When Nokia first introduced the Nokia Developer’s Suite for J2ME™, the forerunner of Carbide.j, the support for mobile development provided by most Java™ IDEs was limited. However, over the past couple of years, features specifically aimed at mobile developers have become increasingly common in a range of open source and free Java development solutions. Therefore, having reviewed the options available to mobile Java developers, Nokia has decided not to develop Carbide.j further.

Alternatives to Carbide.j

Nokia has identified two tools that provide developers with features that are very similar to Carbide.j; they are the Eclipse IDE used in conjunction with EclipseME and the NetBeans IDE used in conjunction with NetBeans Mobility Pack.

Downloading the Eclipse IDE and EclipseME

The Eclipse IDE is available from the downloads page of the Eclipse Foundation’s Web site. EclipseME is available for download from SourceForge as well as from links on the EclipseME Web site.

Resources to help developers get started with the Eclipse IDE and EclipseME

Documentation for the Eclipse IDE is provided on the documentation page of the Eclipse Foundation’s Web site.

A user guide for EclipseME is provided on the documentation page of the EclipseME Web site. This guide provides information on creating, running, debugging, and packaging a Java™ ME application.

Downloading the NetBeans IDE and NetBeans Mobility Pack

Both the NetBeans IDE and Mobility Pack can be downloaded from the NetBeans Web site. The NetBeans IDE can be downloaded directly from here, and the direct download link for Mobility Pack is here. A copy of a Java™ SE JDK, either version 5 or 6, must be installed prior to installing the NetBeans IDE. An installation package containing the NetBeans IDE and Java SE JDK version 6 can be downloaded here from Sun’s Java Web site.

Resources to help developers get started with the NetBeans IDE and Mobility Pack

An extensive set of manuals and guides for the NetBeans IDE and Mobility Pack are available from the NetBeans Mobility Pack documentation page. The NetBeans Mobility Pack For MIDP/CLDC 5.5 Quick Start Guide and Importing Existing Java™ ME MIDP/CLDC Source Code into NetBeans IDE 5.5 guides will be particularly useful for new users of NetBeans.

Future tools for mobile Java developers from Nokia

Nokia is continuing to create tools for mobile Java developers.

At the core of Nokia’s support for mobile Java developers are the Java™ ME SDKs for the Series 40 platform and S60 platform. Nokia is continuing to develop these SDKs in particular, ensuring that they provide seamless integration with the Eclipse and NetBeans IDEs.

Nokia is also continuing to work on features and technologies for which Nokia’s expertise as a device vendor is relevant. Such areas include on-device debugging tools and components, where device knowledge is critical to providing developers with effective tools for mobile Java development.