Friday, October 3, 2008

An Introduction to the Lightweight User Interface Toolkit (LWUIT)

Java ME allows us to write applications that are, generally speaking, portable across a wide range of small devices that support the platform. While the basic functionalities usually work well on all supported devices, the area that does pose problems for developers is the user interface. Native implementations of javax.microedition.lcdui -- the primary API for UIs in Java ME -- differ so widely from one device to another that maintaining a device independent and uniform look and feel is virtually impossible.
Non-uniform look and feel is not the only reason why developers have been waiting for something better to turn up. The javax.microedition.lcdui package does not support components and capabilities that can fully satisfy present-day user expectations.
It is in this context that the arrival of Lightweight User Interface Toolkit (LWUIT) is so exciting. LWUIT offers a wide range of widgets for building UIs. While some of these widgets are also available under lcdui, there are a number of new ones that enable application developers to design UIs that can come very close to their desktop counterparts in terms of visual sophistication. Even the components that are also offered by lcdui have been functionally enhanced. And LWUIT is not just about new components, either. The API supports a whole range of new functionalities, too -- theming, transitions, and more.

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