Up and Running

I purchased a Handspring Platinum last week, and one of my first goals was to start writing Java apps on it ASAP.

After many failures, I dug through my copies of JDJ and found the issue with Jason Brigg's article on J2ME and application compiling ["Hello World: A Beginner's Guide to Writing Applications for the MID Profile," Vol. 6, issue 7].

Within a few minutes I had his HelloJDJMIDlet up and running on my handheld, and soon after I had one of my own applications running.

Many thanks for the great article.

Barry D. Ries
cnik2@home.com

Journeyman Column Works

Great article and welcome! I look forward to the new Arehart column. Charles Arehart has written a similar column in ColdFusion Developer's Journal that has been useful over the years, and I'm sure his Journeyman column in JDJ ["Making the Move to J2EE," Vol. 6, issue 9] will likewise encourage many people to delve deeper into J2EE.

Readers will save quite a lot of time and money by purchasing the books and perusing the other resources he recommends in his first column, and they will also learn J2EE better and faster. Charles always has carefully considered recommendations, and I always follow them to my great benefit.

Adam Phillip Churvis
info@ColdFusionTraining.com

Great article! "Making the Move to J2EE" is awesome [Vol. 6, issue 9]. I've been waiting for quite some time now for a "forget about the GUI stuff" review of Java books. Charles Arehart is taking the exact focus on Java that we need. I look forward to his next article.

Raymond Camden
jedimaster@macromedia.com

Where's the Code?

Congratulations! Page 72 of your September issue is a triumph of bad graphic design. It's not enough that you trash José María Barrera's article ["What Is Java Reflection?" Vol. 6, issue 9] by not including the code listings he refers to, but you then make a complete dog's dinner of what you do print.

Terry Child
terry@smallblueworld.com

Editor's Note: The code listings the author refers to are available on the JDJ Web site, as cited in the article.

Isn't It Ironic?

I read Alan Williamson's editorial ["Together We Stand, Divided We Fall," Vol. 6, issue 9] with some interest because it reminded me of how the Smalltalk vendors felt a few years ago when Sun flexed its mighty marketing muscles to place Java in the spotlight before it was ready, throttling the momentum that Smalltalk had finally begun to gather. Now Java has matured and, despite a few warts, rightly holds its place in the realm of development platforms.

I find it ironic that Java users now worry over the upcoming threat from Microsoft's marketing. One thing I've learned as a reformed Smalltalker now doing Java is that in the battle over which technology to adopt, it's rarely about the technology. So I agree with you that those of us who want to continue using and recommending Java will have to work extra hard to earn that right.

Michael Silverstein
msilverstein@silvermark.com

Print an Annual Index

I've been reading Java Developer's Journal for several years now, and it keeps getting better and better. I love the latest format and its organization.

One problem I encounter with my many stacks of publications and magazines is how difficult it is to find the exact article I'm looking for. While having the table of contents listed on the cover helps, it still means having to go through each issue to find something.

If I might make a suggestion, some publications, particularly professional journals, print an annual index cataloging all articles published in that year. I'm sure many other people would find such an index tremendously useful.

Thanks for publishing a great Java resource, and keep up the good work.

Bonnie SooHoo
bsh01@onebox.com

ERRATA Due to a printer's error, the last page of Dan Malks article, "Core J2EE Patterns" (JDJ, Vol. 6, issue 10), did not appear in the print issue of the magazine. The entire article can be accessed by logging on to www.sys-con.com/java/article.cfm?id=1161.

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