Working with contact list in Symbian and WindowsMobile in a nutshell

Question

I've never developing anything for mobile platforms yet. But now I need an app, that can perform basic read/write/update operations with contact list.

It should work in Symbian and WinMobile, but it's normal if we have 2 different applications (but if it's possible then I prefer to make only one). In first version it's not even necessary to make GUI. I just want to download and install and start the app, and it will exit after finishing.

What instruments (which IDE, what simulators and so on) should I have to develop this app? I know Java, but I've never used J2ME so if it's easier to use something .net-based or something cpp-based, then it's ok.

Another question: working with contact list is platform specific or concrete cellphone-specific?

Answer 1

unfortunately in the cellphone market everything is really custom stuff.

Symbian and Windows Mobile have nothing to do with each other API wise, except that it is for both possible to program C against it.

Windows mobile also allows .net programs, but symbian doesn't without adding the proprietary .net runtime from redfivelabs. The API for getting your contacts is on both platforms wildly different.

To make something cross platform for it, make a hardware abstraction layer and program against that. And on both platforms implement your HAL with the specifics.

For java they said program once, run many... but unfortunately is is more: program once, debug many. On every phone, the VM is different, and has it's own set of peculiar bugs to work around. The API for manipulating contacts though is standardized, although again, that says nothing in JAVA. Chances are it works on 15% of handsets, and the rest has to be figured out using patches.

welcome to my world... ;^)