Programming Wireless Devices with the Java™ 2 Platform, Micro Edition, Second Edition

5.1. Background and Goals

A general goal for designing the libraries for the Connected, Limited Device Configuration was to provide a minimum useful set of libraries for practical application development and profile definition for a variety of small devices. As explained earlier in Section 3.1, “High-Level Goals,” CLDC is a “lowest common denominator” standard that includes only minimal Java platform features and APIs for a wide range of consumer devices. Given the strict memory constraints and differing features of today's small devices, it is virtually impossible to come up with a set of libraries that would be ideal for all devices. No matter where the bar for feature inclusion is set, the bar is inevitably going to be too low for some devices ...