Datasheet

Chapter 1: Gathering What You Need to Develop BlackBerry Apps

✓ The RAPC compiler: This is the compiler and linker used by the JDE to

produce BlackBerry application files. It makes use of the Sun Java

compiler (see the following bullet) to compile your BlackBerry Java

code, and then packages it into a form that can be installed onto a

BlackBerry device. (The acronym RAPC stands for RIM APplication

Compiler, and you don’t need to download it — the RAPC compiler

comes with the BlackBerry JDE.)

✓ The Sun Java compiler: This is the Sun Microsystems Java Standard

Edition (JSE), which must be version 1.5 or later. You can download the

Sun Java compiler from

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

I have run into some difficulty using the JDE on 64-bit Windows machines,

including Windows Vista and Windows 7. As of this writing, the RIM JDE

requires a 32-bit operating system (OS), with a 32-bit version of Sun’s Java, in

order to run at all. In addition, there is no Macintosh OSX tool for BlackBerry

development, unless you use a virtualization application (an application that

allows you to run other operating systems within it).

RIM offers a plug-in for the Eclipse development environment. Eclipse is an

open source (free) Java development environment you can download from

www.eclipse.org. This book concentrates on development using the RIM

JDE, but if you’re comfortable using Eclipse, you should definitely investigate

RIM’s plug-in. As of this writing, the current version of BlackBerry Java

Plug-in for Eclipse is 1.1, and makes use of the BlackBerry OS 5.0 APIs.

Information about the RIM Eclipse plugin can be found at

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/devbetasoftware/javaplugin.jsp

Gathering BlackBerry simulators

The BlackBerry JDE comes with several supporting applications to assist you

in developing a quality BlackBerry application. You use smartphone simulators

to execute your app just as if it were running on a real BlackBerry device.

You use the service simulators to represent the real-world services for the

BlackBerry to access the Internet (through your PC) or to simulate sending

and receiving e-mail. You use simulators in your development process to test

your apps before you run them on an actual BlackBerry smartphone. You can

download the smartphone simulators from RIM at the following URL:

http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/resources/simulators.jsp

Appendix A contains more information regarding smartphone and service

simulators.

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