Let's Get Small
By Al Williams
In today's Internet world, less is definitely more. The trend is toward smaller browsers in palm-sized computers, cell phones, and even home appliances. With this proliferation of devices, machine-independent techniques like HTML and Java become especially important.
The problem is that some of these small computers don't have the horsepower to run Java. Also, the tiny screens often require special input and display techniques. This month I'll show you a free tool called Waba that lets you write programs using a subset of Java. The resulting programs will not only run anywhere you can run Java, but you can also execute them on a Palm or Windows CE handheld device.
What can you do with Waba? The obvious answer is to simply use it to develop for handheld devices. I don't know any easier (or less expensive) way to develop for both the Palm and Windows CE. You can get all the tools free—you probably already have most of them already. However, the fact that Waba can also run on ordinary Java machines leads to some interesting possibilities. Suppose you own a home repair business. You could have a job estimation program that would run exactly the same way on a Web page or on a handheld device. You could estimate job costs at your desk, in someone's home, or while driving in your car (which we do not advocate).
Tools
What do you need to develop for Waba? You can use practically any Java development tool (including the free JDK from Sun). However, Waba isn't Java—it simply uses the Java development tools to create Waba programs.<>
