I have a need for full java support in Maemo browser. I would like to use N900 with a java application used by http://www.routegadget.net/ to draw my route in orienteering.

I don't see Jalimo listed here

Check here:

https://wiki.evolvis.org/jalimo/index.php/Maemo

Jalimo is definitely present in Diablo Extras. It is not in any of the Fremantle repos, but that is mainly because nobody cares.

I disagree. And Sun disagrees. And the fact is, Dalvik doesn't even run Java bytecode, nor follows the JVM spec.

Also, Dalvik is an interpeter and thus can forget about any kind of performance comaprable to C. Unlike JITs, which can on certain workloads. Of course, that does not mean Dalvik/Java is useless for interactive (read: 99% of wall clock time waiting for user input) stuff.

That page mentions Chinook, and I don't see Jalimo here either.

I've been pretty impressed with OpenJDK/IcedTea on the tablets. It is pretty slow, but it is a very complete implementation of Java SE.

I haven't attempted it on the N900, but if it were fast enough, it certainly would be the way to go.

Note that the Debian armel version linked above might be an excellent place to start with a Maemo port.

On the topic of garbage collection for a moment:
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/

Now you have the speed of C/C++ with the convenience of Java's garbage collection, only requiring simple malloc/realloc replacements.

* of course, there are many other compelling reasons people use Java. I just thought I'd mention out this little-known gem.

}:^)~

You are right, and I have been incorrect. The PackRat shows Jalimo only in their own repo:

http://ageofikon.info/packrat/index....ection=&Repo=0

Hi,
I am the project lead for the Eclipse eRCP project that was mentioned earlier in this thread. Also I work for Nokia as part of the team that develops the Java Runtime for the Nokia Symbian devices.

I usually do not like to respond to these because they tend to get nowhere and become more about personal choices. However I think I have not engaged to maemo community before and I think some of the information I can provide may help.

First about eRCP, eRCP is an OSGi based environment that aims to carry some of the desktop Eclipse RCP pieces to mobile. The crown jewel of these pieces is eSWT UI toolkit. Nokia's S60 based phones ship eSWT (not the full eRCP stack) as part of the device and eSWT can be used from MIDP runtime. eSWT fits rather nicely to our purposes because it is basically a thin wrapper of the platform's UI toolkit. It does not impose its own look and feel like the Java's own Swing. Recently, Nokia contributed an eSWT port on Qt to eRCP project the first early access packages of eRCP including the contributed eSWT is available. Although we do not provide a package at this time, this port is known to work for maemo and it is possible to provide a package for maemo as well. eSWT's Qt port may be significant for maemo Java because it provides a future proof solution for Java UIs.

Since porting the S60 Java to maemo was listed earlier as an option some information on that. Actually when we started the work on Java Runtime 2.0, we have considered that maemo would be another target and decided to implement it cross-platform. Later when maemo showed no interest, some of the cross-platform requirements were dropped. However a significant part of the runtime can work on maemo. at least the Java UIs(eSWT and MIDP UI), installer, application launchers etc. are cross-platform. As for APIs like bluetooth, location, wireless messaging, mutimedia etc. A few of those already have their maemo implementation ready. So porting this S60 Java is a closer goal than most think.

Also Java SE is also mentioned as an option here. I believe full Java SE is too bloated for mobile(includes corba, jdbc etc). Also Android does not ship full Java SE libraries but rather a subset. I also do not think MIDP is good enough for a powerful platform as maemo(or any smartphone). Ideally Java platform should support MIDP but should provide a subset of JavaSE APIs and latest language features to be competitive against Android.

I still have more to say but this is rather long post already. I hope this is somewhat helpful information.

Thanks for the informative post!

What do you think are the chances of this happening? Alternatively what are the chances of the necessary code being made available so a community effort can proceed?

My main concern is getting as much application compatibility as possible into Maemo. I think realistically it's assumed that new smartphones are competent in a number of different areas (phone, maps, photography, web, scheduling etc) with the differentiating factor being applications.

If people with Maemo can have Linux applications, Maemo applications, the new cross platform QT framework applications, Java applications and Android applications then it becomes a very attractive device that essentially commoditises application compatibility and makes it a "standard feature" that you can run applications from anywhere.

What I really want to be able to do is run the Java applications I like (gmail, google maps, opera mini) and my first thought was looking at the open source J2ME project and porting that. If the bulk of the work is already done by Nokia it would be a shame for the community to have to replicate that.