmartGear.
All in all, if you find a MIDlet that you find a bit on the slow side, make sure you look around on, say, WikiPedia to see whether the game (originally) had handheld / desktop console versions (or, for that matter, a home computer one – even many home computers of the eighties and the early nineties are better emulated than MIDlets, particularly if you can’t use Jbed because of the compatibility issues). If it did, make sure you check out the console version first, under an emulator. Again, it can’t be stressed enough how important it is for you to thoroughly read through my console/computer emulation-related articles so that you know what emulators there are, how the original titles are emulated under Windows Mobile, what platforms to prefer when there are ports to multiple platforms of a given title etc. Yeah, I know you’ll end up having to spend hours to read all those articles, but, if you’re a hardcore gamer, you’ll certainly find it useful.
1.3 Is it worth it for non-gaming?
It definitely is; most importantly, for Web browsing with the brand new Opera Mini 4 (current, recommended version: beta 2) reviewed HERE. Opera Mini 4 is a freaking good and, what is more, FREE Web browser – in many cases, it’s preferable over all the other Web browsing solutions available for Windows Mobile.
There are other productivity MIDlets meant for non-vertical markets too; the most important example of this is the Gmail MIDlet, which offers a very nice alternative to browsing, searching, answering etc. your Gmail mailbox from your handheld, including Windows Mobile ones. It’s WAY better than any Web-based solutions (see the Web Browsing Bible for the why’s) and, given that it allows for using some really advanced functionality (for example, searching) on the server side (this wasn’t available before; now, Gmail has just implemented IMAP access (another, related PPCT thread), which might let do this from a capable IMAP client as well – see my IMAP Bible for more info), it might still be preferable on a device that, otherwise, is properly configured to access Gmail via POP3. You may also want to take a look at THIS, THIS, THIS, THIS and THIS thread / article too.
Note that now that Google has released an excellent, native Windows Mobile version of the client, (as of the current, 1.2.0.13 version) the need for the MIDlet version of Google Maps is decreased. The native version works just great on both WM platforms and is accessible HERE for download as a directly installable CAB file. Note that there may still be cases you will want to prefer the MIDlet (that is, non-native) version of this program; see for example the comments HERE, where user “fixup” complains of the native version’s keeping the backlight and the connection on (as opposed to running the Java version under a MIDlet manager), which both may lead to (vastly) increased battery consumption.
Finally, as you most probably WILL want to run at least Opera Mini (or its modded version) on your device, the answer is YES.
2. Available MIDlet managers
In this chapter, I give you a thorough overview of what current (!) MIDlet environments there are, how they compare to each other and which one you should prefer. As you’ll see, particularly if you’re a power user and/or player, you will want to keep different KVM’s on your Windows Mobile handheld simultaneously so that you can make use of the functionality of each of them (there’s no “best” KVM – unfortunately, the otherwise best Jbed lacks some functionality only provided by other KVM’s).
Note that I don’t provide you download /purchase links here. You can find all of the download sources and / or accessibility remarks in the main chart, in the second, “Price / availability” row.
Also note that this is just a sketchy list of what KVM’s there are and what (dis)advantages they have. For a full list of tips, tricks, capability and problem lists, you MUST consult the above-mentioned main chart. Note that, in Chapter 4, I will also elaborate on the meaning of the rows in the chart.
2.1 Esmertec Jbed
This is by far the best and most recommended KVM for Windows Mobile, (QVGA; NOT 176*220 – on the latter, it refuses running deployed MIDlets) Smartphones and Pocket PC’s alike. Its only problems are the lack of M3G (3D gaming) support and the inability to run more than one MIDlet concurrently. As with the other products of Esmertec, it isn’t compatible with pre-WM5 operating systems and needs to be “hacked” in order to be able to run it on non-Phone Edition Pocket PC devices. (See the “Platform compatibility: non-phone PPC” row in the main chart to see how this hacking must be done.)
Note that the latest, currently available Jbed version has problems with the cookie handling of Opera Mini 4 beta 2. This means you can’t log in to many (but not all; for example, Yahoo Mail works) Web sites with OM4b2 running under Jbed. As this isn’t an issue with Opera Mini Mod 2.04/2.05, this seems to be a problem exclusively with the given Opera Mini version and not that of Jbed. If this is a problem, consider switching to another MIDlet manager (for example, Jeodek), where the cookies of Opera Mini 4 beta 2 do work.
2.2 Esmertec Jeodek
There are, basically, two versions of this KVM. The non-M3G-enabled, newer version isn’t really recommended (Jbed is definitely better in almost every respect, except for the Opera Mini 4 beta 2 cookie issues). There is, however, an older, M3G-enabled version out there, which allows for playing a wide variety of games. I’ve explained how the latter should be used HERE, in the 10/11/2007 update. That is, if you’re into gaming, you might want to go for the M3G version; otherwise, I recommend upgrading / switching to Jbed.
2.3 IBM J9
This is a well-known but, now that both Jblend and the two product lines of Esmertec are considerably better in most respects (except for some deliberate questions like the ability to run multiple MIDlets at the same time, in which it’s, together with TAO Intent, is clearly better than Esmertec’s products), not any more recommended KVM. You should prefer Jbed to it and only consider using it if you do need J9’s special capabilities or its compatibility with pre-WM5 operating systems.
Note that, lately, IBM has made much harder to download a trial version of J9 if you’re situated outside the States.
2.4 TAO Intent
This is the MIDlet manager having come with almost all HTC-manufactured WM5 Pocket PC’s and Smartphones. Now that the developer no longer exists, the HTC folks have switched to Esmertec Jeodek / Jbed instead (and independent MS Smartphone / PPC PE manufacturers like Sharp or Samsung prefer Aplix JBlend instead). However, this still means there’s a HUGE number of installed userbase of this MIDlet manager.
Currently, two major releases of these titles are widely used: the 10.1 series (also compatible with WM2003(SE) and the MS Smartphone platform) and the latest 11.1 series (the latter being only WM5+ & Pocket PC-compliant).
In general, you will want to prefer Jbed to this title. It has only few areas where it’s clearly better. Just like with IBM J9, in addition to WM2003(SE) support, it also supports running MIDlets concurrently.
If you have a (non-rebranded!) HTC WM6 Pocket PC device, go for the latest, .1036 version; otherwise (you have a rebranded and/or WM5 device), go for .1034. Should you have a plain (non-phone) Pocket PC, make sure you apply the SMS.dll / Phone.dll hacks already mentioned with Jbed.
Note that, at 4pda.ru, there is a separate “turbo” version. While I haven’t really measured remarkable speed increase with the jBenchmark tests, many users have reported generic speedup with at least starting / loading MIDlets. This is because many library files have been decompressed by the creator, meaning no decompression needed in runtime. This may indeed result in some speed increase. (Note that this trick doesn’t work the 10.1-series TAO Intent MIDlet managers (MM’s); this is why only the new series has a separate “turbo” version.) Note that this also means this version occupies about two times more storage than the non-turbo one; therefore, if you have little built-in storage, consider installing it on a storage card. Also, it’s a bit older (version 1023) than the – currently – latest, 1036 version.
2.5 Aplix JBlend
This OEM MIDlet manager comes with, compared to Esmertec’s KVM’s, very few Windows Mobile models. Compared to Jbed, it has both advantages and disadvantages; for example, it supports M3G (and, therefore, far more games) BUT it doesn’t support midi / MP3 playback (that is, you won’t really hear music anywhere) and has a messed-up security model making it pretty useless for Net access like Opera Mini or Gmail. This means you will only want to use it for gaming – if the other two, decent alternatives (the M3G-enabled Jeodek or Jbed) don’t work or work slower.
In THIS HowardForums thread, you’ll find many titles compatible with this MIDlet manager; and, of course, my main games compatibility chart will provide you with a lot of additional compatibility information with current MIDlets.
2.6. Not recommended KVM’s
Note that the charts (and this tutorial) don't elaborate on the following MIDlet managers:
2.6.1 NSICom CrE-ME
This manager is still (as of version 4.12) pretty weak (MIDP 1-only, really low resolution, problems with connecting to the Net, pretty complicated to install a MIDlet etc.). This means it, in most cases, should not be used. Strange the developers still call it "the world's most reliable J2ME/CDC Java Virtual Machine technology for Embedded platforms". While CrE-ME is without doubt the BEST JVM out there right now for running individual applications / applets (which are vastly different from MIDlets), its MIDlet support is really bad.
2.6.2 Coretek Delta Java Manager
This MIDlet manager is only slightly better than NSICom's above-mentioned CrE-ME. While it's compatible with quite a few games, it has severe problems; most importantly, its utilized screen estate is tied to 176*220 (fortunately, it’s pixel doubled on VGA devices). This means you won't be able to run your MIDlets using the real, full screen estate of your QVGA / VGA / WVGA Pocket PC's or QVGA Smartphones. Therefore, I only recommend it if you want to run MIDlets tied to 176*220 (or smaller) screen sizes and/or you have a 176*220 MS Smartphone.
A related (Russian) thread is HERE (BabelFish HERE)
2.6.3 Mitac JVM
This is an old (2003), pretty bad and not recommended MIDlet manager.
Related thread: MoDaCo Working midlets and non-working midlets.
3. Introduction to using MIDlets
Now, let’s see how you can install (deploy) MIDlets on your Windows Mobile device and how you can use them. Fortunately, doing this is very simple.
First, make sure you do have a KVM on your handheld. If you don’t, install one. If you have a non-phone Pocket PC and want to use any MIDlet manager (except for IBM J9), make sure you install the SMS.dll and Phone.dll hacks and / or if you have a pre-WM5 device, you’ll need to choose from either IBM J9 or old versions of TAO Intent.
After this, your life will be pretty easy.
3.1 Two ways of deployment (installation): online vs. offline
In general, there are a lot of MIDlets available online. In general, if you click them on the Web from your Windows Mobile device (preferably, using a built-in Web browser), they get downloaded to your handheld and automatically deployed in your device. The same happens with JAR files you copy to your handheld and, then, deploy them locally by either making your KVM explicitly search for it or clicking it / pressing the Action button from a local file manager. In the following two subsections, I elaborate on these questions.
Note that, generally, there are two kinds of files you’ll run into: JAD files and JAR files. When you download a MIDlet to your desktop PC so that you can, later, deploy it into your handheld’s KVM, only download JAR files, not the JAD ones.
If there’s no way of directly accessing JAR files, only JAD ones (as is, for example, the case with the Opera Mini 4 beta download page HERE - note that you should visit it from a Wap-capable desktop browser (Opera), that is, NOT from IE!), the “Download high memory version” download link will download you a JAD file, not a JAR one. You can directly copy this file to your handheld but, then, it’ll need to have Internet connection to be able to download the JAR file referenced by the small JAD file. If you can’t guarantee this or prefer collecting the JAR files offline, do the following: open the JAD file you downloaded with a text / file viewer (editor) and look for the attribute named “MIDlet-Jar-URL”. Copy the URL after the colon (for example, http://mini.opera.com/dl/1B8GM15aEP5uj-jE8A4AACMhDw8C/mini.jar) to your desktop Web browser. Now, you’ll have direct access to the JAR file – you can already safely save it.
Note that some KVM’s support separating MIDlets into different folders. Some allow for selecting the folder at deployment time (an additional step in the deployment process; this is what, initially, the “root” screen stands for when deploying into Esmertec products), the others after deployment. (And, on the Nokia, as it has no MIDlet manager interface at all but all deployed MIDlets are listed as regular applications, you can use the system file explorer tools to move them elsewhere, in another folder. This is slightly different from the way MIDlets were handled or early MIDlet-capable Nokia phones like the N-Gage, where there was a separate folder for them.) Also see the “Possible to use folders for better MIDlet separation?” row in the main chart for more info & screenshots.
Also note that, during the deployment process, you will also need to let the installation continue, particularly when the given MIDlet isn’t signed with a trusted certificate. (The vast majority of MIDlets are like this.) This, in general, only means you will need to press the left softkey some times on both Windows Mobile and Symbian.
3.1.1 Offline: originating the deployment from inside the manager vs. doing the same from the outside
There are two ways of deploying a local MIDlet JAR file to your MIDlet browser. The easiest is the default way of just clicking / pressing the Action key while viewing it from a local file explorer tool. This, as long as the file associations are correctly set (which may NOT be the case if you install more than one KVM’s on your handheld – more on this later), will automatically invoke the JVM and deploy the MIDlet.
Another way to select the related menu item inside the given KVM is to search for JAR files in the local file system (for example, Menu / Install / Local with TAO and Menu / Install / Local Files with Esmertec’s KVM’s). Unfortunately, it’s pretty flawed with most of the KVM’s; for example, the lack of alphabetical sorting, some of them can’t display all the files at once if there are more than 200-250 of them, some are only looking in a given directory or have no search capabilities at all, which is the case with IBM J9. The latter, as it doesn’t allow for browsing the file system for a given JAR file, forces you to enter the full (local, that is, Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. ) URL of the JAR file, which is really a pain in the back. Finally, Jblend doesn’t offer any local file browsing / deployment at all – with it, you must initiate the deployment from any file explorer tool. The latter is “only” highly recommended with other KVM’s because of the other annoyances and bugs they have.
3.1.2 Online
This is much easier: you just navigate to the given page with the MIDlets online and just click the JAD (or JAR) files. Note that some KVM’s may not allow for installing Web-based JAR’s directly; with them, you will need to click the JAD file instead. This is in stark contrast with the local install: all the tested (non-disqualified) browsers allow for the direct installation of JAR files and no local JAD’s are needed.
3.2 Running the already-deployed MIDlets
After your MIDlet is deployed, you will need to click it from inside the KVM if it’s not started automatically: most current, recommended KVM’s ask the user whether the MIDlet should be started right after the deployment.
Otherwise, you just start the KVM environment (it’s, in general, in the main Start Menu / Programs folder (except for the HTC Kaiser / Tilt, where it’s in the Tools subdirectory there) and is called “Jbed”, “Java”, “Jeodek” or “Esmertec Jbed/Jeodek” with the Esmertec products, “MIDlet Manager” with TAO Intent, “Midlet HQ” with IBM J9 (linking emulator.exe) and “Jblend” with Jblend) and simply double-click the given, already-deployed MIDlet. With IBM J9, you must select the uppermost “Launch” menu item in Actions instead, after highlighting your MIDlet.
Now that I’ve made it clear it’s only Nokia’s (Symbian) MIDlet manager that puts the deployed MIDlet icons in the traditional Applications folder, you may also want to know whether you can also hack the Windows Mobile KVM’s to do the same. This, as you may have already guessed, also greatly speeds up starting a given MIDlet: you don’t need to start an additional layer of managers. The answer is: yes, with most KVM’s (except for Jblend), you can. Then, you won’t need to separately start the KVM interface to gain access to the deployed MIDlets. See the “Direct, system-level links (shortcuts) to MIDlets” row in the main chart for more info on this. Note that, as opposed to Nokia’s system-level links (or, for that matter, the way the excellent Palm OS emulator, StyleTap, works on Windows Mobile), all these links will have the same icon, unlike under Symbian – not that of the icon of the MIDlet itself. This is a definite disadvantage if you prefer looking for a MIDlet based on its icon and not its name / position.
3.3 Security issues
Unlike with native Windows Mobile (or Symbian) applications, you’ll always run into security prompts. Therefore, it’s worth knowing a bit about what they are all about.
Java programs, in general, put a lot of weight on security measurements. This is why they continuously prompt the user when they try to access “sensitive” resources like the Net or the local file system.
Fortunately, you can, in general (except for Jblend), easily get rid of this problem:
- if you have any of the Esmertec KVM’s, use the MIDlets signed by the MXit LifeStyle-signed JAR’s available in THIS thread. Note that I’ve separately linked in the most common non-game (games, in general, aren’t affected by these issues, unless they want to use Bluetooth) MIDlets you may want signed. Then, you’ll be able to set their security model for “Blanket”, which means you’ll never be prompted for permission. It’ll certainly be easier for you than with the default “Session” (you’re asked once per session – that is, after starting the MIDlet) and the even more restrictive “One Shot” security model. Incidentally, Jblend employs exclusively the latter model with accessing the Net; this means it’s pretty much useless for applications like Opera Mini or the Gmail MIDlet. This is particularly true with the Gmail client, where it prompts the user to allow going on upon downloading every single mail (header). That is, never use Gmail under Jblend.
- if you have a KVM where you can “hack” the security descriptor files (all Esmertec KVM’s and IBM J9 belong to here; TAO Intent is also said to be but the opinions do differ on the latter and I haven’t tested this hack), do the hacking to get rid of the annoying security prompts. See the “Security: Allow permanent Net access without prompting ("Blanket" security model, as opposed to "Session" / "Oneshot")?” row in the main chart for more info / links.
3.4 Runtime issues: concurrent (parallel) and background execution
The KVM’s slightly differ in how they handle concurrent execution of MIDlets – or, simply running something in the background. Some (TAO and J9) allow for the concurrent execution of MIDlets, while the rest don’t. This means the, otherwise, excellent Esmertec KVM’s will only run one MIDlet at a time, while the certainly, in most respects, inferior J9 and TAO Intent will run any number of them. TAO, in addition, also supports the in-environment switch between running MIDlets, unlike J9.
Support for parallel MIDlet execution can be very useful; for example, the Gmail MIDlet could continuously check Gmail for incoming messages, while, in another MIDlet, you could browse the Web. You can find some other uses for example HERE, in the comment section (the comments HERE are also pretty instructive and shed light on related issues).
The ability to execute a MIDlet in the background is also very important. Just an example: you start downloading a Web page in Opera Mini but quickly realize the download will take ages. In order to save time and do something useful in the meantime, you decide to minimize the Opera Mini task, do something else in another program and only return later, expecting Opera Mini has already finished downloading and rendering. All the tested WM and Symbian KVM’s support this kind of operation; the only exception is Jblend, which immediately pauses when it loses the focus. Incidentally, Jblend’s behavior also has some other consequences; for example, in no way can you use external character injectors to it (unless they’re continuously running and, therefore, don’t result in executing a new process; PQzII is one of these) and you will even have problems uploading Jbenchmark results to the server (because it constantly thinks the MIDlet has been paused and prompts you for resuming).
I also recommend Solnyshok’s excellent article for more information on the advantages of parallel execution of some MIDlets. Also note that the article contains an excellent hacking tutorial on how multiple instances of the same MIDlet can be executed at the same time.
4. The main chart
Again, this is where you’ll find most information. It contains an order of magnitude more information than the article you’re just reading in a well-condensed, tabular, easy-to-compare form, packed with tons of screenshots helping in finding out how a given feature should be enabled / used.
I’ve already elaborated on several (for example, security-related) of the rows this chart has; now, let me elaborate on the rest.
In the “Price / availability” row, as has already been stated, you’ll find where to get / download the given KVM from.
In the “Platform compatibility” group, I’ve listed three rows: compatibility with non-phone Pocket PC’s, Pocket PC Phone Edition devices and, finally, touchscreen-less Smartphones (abbreviated as SP’s).
As has already been pointed out, you MUST apply the SMS/Phone DLL hack explained in the Jeodek column if you have a phone-less, “classic” Pocket PC. Also, if you have a MS Smartphone (as opposed to Pocket PC’s), pay special attention to the compatibility remarks here as, unfortunately, not all titles are Smartphone-compliant or, if they are, you may encounter some problems when trying to run them.
The “Generic compliance with standards” group is more for techies: people that would like to know everything about the standards support of the given KVM. As can clearly be seen, the Nokia N95 KVM blows all the other KVM’s out of the water (in this respect too); this is particularly true of, under Windows Mobile, never (except for some very old and long-discontinued IBM J9-specific add-on projects I’ve elaborated on HERE) implemented, for, for example, multiplayer gaming (give a try to the MIDlet version of 3D Constructo Combat in multiplayer mode on even slower / older Nokias like the 6680 – you’ll LOVE it! The same stands for for example the infamous Naval Battle: Mission Commander) Bluetooth support. The same stands for other goodies like support for camera: all WM KVM’s lack the support for it, as can clearly be seen in the “MMAPI Video-capture” cell of the “JVM Multimedia (JSR 135)” row. It could be VERY useful; see for example the posts HERE, seeking for support for barcode reader applications. Audio capture (which isn’t really supported by many apps either) is also pretty useful; see for example the TellMe MIDlet for a real-world usage example. Yeah, you can clearly see MIDlets are in no way for gaming only – there have a LOT of enterprise uses and are particularly useful when you have a lot of different platforms you need to quickly develop a business solution for!
In the “JVM Memory” row, I’ve listed the appropriate heap (free memory) size available for each KVM. The more, the better for running memory-hungry MIDlets – unless the given KVM uses dynamic (de)allocation of memory when the need arises. Then, it’ll be able to run even the most memory-hungry MIDlets (for example, a full JBenchmark category, in High Quality, packed into one JAR). Unfortunately, only Nokia’s KVM and Jbed support the latter. Also note that you can set the memory allocated for Jblend in the Registry.
Support for “JVM M3G”, that is, the Mobile 3D Graphics API is the dream of most Java MIDlet gamers. As can be seen, several KVM’s support it. (Speed, without hardware acceleration, is another question.)
The “JVM File Connection” group is also very important, particularly with applications like Opera Mini Mod, the unofficial (and, unfortunately, illegal; therefore, I cannot provide a link to it either) “hack” of Opera Mini, adding a lot of goodies like (pretty rude, but still working) page saving and IEM favorite import / export. These all require access to the file system, which, unlike with real Java, isn’t built-in or required by the basic standard. This is why so few WM KVM’s support it: IBM J9 with an additional hack (I’ve elaborated on the installation in the chart) and Jbed. Interestingly, some real-world tests were failed by Jbed, while IBM J9 passed all of them. The support for accessing the local file system is certainly a big plus with IBM J9 – one of the very few advantages of the environment, along with, for example, the ability to run several MIDlets at the same time.
The “Storage usage” group is very important because internal storage memory is doomed to fill up very quickly (especially with low-end WM devices only having 64M of Flash ROM – an example is the HTC s310/Oxygen WM5 Smartphone), particularly if you install sizable games (current games are 300-600 kbytes in size). In this group, I’ve explained the following:
Where can a given MIDlet manager KVM be installed to – that is, can it be installed to a storage card? All of them can (note that we’re, mostly, dealing with XDA-Dev-created installers and hacks in here!), except for Jbed, which MAY require some additional manual file copying (also explained in the chart).
Where the deployed MIDlets are kept: This is also highly important. Fortunately, it’s only IBM J9 that is doomed to store the deployed MIDlets in the internal storage (I’ve tried to hack it to a card very hard – see my related article – but in vain); other MIDlet managers, when installed to a storage card, don’t. Note that, should Jblend and TAO be an OEM-installed KVM on your handset, you can still easily “hack” them to store their MIDlets on a storage card with a simple Registry edit.
In the “Text input” group, first, I’ve listed the copy / cut / paste capabilities of the KVM’s. One of the biggest problems with TAO is the complete lack of copy / paste functionality in any of its textboxes. This is a real pain in the back. Note that some 4pda users have implemented an external, not very reliable way of pasting text to the TAO textboxes (via MortScript), it’s still far from perfect.
“Known text input-related bugs? Maximal editable pre-populated text area size?” elaborates on the text input-related bugs of the tested KVM’s. The most important of them (without any exception – not even Nokia’s implementation did fare well in this respect) is the text input areas’ limited size. This means the following: when you, for example, post an answer in a forum using the “QUOTE” button, you may end up not being able to enter anything and/or your answer getting completely deleted. In general, the threshold is between 1 and 8 kilobytes, depending on the actual KVM and the Web browser you use (Opera Mini fares far better in this respect than its modded version; I think because the latter uses 16-bit Unicode for input, which take up double the memory as the 8-bit input of Opera Mini.) Therefore, make sure you either quote VERY short answers and try to remain under the threshold or try not to quote anything.
In addition, TAO has a very bad, additional bug: if the quoted (and/or, original) text contains line breaks, you won’t be able to edit it at all.
I really recommend giving the test HTML page I’ve created for this test a thorough try to see what restrictions there are, whether your input is retained (after you exit the edit mode) etc so that you can be absolutely sure you don’t mess up anything when you do start filling in Web forms or post to forums with Opera Mini (Mod).
The “Display” category contains information on the usage of font smoothing technologies like ClearType (also see THIS request). As can clearly be seen, it’s only when using the smallest character size and only with some KVM’s that there is font smoothing (with OM4b2)
I’ve devoted two separate rows (and a lot of screenshots) to demonstrate the font sizes of Opera Mini 4 beta 2 in both VGA and QVGA because a great deal of misinformation is all around the Net on the different font sizes of each. For this test, I’ve also created a test page. As can be seen, the font sizes are roughly equal with all KVM’s, as opposed to what some people state. Also note that I’ve also published how you can increase the font size in TAO with a simple Registry edit (I’ve also attached the import file) – the ability to do this is clearly is a definite advantage of TAO.
As far as the “Keyboard, SIP, softkeys” group is concerned, please read THIS for a very thorough explanation.
I’ve already elaborated on most rows of the “MIDlet installation, separation, direct invocation, uninstall” group; therefore, I won’t go into this once more. It’s probably only “Registry import files to quickly reassociate JAR / JAD files” that still hasn’t been explained. Please see the “2.4 Co-existing on the same Windows Mobile devices” section in the Definitive Guide to Running 3D-enabled Java MIDlets on Windows Mobile to see why you might need these Registry import files if you plan to use more than one KVM’s on your Windows Mobile device and want to retain (or, quickly restore) the ability of a given KVM to deploy a MIDlet you click on in an external (Windows Mobile) Web browser or in the file system.
The “Security” group has already been explained above.
The “Misc (sound, compatibility with some popular apps, proxy, etc)” group contains some miscellaneous tests and rows like
support for full screen: as can clearly be seen, in this regard, Jbed is the best (it indeed offers full screen) and Jeodek is the second (it only displays the upper task bar but not the lower menu bar; Jeodek M3G being the only exception when run on the MS Smartphone platform). So does Jblend. TAO and IBM J9, unfortunately, both display the two bars at the top and bottom. Needless to say, Nokia’s KVM also makes use of the full screen estate.
Sound support: as has turned out during the tests, Jbed (along with Nokia’s KVM) is by far the best KVM when it comes to playing in-game music. Note that I’ve tested it being stereo by running Doom RPG, a very famous MIDlet (even PocketGamer.org’s infamous Sponge likes it). Strangely, while Jbed does support stereo, Nokia has failed the stereo test: it only plays music in mono. At last something that Nokia’s KVM gets beaten at
Proxy support is also very important and in high demand among Opera Mini users (as Opera Mini, by default, doesn’t support proxies, unlike Opera Mini Mod, where you can enter the proxy address right in the browser settings). In these tests, I’ve used my custom-written Web client MIDlet and Web server to easily find out which of the several possible ways Opera Mini (or, any other Web browser not supporting custom, local proxy settings) can be made use a proxy. As can clearly be seen, only Jbed and IBM J9 support this. (I haven’t tested Nokia’s KVM in this respect; I assume it works OK.)
the compliance test of three highly popular productivity (non-game) MIDlets: Gmail, Opera Mini and Opera Mini Mod.
5. jBenchmark Benchmark Results
I’ve also made some serious benchmarks with the well-known jBenchmark suite.
First, it’s worth pointing out that, while Esmertec Jbed does promise speedup by compiled code, in reality, it doesn’t mean THAT big a speed increase. That is, you won’t even see a twofold speed increase in everyday apps / games – if there will be any speed difference at all. In the charts, I’ve emphasized the tests where Jbed produced FAR better results than other MIDlet managers running on the same device. I’ve used plain bold to emphasize differences up to two; to emphasize even bigger differences (for example, the Chess test), I’ve additionally used Italic and <u>Underline</u>.
It’s also worth pointing out that while high-resolution (VGA) devices (in the test, the Dell Axim x51v and the HTC Universal) tend to run standard 2D graphics tests (at times a LOT) slower than standard-resolution (QVGA) models like the HTC Wizard or the HTC Vox / s710, with 3D (with the only currently available, 3D-capable MIDlet manager, the TAO Intent 11.x series), the differences aren’t that big.
As far as the 3D benchmarks are concerned, which show a clear, sometimes 20-fold speed difference in favor of the 3D hardware accelerated Nokia N95, don’t think Windows Mobile devices are THAT bad at playing the currently available 3D games. While M3G games indeed run pretty much flawlessly on the Nokia N93(i), N95 and E90 (the current Nokias with 3D hardware acceleration), the currently available, non-accelerated Windows Mobile KVM’s don’t produce MUCH worse results either – most 3D games still remain playable under WM too. In practice, the 20-fold difference in these synthetic tests reduce to two to three-fold difference with currently available, tested 3D MIDlets. Never ever believe anyone that states the opposite – he or she, then, hasn’t compared (unaccelerated) Windows Mobile and (accelerated) N95. I did and know the difference, which is certainly not even tenfold, no matter what the JBenchmark results suggest. Note that the reason the Nokia N95 scores so good in 3D is not because the built-in PowerVR 3D chip would be so much faster than, currently, the 2700G. It’s just because the former is supported by the built-in MIDlet manager and the latter isn’t supported by any Windows Mobile MIDlet managers.
Otherwise, speed-wise, there’s no clear winner. In general, all MIDlet managers have their strengths and weaknesses; there isn’t a single one with the best speed / efficiency (not even that of Nokia). Also note that, in general, the Nokia benchmarks don’t differ much from those of the WM KVM’s – of course, the M3G results are completely different. But, again, with real MIDlets, this difference is far less pronounced than one would think based on the synthetic JBenchmark 3D results.
Note that the columns are a bit different from the first chart; now, I’ve also listed the device I’ve run the given MIDlet manager on.
6. Game compatibility reports
I’ve also thoroughly tested some hundred (!) popular, well-known games; both 2D and 3D titles. (More on these games in THIS article – my previous and, now, slightly outdated article on 3D gaming.)
As has already been emphasized with the benchmarks, there’s no clear winner here either. As a rule of thumb, however, you should always try to run a given title under Jbed first. It’s the least compatible with existing games, but has three real advantages over both the M3G-compliant version of Jeodek and Jblend: if it does work then, generally, it’s the fastest; of the three, it has the best sound emulation and it supports full screen mode.
If you do encounter problems, give a try to alternative MIDlet managers: to IBM J9, TAO Intent, Jeodek M3G or Jblend (or, JblendFullScreen if you don’t need M3G and/or decent music but do need full screen because of, for example, the hard-coded screen size used by the MIDlet). Note that it’s pretty useless to try to run a title not running under Jbed under the non-M3G-capable Jeodek either. Doing the same under the M3G-capable Jeodek version, however, is a completely different issue.
As has already been emphasized, these MIDlet managers can co-exist on the same device and if you’re really into gaming as many MIDlets as possible, you will want to put at least three (Jbed, Jblend and Jeodek M3G) on your handset.
Note that there is an earlier version of this chart HERE. As the chart doesn’t contain for example the Nokia N95, the M3G-capable Jblend (only its full screen, old and pretty much incapable version) and lists far fewer titles than the main games compatibility chart, it’s in no way as important as the main compatibility chart listing the, for gaming, most recommended WM KVM’s (along with Nokia). However, it also contains some info on how different hardware (520 MHz XScale-based VGA HTC Universal vs. 195 MHz TI OMAP-based QVGA Wizard, for example) compare when it comes to running (graphics-intensive) games. As can be seen, the, otherwise, for gaming not really recommended Wizard behaves pretty OK even at the default 195 MHz CPU clock speed.
Highly recommended articles
TUTORIAL: Control issues of Java MIDlets – all secrets of button handling. Crossposts: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, XDA-Developers - 3, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PocketGaming.de.
The Definitive Guide to Running 3D-enabled Java MIDlets on Windows Mobile (note that its discussion of some of the apps is a bit outdated; that is, consider the info in the current Bible of higher priority than in there. Also note that the comments (at the bottom) are really worth checking out, just like with the comments arrived at THIS article. Crossposts: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers, XDA-Developers - 2, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo, PocketGamer.org, PocketGaming.de
The Button Enhancer Bible & great button config tips for Opera Mobile / Mini users – it has a LOT of MIDlet-related info. Crossposts: PPCT, AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, XDA-Developers - 2, FirstLoox, BrightHand, HowardForums, SPT, MoDaCo.
4PDA thread; translations HERE
5 things noobs should know about java mobile games
The MIDlet reviews at Mobile Critic and Midlet Review
The homepages of Fishlabs, Gameloft, Glu and Xendex
My old, outdated, related articles
What TAO Intent versions there are? - this article has been written before Risidoro’s releasing the 1034/1036 versions and the release of the generic SMS / phone.dll hacks. The latter means you don’t need to install the somewhat older version .1023 of the MIDlet manager on your phone-less PPC any more.
Running Motorola-specific Midlet games on the Pocket PC? YES!!
IBM releases new, 6.1.1 version of great Midlet runner J9; now, it’s fully compatible with Google Maps!
Great, Free Java/Midlet Environment IBM J9 New, 6.1 Version is Out – a Full Compliance & Bug Report & Never Before Published Tweaks that Help Using It Much Easier (in there, I’ve also reported on my effort of trying to relocate the IBM J9 deployed MIDlet repository from the main memory).
Java Midlets on the Pocket PC - the Complete Tutorial (outdated, but nice for some additional tips)
UPDATE (11/23/2007):
in the meantime, thanks to XDA-Devs user defcomg, a new, third-party, free Bluetooth (JSR-82) library, BlueCove has been found, which supports IBM J9.
In the second part of this article, I elaborate on how you can “hack” some Nokia classes into MIDlets so that they have a chance to run. I also explain how you can force the installation of MIDlets that, otherwise, are refused to be deployed because of missing library (for example, Bluetooth under Jbed) support.
1. BlueCove
Let’s start with the compatibility issues.
1.1 Real-world (!) compatibility
First, it’s only IBM J9-compliant (NO TAO, NO Jbed, NO Jblend). Even under J9, unfortunately, it’s (as of this writing) pretty much far away from REALLY working. While it correctly implements Bluetooth discovery, in general, it doesn’t go further and just crashes at actually connecting (not only discovering). I’ve tested this with both the Microsoft and the Widcomm Bluetooth stack, using version 6.1.1 (that is, the latest one) of IBM J9.
My compliance test results are as follows:
Super Bluetooth Hack 1.07 (note that the two (2nd/3rd) versions are exactly the same): doesn’t even start (IncompatibleClassChangeError with Vector)
Blooover discovering works; the actual connection doesn’t (IncompatibleClassChangeError with javax.microedition.io.Connection).
3D Constructo Combat: The same: it is able to discover other devices:
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but, upon actually connecting to them (or, when you start it in server mode), it immediately crashes and exits.
1.2 Downloading, installing
If you still want to give it a try (again, it’s pretty much useless as of now!):
Get bluecove-2.0.1.jar (version as of 11/23/2007) from HERE
if you have WinRAR on your desktop Windows machine, enter the WinRAR bluecove-2.0.1.jar command;
otherwise, rename bluecove-2.0.1.jar to bluecove-2.0.1.zip and click it so that its content is shown;
extract bluecove_ce.dll and intelbth_ce.dll from the root of the archive; transfer them to the \bin subdirectory of your IBM J9 installation.
Note that if you don’t want to hunt for / extract these files yourself, I’ve made them available HERE as a standard ZIP file. Just unZIP it and transfer the two DLL's.
copy bluecove.jar to the \lib\jclMidp20\ext directory of your IBM J9 installation. If “ext” doesn’t exist, create it.
you’ll need to use special link files to start your Bluetooth-enabled MIDlets. This also means you don’t need to deploy your MIDlets under J9 at all as direct links of this type don’t require the MIDlets to be deployed beforehand. A typical link file looks like this:
255#"\Storage Card\ibm\bin\j9.exe" -jcl:midp20 -Dmicroedition.connection.pkgs=com.intel.bluetooth -cp MIDletName.jar "-jxe:\Storage Card\ibm\lib\jclMidp20\jclMidp20.jxe" MIDletName.jad
(An example link file is HERE as a real file.)
In here, change MIDletName to the filename of the MIDlet and, of course, change \Storage Card\ibm to the actual path of your IBM J9 installation.
Note that you’ll also need the JAD files in this setup. Should you not have them, use the free JADMaker to create them from JAR files (see the link for more info). If you don’t provide any absolute directories in the link file to the JAR / JAD files, then, you’ll need to copy the JAR file to the \lib\jclMidp20\ext directory of your IBM J9 installation before invoking the MIDlet through the link file. This is the same directory where bluecove.jar should reside. Also, the JAD file must be in the same directory as the lnk file itself.
2. Some additional hacking
2.1 Nokia classes missing in the game
If you try to run 3D Constructo Combat under J9 (I’ll elaborate on other MIDlet managers later), you’ll notice at once it doesn’t run. The sole reason for this is the lack of some Nokia-specific libraries in the MIDlet manager. You can, however, easily “hack” these classes into the JAR file of the MIDlet itself.
To do this, first, download THIS archive and unZIP it. Second, get WinRAR and, after installing it, enter the WinRAR jarfilename command to open the JAR (the main MIDlet) file. Now, just drag-and-drop the com directory (with all its subdirectories, of course) to the opened JAR file – making sure you don’t drop it on a directory, but in the root.
That’s all; now, your MIDlet might start.
Note that this definitely works with 3D Constructo Combat and J9 but will NOT work with Jbed, not even with the permission hacking I’ll explain in the following section.
(also see THIS Russian-language post for more info if interested. It doesn't contain much additional info, though.)
2.2 Permission hacking
As has been explained in the MIDlet Bible, some (very few!) MIDlets can’t even be deployed under Jbed (and other, less recommended) MIDlet managers. The reason for this is the deployment-time permission checking.
An example of these MIDlets is 3D Constructo Combat, which is refused to be deployed because of the unavailability of a library (here, a Bluetooth one):
You can easily help this and make MIDlets at least deployable (being actually runnable is another question). To do this, enter the WinRAR MidletFileName.jar command and extract the META-INF\MANIFEST.MF file. In there, look for the MIDlet-Permissions: row. For example, with 3D Constructo Combat, it’ll be the following:
MIDlet-Permissions: javax.microedition.io.Connector.bluetooth.client,javax.microedition.io.Connector.bluetooth.server
Just delete it and overwrite the original META-INF\MANIFEST.MF file with the new version, all this in the JAR file. Again, the new file no longer contains the MIDlet-Permissions: row. Now, the MIDlet at least becomes deployable as can also be seen in THIS screenshot. (This, again, doesn’t mean Jbed will be able to run it as well. It won’t, not even with the above-explained Nokia class hack.)
UPDATE (11/24/2007): At last: an M3G-capable, much more gaming-friendly Jbed version is out!
As is stated in the Bible (as can also be seen in the main game compliance chart), the recommended, current version of Jbed has very limited game compatibility. If you do want to use it and do need to run for example M3G titles, so far, you needed to turn to alternative and, in many respects, inferior MIDlet managers. Now, this has changed: thanks to XDA-Devs forum members viperj and defcomg, a brand new and really great version has been posted.
This is version 070524.2.1 - that is, slightly older than the current, 070802.2.2 version. The major disadvantage of this version, compared to the 2.2 one, is the complete lack of sound emulation.
It runs all the games running under the old, M3G-capable Jeodek (see their list HERE) and is very fast. Furthermore, it isn’t affected by the locale bug of version 2.2 – that is, the inability to run under any locales using a language with a non-Western alphabet (for example, most East-European languages).
I’ve tested it with I-Play’s FIA World Rally Championship 3D, Namco’s Arcade Golf and High Speed 3D. All these worked flawlessly (except for, of course, the complete lack of sound), unlike under 2.2. Under 2.2, they didn't even start or crashed later.
If you really need sound emulation and it’s indeed able to run the given title, you will still want to version 2.2 of Jbed, though. For example, it runs Simcity Societies with great sound.
Installation
To install it, just grab THIS file, unRAR it to, preferably, the “J” subdirectory on your storage card (so that jbed.exe is right in the “J” subdirectory) and import THIS Registry import file (change all occurrences of "Storage Card" to the name of your card if it has another name). You might also want to copy a link to the main executable, jbed.exe, to \Windows\Start Menu\Programs (or, just \Windows\Start Menu\ on MS Smartphones). I’ve created the link file HERE.
UPDATE (01/16/2008): In the meantime, it has turned out that you can use the non-M3G-specific version of Jbed (that is, Cloudyfa's 20070802.2.1) with any localizaton setting if and only if you start your specific MIDlet directly; that is, via a system-level shortcut.
I've also been using Opera Mini 4 on the Blackberry 8800, using the default MIDlet manager coming with the device. Note that, unlike the built-in Web browser and the mailer, you MUST specify the APN of your operator for it to work. Otherwise, it'll just report being unable to connect to the Net after starting (and a lengthy installation process). To do this, go to Options / Advanced / TCP?IP and enter your APN (for example, "Internet" with T-Mobile.)
UPDATE (02/01/2008):
There are new builds of both Jbed and Jblend (two excellent MIDlet Managers – see the Java MIDlet Bible for more info). Due to lack of time, I haven’t tested them. Both has been done by Da_G (his projects’ homepage is HERE) and are accessible HERE. Note that you MUST register yourself (it’s free and is done quickly) in order to access the page above (along with the download).
I hope I’ll be able to test them some time – along with the default Blackberry MIDlet manager. (I might wait with testing the latter until version 4.5 of BB OS is released, though.)
UPDATE (02/06/2008): Another Jbed MIDlet Manager version has been released: JRebeiro_EsmertecJbed_20071119.3.1.
It’s available HERE (at the bottom of the first page).
As I don’t have the time to thoroughly test it, feedback is REALLY welcome!
Menneisyys said:
UPDATE (02/06/2008): Another Jbed MIDlet Manager version has been released: JRebeiro_EsmertecJbed_20071119.3.1.
It’s available HERE (at the bottom of the first page).
As I don’t have the time to thoroughly test it, feedback is REALLY welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a hacked version of 3.1 that:
- increases heap size
- disables all permission prompting
- enables midlet filesystem access
- installs anywhere cab
I only use Opera Mini so I don't see much of a difference with 3.1 compared to 2.1, but I like like not having do hex editing to disable the permission prompting for each new midlet installed. I guess the main thing that 3.1 has over 2.1 is 3d game support, but the 3.1 application size is much bigger and someone did mention that 2.1 may run faster than 3.1 in certain things. Does anyone have a link to how we can introduce the same hacks to 2.1 for those of us that just need a light-weight jvm?
I did a little write up on these hacked jvm's here:
http://www.modaco.com/content/HTC-J...-com/265919/A-few-JVMs-for-you-to-play-with-/
Downloaded the WM 6 version for my LG KS20 and finally it's showing fullscreen and games working that didn't work with the orig. embedded java
However, the 2 softkey-buttons are no more available. These 2 are important for most games/apps and the KS20 doesn't have a keypad. Is it possible to display the 2 softkey-buttons again?
Or a hack to map those keys to the Accept/Decline Hardware Buttons if Java is active?!
UPDATE (03/09/2008): Sun to develop MIDlet manager for Apple's iPhone?
NOTE: this isn't strictly a Windows Mobile news item (albeit it also contains Windows Mobile references; see for example the Sun MIDlet Manager on some new HP’s). However, now that I've spoken to the Sun reps at MWC (I'm a Java guru and have also worked for Sun as a lecturer for their Java programming courses) and also spotted their own MIDlet manager on the HP iPAQ 610 series, I found it necessary to report on this.
Finnish mag Tietokone has just reported on Sun's wanting to develop a JVM for iPhone so that it can run the vast number of MIDlets out there (including, for example, Opera Mini and thousands of games, some of them - like Simcity Societies - of very high quality).
Interestingly, Steve Jobs (of Apple), who still haven't commented on Sun's announcement, earlier stated in NYT "noone uses Java any more". Sour grapes? (It was, so far, impossible to run third-party apps on iPhone - except for some, just-released titles like CorePlayer.) I pretty much think he quickly changes his opinion - after all, a decent MIDlet Manager would be more than welcome on iPhone, which still lacks third-party apps / games.
It's nice to see Sun indeed plans to port their stuff to iPhone. While their Windows Mobile implementation, according to some Opera Mini users, has a lot to be desired (I haven't personally checked the validity of their claims so I may be entirely wrong), I really hope Sun starts to take mobile platforms more seriously.
UPDATE (03/13/2008): New MIDlet manager in development: PhoneME; Jbed for WM2003(SE) released!
There are two pieces of news for everyone interested in running Java MIDlets. The first will be having a pre-WM5 device and wanting to run Java MIDlets (for example, Opera Mini) on it. Yes, at last, some Russian hackers made Jbed, the industry-leading MIDlet manager work under WM2003(SE)! The second (and, for most people, not that important) piece of news concerns a brand new MIDlet manager port for Windows Mobile.
1. Some Russian hackers, including the 4pda.ru folks, have, at last, managed to make Jbed, the best MIDlet manager, work under WM2003 and WM2003SE. The importance of this just can’t be stressed enough: so far, you only had the really inferior IBM J9 and the 10-series TAO MIDlet Manager to run MIDlets on pre-WM5 operating systems. Now, this has dramatically changed. Now, nothing will stop you from using Opera Mini on your pre-WM5 Pocket PC.
The direct link to these WM2003(SE) MIDlet Managers are as follows. There are three versions: a modded one, a non-3D one and a 3D one; all with a heap size fix.
JBed3dMod_HeapSizeFix
Esmertec Jbed heapfix
Esmertec Jbed3d heapfix
They have also made a MAJOR update to their 4PDA.ru MIDlet article, linking to all the contemporary Esmertec, TAO etc. versions (including ones with heap fixes, with and without 3D support etc.); the above links can also be found in their article. You can see the translation of the new page HERE (Google) and HERE (Babelfish). Note that I’ve kept the original page HERE (Google) and HERE for historical reasons for people interested in the pre-Esmertec times.
2. Now, the other piece of news, which, again, won’t be of that much interest to non-WM2003 / non-Java hackers.
Java is a really viable programming platform. Not only several high-quality games make it worthwhile, but also probably the best and, if you’re lucky enough with your geographical location, fastest and most bandwidth usage-friendly mobile browser available for mobile phones (including Windows Mobile), Opera Mini 4.
I’ve already devoted an entire all-in-one Bible to running Java on Windows Mobile (and Symbian). Now, let me introduce the latest Windows Mobile KVM: PhoneME.
PhoneME is another "let’s bring Java to various platforms” projects (official homepage HERE), which has recently received Windows Mobile support.
The main homepage of the Windows Mobile port is HERE (do NOT get the ones at the official download page of the project - they’re outdated!) Should you want to download the MIDlet manager, get the file starting with "phoneME Feature – MIDP” from the download page.
Get the CAB file; install it. (I assume you install it in the main storage of your handset; my MIDlet manager main lnk file and registry import file will be tailored for this install location.) After this, you’ll need to associate JAR files with the app; to do this, you’ll need THIS file (import it into the Registry!). You might also want to invoke the MIDlet manager directly; for this, you’ll need THIS file.
Unfortunately, currently, the MIDlet manager is pretty much useless; for example, it seems to be impossible to deploy Opera Mini 4 under the current (8525) MIDlet manager version:
(Interestingly, the 4PDA.ru folks reported they managed to deploy an older version of OM; however, they didn’t particularly like the way it ran. That is, they also state the current version has a lot to be desired.)
All in all, you will NOT want to check it out in its present form. I’ll try to let you know when a considerably better, more advanced version is released.
Still speaking of the project, the Personal version (not to be mistaken for the MIDP MIDlet manager!) seems to run standalone (Personal profile) apps OK (it does NOT have an Internet Explorer Mobile applet plug-in, though). An example of running the Hello World application available on the homepage as a separate download:
(Should you want to give it a try, assuming you installed the MIDlet manager in the built-in storage of your handset, use an invocation .lnk file with the following contents:
254#"\phoneme\personal\bin\cvm.exe" -cp "\phoneme\hello" Hello
Also make sure you unZIP the contents of the archive to \phoneme\hello.)
That is, if you’re into running Personal Profile applications (and not MIDlets), you might want to give it a more thorough try.
(Thanks to my blog reader thevery for drawing my attention to the project!)
Additional info
A related forums.java.net discussion (not very interesting for anyone not interested in recompiling the sources)
4PDA.ru’s related discussion (translated) HERE (Google) and HERE (Babelfish).
UPDATE (03/14/2008):
a. unfortunately, the WM2003(SE) Jbed version has turned out to be only compatible with Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, NOT plain (phone-less) Pocket PC’s. There still aren’t WM2003(SE)-compliant SMS.dll and phone.dll files. These two files are needed on WM5+ standard (“classic”) Pocket PC’s to make Esmertec’s products / Jblend work. While the “hacked” DLL’s are compatible with WM5+, they aren’t with previous operating systems. That is, you’ll need to wait for a WM2003(SE)-compliant set of “hacked” DLL’s to be released.
Also note that there are some WM2003SE Phone Edition models that seem to be completely incompatible with; most importantly, the Qtek 2020i.
Also note that some? all? of the (again, currently, only WM2003(SE) Phone Edition-compliant – do NOT bother if you only have a phone-less PDA!) contain wired-in paths. For example, the one linked to from THIS page (see daemonpnz’s post at 10.02.08 10:22:56) must be extracted to “\Storage Card\jbed0524\”. Should you want to put it somewhere else (because, for example, your PPC PE device is a non-English one), you’ll need to hexedit Jbed.exe inside the RAR file and change the two occurrences of the above path to your liking. An example showing changing the space character to a B in "Storage Card".
(Incidentally, the reason for this was the following: I’ve tested it on my HP iPAQ 2210, which is a dual-slot machine, using the card names SD Card and CF Card. As you aren’t allowed to create a directory named “Storage Card” in the root of the file system, I had to hexedit the file so that it uses another name. “StorageBCard” can already be created. Note that, as the HP iPAQ 2210 is a no-phone device, this didn’t help much as it still refuses to run. Again, because of the still-missing, WM2003(SE)-compliant SMS.dll and phone.dll files.)
I let you know when Jbed becomes compatible with non-phone pre-WM5 devices.
b. I’ve also tested some of the versions linked from the 4PDA.ru thread on my HTC Vox (s710) to find out whether they’re any good compared to the old MIDlet managers; particularly Cloudyfa’s version - the version that, so far, I’ve recommended to all MIDlet users (unless in need for M3G (3D) support.). These two are both “fixed heap” versions; some of the less simple games (for example, DoomRPG) and benchmark apps with large memory requirements are stated to run much better / more reliably in the fixed heap versions than in the regular ones (for example, that of Cloudyfa) because of the much bigger available memory. I haven’t tested the effects of this myself.
1. JBed3dMod_HeapSizeFix (that is, 3D-capable Jbed version, based on 20070524.2.1, with fixed heap)
I was really interested in how this (and an additional, hacked file available for download HERE - just overwrite JBed.exe of the original, already-installed version with JBed3d_SreenFix.exe after renaming) worked because, at 4PDA.ru, there’s a version that promises flawless, screen problem-free functionality on MS Smartphones also compatible with the excellent Gmail client MIDlet.
(Also see THIS (original HERE) for more info; see freesunny's post at 10.01.08 10:56:06.)
So far, it seemed impossible to make the latter (the Gmail MIDlet) flawlessly work on MS Smartphones under any version of Jbed. An example of the display problems the non-hacked version (or any Jbed version) can be seen in the following screenshot:
Unfortunately, the hacked version (after overwriting the EXE file with the separately downloaded JBed3d_SreenFix.exe) doesn’t really work with Gmail: while indeed the entire screen estate is used, the three lowermost menu items (Search, Compose New, Exit) aren’t visible, just like with the non-hacked case:
Note that essentially the same results from the 4pda.ru folks can be HERE. The same problem also exists in Portrait mode, not only in Landscape.
All in all, while it’s certainly a step in the right direction, you will still have problems with (at least) the Gmail MIDlet. If you absolutely hate the missing display area in the MIDlet listing on MS Smartphones with the old Jbed versions, you might want to consider upgrading, though.
2. I’ve tested JBedModHeapFix (02.01.08) too – a somewhat extended and fixed Jbed version. While it does have certain advantages over Clodyfa’s version, it entirely lacks music support and is based on the 20070802.2.1 version – that is, the same “old” version as that of Clodyfa and not anything newer. I don’t really recommend it if you need sounds / music, which is excellent in the Cloudyfa version – again, unlike any other (earlier!) versions I’ve tested, including earlier Jeodek versions like the 20070425.1.1 version coming in the original (and just-updated) firmware of the HTC Vox / s710 and having very bad and distorted sound.
Note that the Jbed version lacks the the English jbed.exe.0409.mui file – it only has the Russian localization, that is, jbed.exe.0419.mui. This means, unless you copy the (standard) jbed.exe.0409.mui file from, say, the Cloudyfa version to the new one, it’ll have messed-up, invisible menus.
I’ve also tested whether these two versions, finally, fix the two biggest problems with the Cloudyfa version:
it’s not possible to install Cloudyfa’s version on the storage card: with the new Jbed version, it’s possible – without any manual hacking. In this regard, it’s much more recommended than Cloudyfa’s. (Haven’t tested the Jbed3D version in this regard.). That is, you can safely direct the CAB installers to install the managers onto a card: they WILL be installed there, not taking up any built-in storage.
with Cloudyfa’s version, it’s not possible to start MIDlets from inside the Jbed interface if you use a localization using not strictly Western characters:
Fortunately, both the non-3D and the 3D versions available at 4PDA.ru are compatible with non-Western regional settings, unlike Cloudyfa’s version.
(Note that, in the original Cloudyfa version, you can still execute MIDlets via a direct invocation link file if you have an otherwise incompatible regional setting, circumventing the standard interface listing all your MIDlets. This, however, needs some additional tinkering and, again, you won’t be able to select the MIDlet you’d like to run from the built-in list of the MIDlet manager. Also note that I’m speaking of the generic Regional settings, NOT the language of MS Smartphones (you can easily change the entire interface language of MS Smartphone devices.). Your MS Smartphone language may be, say, East-European; if you still use some non-Eastern regional setting, the apps started from inside Cloudyfa’s version will still run and you won’t need to use direct invocation link files.)
Also note that neither of these versions have any sound emulation. This, again, isn’t a change from the previous 3D (M3G)-compliant version but can be VERY bad news for plain non-M3G-compliant Jbed users, as, again, the Cloudyfa version has excellent music / sound emulation. That is, stick to the latter if you need music.
UPDATE (some 5 hours later): I’ve also tested the latest Jbed version, JRebeiro_EsmertecJbed_20071119.3.1. I’ve already mentioned it HERE but, then, I didn’t have the time to thoroughly test it.
The bad
- not possible to install it to a storage card by default
- display problems on MS Smartphones (as with all the other Esmertec Jbed versions – except for the M3G-specific, hacked 4pda.ru version). Note that, again, this doesn’t have any effect on how Opera Mini 4 or games work; only the main MIDlet manager MIDlet lists and, for example, the Gmail MIDlet are affected
The good
- the latest version; reported to be very fast
- M3G compliant
- has sound (as with Cloudyfa’s version)!!
All in all, highly recommended for gamers.
It’s available HERE (mirrored HERE so that you don’t need to search / register).
Also see THIS German language Pocket Players Reloaded article on the games it’s compatible with.
UPDATE (03/20/2008):
1. THIS and THIS posts in THIS thread (from an iPAQ 210 user) might be of interest to, for example, Opera Mini users.
2. I’ve published a review of SHAPE Services’ TSMobiles: Terminal Service Client for Mobiles (cross-posts: AximSite, XDA-Developers - 1, BrightHand, HowardForums, MoDaCo), a Java-based remote desktop accessor, RDP-compliant client. It works pretty well on Windows Mobile, both Pocket PC’s and MS Smartphones, under (the latest, 3.1 version of) Jbed, the best MIDlet manager for Windows Mobile. (Incidentally, this also shows what’s Java is capable of – this MIDlet is REALLY nice and fast, even by Windows Mobile standards!)
3. Pinned (sticky) at the highly popular MoDaCo Smartphone General Discussion (screenshot of this HERE)

2D Driver Development Project - HTC-CA & Team P3D go 2D!

*** PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING OR FLASHING ANY SOFTWARE POSTED IN THIS THREAD ***
The software posted here is for TESTING purposes only, Team P3D or any of the posters of software, or links to software on this thread take absolutely no responsibility or liability for damage caused by the result of installing or flashing software or links to software found on this thread - correctly or otherwise, you do so on the sole understanding that you do so at your own risk.
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Project Name: Polaris 2D Driver Project
Driver Name: P3D 2D Driver (Working title)
Development and Testing Team: SEE Post #2
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ANNOUNCEMENT:
The P3D team would like to extend an OPEN INVITATION to all developers and programmers from all forums of EVERY device to come forward and help us create the 2D driver which, as it is being developed from scratch will require much development work with many dll files created from scratch.
If you are interested in helping, please post your interest in this forum and we will add your name to the developers list. If you would like to help but own a different device to which the 3D driver is yet to be ported to, we would also like to hear from you and hopefully assist you with the knowledge we have gained in return for your efforts here. (actually we'll help you anyway but.. we do want your help! )
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11/10 - BigKVak successfully dumped the G810 rom and work has started in analyzing its content
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P3D 2D Driver Development Team:
Administration/Testing:
Support and Testing:
Bally3
NikMel
Neos2007
BigKvak
Imfloflo
Developers: (TBC)
Rogro82
NuShrike
Chainfire
Monkeyass
maqui01
It started with a few simple questions:
"Can the Polaris be hardware accelerated?"
"Why doesnt the CA Kaiser 3D driver work on the Polaris?"
That was a month ago..since then, thanks to the help and support of NikMel, NeoS2007, Rogro82 and NuShrike to name a few, we now have a working 3D driver which is currently in a version 1 state and with the release of the cab version through CA last night, we can now concentrate on improving speed and compatibility to make better use of the graphic chips capabilities.
My intention then was never to start a 2D driver or work on a 2D driver until I was satisfied no more could be done to improve it and a "final" release was in the cards, but through my own testing and various posts and conversations, I now find myself wondering whether the improvements with 3D is linked to the 2D driver?
From day 1, before we released the 3d driver and after, users have expressed faster speeds in 2d as well as 3d - though many have explained it to be a "placebo" effect, we naturally attributed this to the gpu sharing the workload with the cpu which makes sense in a common sense way - itje posted a humorous answer on his thread explaining this very thing as worth a read just to put a smile on your face, but on a serious note a question has to be asked - Does improvement on 3D really effect 2D and if that is the case, would a 2D driver help improve the 3D drivers perfornance?
So why start a 2D thread when the 3D driver still needs refining?
Well, apart from the question above, the overwhelming requests for 2D support on both Polaris and Kaiser forums (it should work on both in theory), we now have a dump of the long awaited Toshiba G810 rom to get us started- A BIG THANK YOU TO BIGKVAK - welcome to the team!
Originally Posted by BigKvak
I have dumped ROM from Toshiba, here the link http://rapidshare.com/files/152085600/dump.rar.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is inevitable then that work needs to start on this project. We also need to preserve the 3D thread for future 3D driver developments and defer 2D driver related posts from it, for these reasons, this new thread has been opened for all to start working with the P3D team in bringing 2D greatness to our devices.
Lets share our knowledge and have fun doing it like we did with the 3D driver!
PS: Although I have named the project Polaris 3D driver project, I would like to extend an invitation to users of all devices that could benefit from the 2D drivers creation, after all through CA Kaiser development, we have now ported the 3D driver to the Polaris AND the NIKE and hopefully to many more devices
Let our devices not make us divisive - whats is the point?
It is common knowledge that files from newer devices are used to help create the drivers we need for our devices - so why should we gloat and mock other less supported devices, should we not help them and share our knowledge and in the words of a good friend here "Pay it Forward?"
This is not the spirit of XDA Developers and it is certainly not the ethos of Team P3D - We have and pledge tol share all knowledge with users of all devices.
Besides, its so much more fun when we all work together!
It appears that HTC-CA were already in the process of
Reserved for p3d 4
Reserved for p3d 5
Reserved for p3d 6
Reserved for p3d 7
Reserved for p3d 8
Reserved for p3d 9
Reserved for p3d 10
I found this link on microsoft MSDN: http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1214862&SiteID=1
It's a guy asking for a 2d driver library. Maybe we can look into that?
I have dumped ROM from Toshiba, here the link http://rapidshare.com/files/152085600/dump.rar.html
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To move the discussion of 2d in here..
Windows Mobile 2D and 3D explained on MSDN
I believe this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa911096.aspx will be out first place to look. It's mostly there: 2D AND 3D info.
Here's what functions there are:
AlphaBlend API
Provides information about adding support for the AlphaBlend function to your OS design.
Direct3D Mobile
Provide information about adding 3-D graphics support to your OS design and creating applications that use the API.
DirectDraw
Provide information about adding 2-D graphics support to your OS design and creating applications that use the API.
Gradient Fill Support
Provides information about adding support for the GradientFill function to your OS design.
Imaging
Provide information about adding support for compressed still images to your OS design and reference information for the API.
Multiple Screens
Provide information about adding support for multiple displays to your OS design and creating applications to support them.
NeoS2007 said:
I believe this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa911096.aspx will be out first place to look. It's mostly there: 2D AND 3D info.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
reading it now.. some of it we know.. let see what we can learn..
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa925824.aspx
Here we go:
"Applications direct output to a specified device by creating a device context for the device. The device context is a GDI-managed structure containing information about the device. An application creates a device context by calling device context functions. GDI returns a device context handle used to identify the device.
Applications can direct output to a physical device, such as a display or printer, or to a logical device, such as a memory device.
A device context also contains attributes that determine how GDI functions interact with a device. These attributes eliminate the need to specify every piece of information Windows Embedded CE requires to display an object on a device. If you want to change an attribute, you can use attribute functions to change current device settings and operating modes. Operating modes include text and background colors and the mixing mode that specifies how colors in a pen or brush combine with colors already on a display surface."
GDI is the source of 2D on our devices. Maybe we need to look out for GDI tweaks in the registry?
BPP (Bits Per Pixel) explained
I also found this blog about the colors used on a mobile device. It's said that if you have a colordepth of 18 instead of the usual 8, 16, 32 bits, it's more cpu intensive. Isn't there a registry key for colordepth?
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/09/07/462187.aspx
"The next thing to understand is how the bits turn into colors on the screen. Say you've got a typical PocketPC with a resolution of 240x320 and 65536 colors. That means you've got 320 rows of 240 pixels (dots), each of which has 16 bits of data representing its color. All of that information is stored in a chunk of memory known as the "Frame Buffer." The LCD hardware takes whatever is in the Frame Buffer and converts it directly to what's on the screen. Want to change what's on the screen? Change what's in the Frame Buffer and the screen will update.
Okay, so we need 16 bits for every pixel, and we've got 240 times 320 dots. 16 bits is two bytes, so that's a total of 153600 bytes, or 150K of RAM used to hold what's on the screen."
Maybe a good thing to mention: we're hoping that the Toshiba g810 Portege has the files we need to develop a 2D driver. We're currently trying to extract a dump we got. Anyone have experience in extracting Toshiba's .Bin files?
Direct Draw explained
On MSDN:
"The DirectDraw® API provides support for hardware-accelerated 2-D graphics. It offers fast access to display hardware while retaining compatibility with the Windows graphics device interface (GDI). DirectDraw is a specialized memory manager for both system and display device memory and uses hardware acceleration where available. With DirectDraw, you can allocate and manipulate both system and graphics memory, including transfers between the two.
DirectDraw for Windows Embedded CE is adapted from DirectDraw for Windows-based desktop operating systems. Some capabilities from the desktop version have been extended and others have been curtailed to better suit embedded devices.
DirectDraw supports the following effects:
Bit-block transfers (blits)
Page flipping and multiple back buffers
Overlays, which is placing one image surface over another on the video display
Alpha source over destination blending, which is blending two surfaces using the source alpha image component
Video YUV pixel formats and color conversion
Direct video access to the frame buffer
What if we compare our HKLM\system\DDRAW\ keys in the registry with other devices? I see the values in ALL keys there are empty.
Yes.. I've noticed that and played around with them.. no difference.
I've tried the LG KS520, Diamond and HD ddraw.dll files.. none work out of the box. Maybe the G810 one might make a difference?
We need to find out what calls are made and to what other dll files. If you remember the problem we had with the 3.13 ddi? it could be similar situation in that theirs a dependencies issue.

[PRJ] OpenGL ES 3D drivers, v1 compatibility layer

General info:
Samsung S3C6410 processor supports OpenGL ES 1.1 and 2.0, but for some reason Samsung didn't include any proper OpenGL ES 1.0 implementation on our devices.
This is the project of creating a libgles_cm.dll library which compensates this.
So, here is the release of the OpenGL ES 3D v1 (and HTC) compatibility layer for Samsung Omnia II, Pro (Qwerty) and Giorgio Armani 2 (and M900 and...):
Installation:
ZIP download (current version):
(original GinKage material) Download it by clicking on this link.
The zip contains libgles_cm.dll, put this in your \Windows folder for activation across the entire device, or in the same folder as the EXE of the program you want to try this with.
CAB download (version 0.26):
(some additions by Chainfire) Attached!
This CAB will place the libgles_cm.dll file in your \Windows folder (unsigned). This means it will be used by all (capable) programs. I have also included libgles_cl.dll (an adaption from NuShrike's CL), which may add some compatibility for some games, but is untested in combination with GinKage's CM library.
Note:Don't forget to switch your device to HIGH performance mode or plug a charge adapter otherwise you won't get any decent performance.​
Compatibility:
What works:
Xtrakt
Experiment 13
HTC TouchFlo3D v1.3, v2.0, HTC Sense v2.5
Tower Defense
Flight Commander
10 Games for Betting
S2P 0.80
Opera Mobile 9.7
glBenchmark 1.0/1.1
TestOpenGL
HG Engine (Hologram App) and HG Proton [reported by daskalos]
Known issues:
glBenchmark hangs after 10-13 tests, don't know why. So, if you want to benchmark, do it in 3-4 runs, few tests at a time. Also, 'Flat' shading mode doesn't work, everything renders as 'Smooth'.
Xtrakt has some minor texturing issues (as you may see on fonts) due to the unsupported 1024x1024 texture resolution. Although it's perfectly playable.
Some alpha-blensing issues with Spb Mobile Shell 3.5.2 and earlier, NFS: Undercover, 10 Games for Betting and Call of Duty 2.
What does NOT work:
Spb Mobile Shell 3.5.2 and earlier. Although you may switch acceleration on by registry at [HKLM\Software\Spb Software House 2\Spb Mobile Shell\Gl\], setting GlEnabed to 1, but it is really unusable: you can't tap on a panel or a message to select it, you can only swipe to rotate carousel. I don't really care, because Spb already added GL2 support in the later releases.
NFS: Undercover. Almost worked for some time, but used to hang or crash randomly, and now it won't start at all. Again, I don't really care, as there is NFS in Samsung's AppStore.
Tons of GL apps.
Remember, I DON'T actually want to know about apps that DON'T work.
What I DO want to know about, is if anything else apart from
the list above work. That would really be a surprise!
Source code
The project is open-sourced. There are three main reasons for this:
I want the project to evolve, even when I don't have enough time for it.
I want to see more GL2 applications for Omnia 2 created by third-party developers (waiting for a Samsung's GL2 SDK is some pain).
I want Samsung to finally fix their own GL2 driver (and I hope that maybe this lib's sources will help).
So, I don't really think there's any other way to make these wishes possible.
Project source is available at SourceForge here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/omnia2gl/
To build the source code you'll need Visual Studio 2008, Windows Mobile 6 SDK and GL2_SDK.zip from the Files section of the SourceForge project.
At the moment, only me (GinKage) and Chainfire are the project admins, so if you have something to commit you'll need to contact us.
You may also find Screentex source there. Simple app it is, but it may be compiled in both GL1 and GL2 modes (some time earlier, it was also D3DM-compliant, not sure about it now).
I kindly ask you not to criticize the code too much, as I haven't even tried to make it look like industrial-standard.
It was created as a hobby, a brain siesta. If you want to prettify it, do it (and send us a patch, so it would find its way to SVN).
Also, if you use some parts of the code, please do mention us (GinKage, Chainfire, NuShrike) in credits. That's all I ask in return.
Bonus (for Samsung representatives if any):
A short list of some stupid bugs found in Samsung's driver during my work on this project:
eglGetDisplay(0) fails. It should work with a zero argument, by standard, but it fails.
Calling glGetString() before eglInitialize(), crashes.
eglGetConfigs with config_size = 4096 crashes.
glBindBuffer generates GL_OUT_OF_MEMORY if buffer number is above 100 (it is an actual limit hard-wired into libGLESv2, I had to re-implement the whole buffer management by myself). And, Xtrakt needs 102 buffers...
glGetIntegerv(GL_MAX_TEXTURE_UNITS) returns 0 instead of 2. This one totally breaks NFS.
glGetIntegerv(GL_MAX_TEXTURE_SIZE) returns 2048. In reality, every texture larger than 512x512 is going to be ignored at all, with some allocaton errors in debugger output. It may be used with S3TC, but it's DXT1 only, not even DXT5. And, somehow, with a GL_RGBA_S3TC_OES format, an alpha bit is ignored at all.
And don't forget to create mipmaps, or GL_*_MIPMAP_* won't draw anything at all (it should just use the only level available)!
glAlphaFuncEXP is not iplemented in libGLESv2 (though the hardware DOES have this available), had to do a hack for this to work.
glViewport works wrong after all. If the parameters, e.g. X and Width have a larger sum than the width of the window surface, then the resulting width is clamped, which results in scaled down rendering.
eglCreateWindowSurface is a fail: it doesn't track window size change at all, so if you create a surface and change window size, your output will be of an inadequate size (e.g., in Opera 9.7 going from Widowed mode to Fullscreen, or in anything else when going from Landscape to Portrait mode).
eglSwapBuffers is slow as hell (probably because of plain BitBlt it uses), it takes about 10 ms, which limits fps to about 100 and reduces the speed of everything else (e.g., you'll get 16 fps where you could have 20, only because of this functon).
All textures have an offset by half-texel. This is probably done for mapping to the nearest texel (like, round(u + 0.5)), but it breaks everything that is drawn, for example, with glOrtho (like Opera 9.7). Well, not exactly breaks, but everything look "smoothed out".
Release history:
Version 0.2, pre-alpha (Sep 24, 2009)
Initial release (proof-of-concept)
Version 0.25 (Nov 2, 2009)
One of the nicest updates. Faster, smaller, better. That is:​
It does QTC texture decompression more quickly, so Xtrakt loads a tad faster, and lags in TF3D were reduced (though haven't gone completely).
It has a smaller footprint, so Acer M900 users should be able to run Xtrakt now.
It allows to run an original unmodified TouchFLO 3D 1.3 (fixes yet another Samsung's bug, this time in glViewport). Maybe it can do even more, but that was not tested.
CFC 0.60 fully supported.
Though, if you want TF3D 1.3, I strongly advise you to use Chainfire's package with recompressed textures, as they have better quality, the package itself is significantly smaller and it runs much faster.
Version 0.256 (Nov 14, 2009)
A minor yet highly recommended update!​
Introduced a minus half-texel offset for every texture coordinate that libgles renders (yet another Samsung's bug).
The difference, now, is huge. First thing you'll probably notice, is a perfect (pixel-wise) Opera 9.7 rendering.
Second, some of the irritating lines in Xtrakt are gone as well.
Third, Tower Defense gets a tiny bit more clear and sharp look.
Version 0.257 (Nov 20, 2009)
Following games are now supported:​
Flight Commander
Experiment 13
Version 0.258 (Nov 29, 2009)
Yet another minor update:​
adds PVRTC support (not sure if it gives anything useful, but let it be: maybe some game for Dell Axim will finally work, maybe not);
fixes minor ambient lighting issue (as seen in TestOpenGL's donut test;
removes matrix palette from extensions list (so that glBenchmark 1.1 wouldn't hang);
and fixes a crash on MindPol's Coin game from their 10 Games for Betting.
I'd say, the latter game is the only reason why anyone would want to update.
Congratulations to MindPol on getting Bronze medal in App Contest with this one!
Version 0.26 (Feb 23, 2010)
Back to the two-digit version numbers! ​
S2P 0.80 crash fixed;
HTC Sense 2.5 texturing and crashes fixed.
hi, is this compatible with the omnia pro b7610?
So, here is the release of the OpenGL ES 3D v1 (and HTC) compatibility layer for Samsung Omnia II, Pro (Qwerty) and Giorgio Armani 2 (and M900 and...):
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sure, as you can see.
Nice work !
Will you GinKage continue this project ? or 0.26 is the last version ?
ginkae please fix HTC Sense v2.5 landscape mode
Here's what I have observed after I installed the OpenGl 1.0 in my M900.
1) xtrakt and testOpenGL works fine with the current drivers.
2) When .net compact framework 3.5 is installed both applications crashed.
3) After unistalling .NET compact framework 3.5 still both xtrakt and testOpenGL crashes. Thus leaving me no choice but to hard reset the phone and re-install the drivers.
I am not sure what i am doing wrong but i wanted to know if there are known issues running both .NET framework and the openGL drivers in M900.
BTW, i am using daskalos custom lite ROM
THanks.
Can't say anything about M900, as I neither have one neither do I have any friends who has it.
And, as for Sense 2.5, I'll wait a bit, as I don't want to reflash right now, because I've finally found a good and stable firmware, and tweaked it all the way through. I'll wait for an official 6.5.3 ROM: someone says it may also have issues with Opera 9.7, so I'll have to dig through those sources once again anyway.
So, 0.26 is probably not the last version. Although I'm just not sure what else can I squeeze out of this project apart from fixing some annoying bugs.

APP sizes : Android vs WP

HI, I saw some apps on play store and WP market. I found that many apps on WP are smaller in size as compared to the same app on Android.
Examples:
Official Twitter app: By Twitter
Android : 6 MB
WP : 2 MB
Facebook app:
Android (official) : 13 MB
WP ( by Microsoft) : 4 MB
LinkedIn app (Official)
Android : 5MB
WP : < 1 MB
NY Times (Official)
Android : 2.3 MB
WP : 1 MB
Whatsapp : By Whatsapp
Android : 8 MB
WP : < 1 MB
Foursquare (Official)
Android: 10MB
WP: 5 MB
Angry Birds Star Wars
Android: 38 MB
WP : 20 MB
Angry Birds Space
Android : 36 MB
WP : 15 MB
Anyone viewing this thread, please post apps sizes if you also find same thing for any other app.
So, how do will explain this small app sizes on WP compared to Android.
Is WP OS more CODE efficient than Android
Does this efficiency contribute to smoothness of apps. Please share your thoughts.
As a developer, I can say for certain several things
1) Yes, the OS is way, way more "code efficient" than Android
2) The code is downloaded and compiled only once. I will not get into details as to why this is happening, but on Android, as far as I am aware, JIT occurs everytime you run the application.
Also, Visual Studio is able to create far smaller binaries when compared to Eclipse.
Bytecode(android+eclipse) tends to produce really large "binaries" while the IL(WP+VS) tends to create very effective "binaries".
My game, which contains around 100 graphical assets only eats around 5.53 MB of space. So yes, C#/C++/VB handle assets and binary size better than Java.
There's been some talk lately about porting Android to use C# instead of Java. Some tests were done as far as performance is concerned. Really interesting results
http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/05...-massive-performance-improvement-over-dalvik/
http://www.koushikdutta.com/2009/01/dalvik-vs-mono.html
Then there is also the problem of hardware variety. Windows Phone basically runs on the same chipsets and only has a few supported resolutions, whereas on Android, there are great many chipsets, each with their own sets of hardware assets and many possible resolutions. Developers need to write more code to make sure their apps work fine on as many phones as possible.
mcosmin222 said:
As a developer, I can say for certain several things
1) Yes, the OS is way, way more "code efficient" than Android
2) The code is downloaded and compiled only once. I will not get into details as to why this is happening, but on Android, as far as I am aware, JIT occurs everytime you run the application.
Also, Visual Studio is able to create far smaller binaries when compared to Eclipse.
Bytecode(android+eclipse) tends to produce really large "binaries" while the IL(WP+VS) tends to create very effective "binaries".
My game, which contains around 100 graphical assets only eats around 5.53 MB of space. So yes, C#/C++/VB handle assets and binary size better than Java.
There's been some talk lately about porting Android to use C# instead of Java. Some tests were done as far as performance is concerned. Really interesting results
http://www.cnx-software.com/2012/05...-massive-performance-improvement-over-dalvik/
http://www.koushikdutta.com/2009/01/dalvik-vs-mono.html
Then there is also the problem of hardware variety. Windows Phone basically runs on the same chipsets and only has a few supported resolutions, whereas on Android, there are great many chipsets, each with their own sets of hardware assets and many possible resolutions. Developers need to write more code to make sure their apps work fine on as many phones as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh boy. Where to start.
Firstly, the WP OS is not more efficient than Android. Android consists of Java in the form of the Davlik virtual machine running on linux. In no way is this less efficient than C# running on the WP8 virtual machine on the NT kernel.
Bytecode is not Android + eclipse. Eclipse is an IDE, like visual studio. Bytecode is the compiled output from the Java compiler in the form of .class files. You can use any IDE (or none) to develop Android applications.
The size of a binary bears very little relation to it's efficiency. It all depends on the environment it runs under. For example, a single API call may, in one environment, relate to, say, 20 calls into some framework that is bundled with the app - therefore making the binary bigger. In another environment the single call may result in a single call into a function provided by the virtual machine. The end result is that roughly the same amount of code is executed. Also, part of the reason why Android binaries are larger is because they contained a cached version of the app for quicker startup.
Besides code, a binary may contain other artefacts, like graphic files or different resolutions, which will make the binary bigger.
The idea of using C# on android is absurd. C# is not supported on Linux (by Microsoft). There is, however, the mono open source version of C# (always guaranteed to be out of date) but the android libraries provided by Google are written in Java and there is no way they will use a proprietary language, like C#, as it will require the use of Microsoft technologies to run and that means they will have to pay Microsoft a license fee.
Why on earth would the leader in smartphone abandon their existing technologies to adopt one that will require a complete redevelopment of Android and, in addition, pay a license fee to Microsoft? Answer == they won't. Ever.
Dr.Paul said:
Oh boy. Where to start.
Firstly, the WP OS is not more efficient than Android. Android consists of Java in the form of the Davlik virtual machine running on linux. In no way is this less efficient than C# running on the WP8 virtual machine on the NT kernel.
Bytecode is not Android + eclipse. Eclipse is an IDE, like visual studio. Bytecode is the compiled output from the Java compiler in the form of .class files. You can use any IDE (or none) to develop Android applications.
The size of a binary bears very little relation to it's efficiency. It all depends on the environment it runs under. For example, a single API call may, in one environment, relate to, say, 20 calls into some framework that is bundled with the app - therefore making the binary bigger. In another environment the single call may result in a single call into a function provided by the virtual machine. The end result is that roughly the same amount of code is executed. Also, part of the reason why Android binaries are larger is because they contained a cached version of the app for quicker startup.
Besides code, a binary may contain other artefacts, like graphic files or different resolutions, which will make the binary bigger.
The idea of using C# on android is absurd. C# is not supported on Linux (by Microsoft). There is, however, the mono open source version of C# (always guaranteed to be out of date) but the android libraries provided by Google are written in Java and there is no way they will use a proprietary language, like C#, as it will require the use of Microsoft technologies to run and that means they will have to pay Microsoft a license fee.
Why on earth would the leader in smartphone abandon their existing technologies to adopt one that will require a complete redevelopment of Android and, in addition, pay a license fee to Microsoft? Answer == they won't. Ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhh...
Where do I start?
I know bytecode is NOT android+eclipse, I only mentioned the IDE and System, just as IL si not visual studio.
The size of the binary is influenced by how good the compiler is. Although it is not the only the only thing to take into consideration, the compiler does have a role in this.
C# on Linux/Android/Mac/iOS IS supported by Microsoft under the community promise license, so everybody can port C# and .NET to any system as long as they don't use this on windows, WITHOUT having to pay Microsoft anything... I suggest you get some documentation on what Mono and Dalvik are.
C# is just as open source as C on any platform apart from Windows.
As a matter of fact, porting Android to C# would benefit the platform greatly, as google has some issues with Oracle regarding the usage of Dalvik and Java on Android.
Oh, did I mention android has to code MORE due to variety of code...hmm...
No. You cannot judge the efficency of the compiler based on the resultant code size unless you are comparing like for like. You cannot compare two languages running on two different platforms like this and come to the conclusion that because the bytecode is smaller it must be more efficient.
I expect you are too young to remember the CISC vs. RISC debate some 20 or so years ago. RISC processors generated far more instructions than a CISC processors to perform the same operation, and hence had far larger binaries. However, RISC machines were far faster. So the complete opposite of what you are saying.
Different compilers may well generate different size binary files if one were to compare compilers compiling the same language. But again this does not mean the code in the smaller file will run quicker. Indeed it may actually run slower.
Code size is no indicator of efficiency.
As far as c sharp is concerned, only the language is free to use. None of the frameworks are. And Microsoft do not provide a c sharp compiler on any system besides windows.
There is not a chance in hell that Google will adopt it. If they were to change from java they will either use one of the languages they have developed or develop something new
I used the appropriate quotation marks when writing "code efficient", as it is a very broad term and comparisons over who is code efficient and who is not.
The way I understand it, a code efficient system is a system that has very high performance, such as windows phone, not that it has anything to do with size of binaries, but the OP asked if WP is a "code efficient" system, so i answered xD
.Net framework is also free to reverse engineer. You still have to pay for compilers however.
Interesting sidebit: in internal Google E-Mails that got published during the Oracle vs. Google trial over Java it was actually mentioned that using C# instead of Java would have been an option due to the fact that there are less licensing hassles attached to it's core library (which actually is standardized with ECMA) as compared to Java. They decided not to go that route as it would have taken a year to adapt Android and instead risk getting sued by Sun (which was later acquired by Oracle). So: yes, C# would have been just as good an option. Using something like Google Go wouldn't have simply because there was no developer community and it's a lot easier to get people working on your platform if they don't have to learn a new language first.
That aside: most likely the binary size isn't all that much relevant for how big the downloaded files are. And I won't even go into the fact that some of those Apps aren't written in Java on Android but use the NDK (at least Facebook and the Angry Birds games do on Android, most likeley the later do it on WP8 too).
So in the end it's most likely down to the embedded Audio and Graphics resources. As was already mentioned Android devices have to support a lot more resolutions which makes it likely that LowRes graphics are included as well to not tax slower devices with high-res graphics for no reason (given that you won't see the difference on LowRes displays). Another reason for this with regular Apps is that WP takes a chromeless-design-approach so you rarely have graphics included that serve as UI chrome.
Another reason might be that Microsoft put quite some effort into driving home the point that resources should not be included or used in a higher resolution than what they are intended to be displayed at. The reason was that it might have led to troubles with the memory-constrained Tango-devices which only have 256 MB of RAM. At least for high-profile developers that work together with Microsoft it's likely that those optimized their Apps for it.
Lastly and also already mentioned: third party libraries. Historically Microsoft has always packed a lot of functionality directly into it's system frameworks. So it's entirely possible that WP devs use third party libraries less often. Case in point: database functionality: many Android Apps use SQLite and include their own binaries for it. WP provides SQLServer CE which can simply be used by any App that needs it. This might change though as for W8/WP8-cross platform Apps Microsoft themselves suggest including SQLite given that there is no SQL CE Support for WinRT-Apps.
And for the finishing lines something on compilers and code size. Intels C++ compilers regularly produce bigger binaries because of optimization techniques like loop unrolling, etc. They also normally outperform competing compilers in performance benchmarks. But it's not that easy if you look not at a single App's performance but at the whole system. Having an App take up more memory means that other Apps will have to be terminated sooner to avoid an out-of-memory scenario and it is more taxing on the memory controller, which depending on the chipset used might lead to additional performance problems down the road (the Nvidia Tegra 3 is said to be severely limited by its memory controller). But especially with Managed Code like C# or Java the code size of the IL does not really mean too much in that regard as the code is compiled anyway before being executed. So the memory actually taken up during execution is a lot different from what gets downloaded.
A more interesting comparison though would be wether the WP8 compiled XAPs are smaller than their WP7 counterparts, given that WP8 does precompile the IL in the cloud. Might be interesting to see which of those is smaller.
Just did some comparisons on size of binaries between 7.5 and 8
1) XAP compiled for 7.5 is 5.53 MB
2) XAP compiled for 8 is 5.76 MB
Seems the 8 version is actually bigger, although not by much.
I love this thread!
Sent from my RaZr on MIUI.
I know about the comparison between Android and Windows Phone 8 from users who have made the switch.

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