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Chapter 1: Gathering What You Need to Develop BlackBerry Apps
These models are available through the major wireless carriers. A particular
model may be exclusive to a particular carrier — for instance, the Storm
and Storm2 devices are currently Verizon-only, whereas the Bold and Curve
devices were originally AT&T-only. AT&T and Verizon strike deals with RIM
to be the sole providers of a particular model, but usually the exclusivity is
time limited. For instance, Verizon and Sprint have been selling models of the
Curve for a couple of years now, after AT&T’s contract with RIM to be the
only provider selling the Curve ended.
There are pretty much just two ways to acquire a BlackBerry:
✓ Purchase one, new or refurbished, from a wireless service provider.
This requires a service contract with the wireless service provider,
which might not fit into your budget.
✓ Buy one used. This way is usually less expensive than buying from a
wireless service provider but comes with its own set of advantages and
disadvantages.
See Appendix B for more information on buying new or used smartphones.
Using Your Programming Skills
You will need some general skills to develop BlackBerry applications:
✓ Java programming: The Java programming language is the development
language for BlackBerry applications. Your source modules must
represent Java classes, which get compiled into Java class files and then
packaged for the BlackBerry device OS to execute.
✓ Debugging: After you code your app, there’s a statistical likelihood that
it won’t be perfect. If you’re lucky, the imperfections will show up rather
quickly and obviously. As you develop more applications, you’ll find that
the obvious and quickly fixed problems happen less often, which leaves
the subtle and more-challenging bugs. Your skills at debugging — looking
at code as it runs, keeping track of what is going right and what is going
wrong, and so on — will play an important part in completing your apps.
✓ Software design patterns: Like with most modern computing platforms,
your app will benefit from using software patterns where appropriate.
You can certainly create a functional and usable BlackBerry application
without relying on any of the canonical design patterns, but applications
that are to have a long-duration existence will require a solid structure
for operation that the use of software patterns will support. The most
obvious is the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, which enforces
the separation of your app into pieces that are easy to manage. (See
Chapter 4 for more information about MVC.)
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