I'm going to assume everyone else, by-and-large, are as impatient to get the Java SDK as I, so heres my question: what precisely is the SDK, is it something that the community could emulate? or is there more to it than that?
I dont know how long everyone else has been waiting for the Java SDK, but honestly, I have little patience and little faith in these sorts of situations where we, the unwashed masses, have to wait for the higher-ups to decide 'now is the time' for releasing something as important as the Java SDK.
I mean, WowWee did sell the SDK as part of a deal thing, right? could they not simply burn a couple thousand disks and sell them? I really dont like this level of limbo, im sure nobody else does either.
Maybe someone who has the Java SDK can enlighten me/us on exactly what it is.
Btw. I am a Java programmer, so please dont assume Im clueless in what SDK's are, but calling something a 'software development kit' is very vague. it could just be a set of sample classes, or an api, or documentation, or a whole different compilation platform, or all of the above.
Member
Melbourne, AustraliaI believe there were legal issues involved. The SDK appears to have been developed by Sun rather than WowWee. You could try contacting WowWee direct, they are pretty friendly if somewhat unhelpful.
The SDK includes some classes, a little documentation, and some custom built executables that are alternate versions to the ones on the RS Media.
Moderator
Madison WI, United StatesBut as I recall, some of the classes had problems and were'nt actually accessible? I've been in contact with MichelleC from WowWee and she assures me that WowWee is still pursuing it, but so far nothing has come to fruition. As Nocturnal noted, it is really in Sun's hands. I wish I had more news, but for now all we can do is be patient.
I don't know if it is something the community could emulate, at some level the java classes have to hook into the hardware itself? Or can they only hook into a software interface exposed by the OS itself? Mr N, care to comment?
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Member
Melbourne, AustraliaYou know Dr M, I really hate questions like these. The simple answer is no this is not something we could emulate.
The not simple answer is yes, we could emulate the functionality provided by the SDK. But since WowWee won't comply fully with the GPL, they certainly aren't going to give us the header files required to link programs against the non-GPL covered hardware libraries. Which means, reverse engineering the existing hardware interface and possibly creating our own from scratch. Then we would have to integrate that hardware interface into a JVM, assuming we could even get our own JVM to run on the RS Media. Not to mention you'd pretty much have to come up with a new UI. All in all, it would probably take months just to get to the not entirely function place the current SDK is at.
Moderator
Madison WI, United StatesNocturnal said: ...since WowWee won't comply fully with the GPL, they certainly aren't going to give us the header files required to link programs against the non-GPL covered hardware libraries...
come up with a new UI. All in all, it would probably take months just to get to the not entirely function place the current SDK is at.Hm, good answer. I wonder though, if we had an NDA with WowWee, they might consider sharing the headers and hardware libraries? That would save a couple of months. And at the current pace, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it were 2009 before we see anything happening out of Sun. I'm still early on the Java learning curve, so please excuse my ignorance- the JVM is akin to a HAL, so is compiled custom for the bit of hardware that it is destined to run on? And that is what allows for device-independence of Java apps- the app doesn't have to know anything about the interupts or memory addresses.
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Melbourne, AustraliaYes, the Java Virtual Machine is akin to a Hardware Abstraction Layer. The idea being that once a program is compiled into java bytecode, it should be able to run on any suitable JVM, regardless of the hardware that JVM is running on.
Your making the assumption WowWee actually has access to the relivant parts of source code (and any desire to provide more than the most basic of assistance). The linux software (and possibly the hardware on which it runs) was created by other companies. Unless WowWee included access and rights to source code in their contract, they probably couldn't give us access. Although, Sun had to get access to that and more somehow.
Has there been any updates on the Java APIs availability? I've been waiting patiently since christmas morning for it....
Moderator
Madison WI, United StatesNope, no updates because nothing visible has happened. Still waiting on Sun. 
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Is there a channel into sun that some of us end users could use to inquire into this status?
Moderator
Madison WI, United StatesI haven't been able to find a name. There was someone who blogged about the JavaOne and RSM last year, he might be worth a try. Here's one interesting blog post http://blogs.sun.com/slowhog/entry/sun_spot_with_robosapien
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Thanks,
I'm hoping he'll have the time to comment on this, and I'll let everyone know what he says!
Well, he did finally just write back today, but unfortunately, it's not very encouraging...
"Unfortunately, I don't have any news. I am not sure the status of the deal, I have asked around and seems like the licensing issue is simply not moving."
Maybe someday we'll get an SDK to play with -- but that day is not today.
Member
Melbourne, Australia
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