What is J2ME?
Since 1995, Java has grown into a complete and mature object-oriented development platform that allows easy and fast applications development for a great many hardware and software platforms, thereby significantly lowering cost of application development and maintenance. In 1999, Sun divided Java into three separate editions. Java 2, Standard Edition (J2SE) is intended for use on common personal computers. Java 2, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) is designed for use on servers. Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME) is designed for small devices with a limited processor power and small memory size. Mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), consumer electronics, and embedded devices are common examples of J2ME capable devices. To support a wide variety of device types, J2ME technology adopts a modular and scalable architecture. It has two primary kinds of components configurations and profiles. J2ME configuration defines the minimum set of Java virtual machine features and Java class libraries
By Eric Giguere June 28, 2002 Originally published on Developer.com This article is also available in French. Java is known primarily as a server-side programming environment, centered around the technologies that make up the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), such as Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs), servlets, and JavaServer pages (JSPs). Early adopters of Java, however, will recall that it was originally promoted as a client-side application environment. In fact, Java was originally designed as a programming language for consumer appliances. Now Java is returning to its roots with Java 2 Micro Edition, or J2ME for short. This article, the first in a series on J2ME programming, explains what J2ME is.
