Uploaded to www.rart.com/j2me-presentation March 19, 2002

ColorMEtst and MathMEtst applet added March 23, 2002

NOVAJUG Presentation March 19, 2002

Porting Graphics from AWT to J2ME

Presentor: Jan Aminoff, President of A-Square, Inc.

Outline and Index

• Invitation
• What is Rart®: A PowerPoint Presentation with Examples
  • See Introduction to Rart
    • Beauty as Combinations of Randomness and Order
    • The Computer as a Tool
    • The Rart Universe
    • The Principles of Rart (See also the website)
• The Java Implementation of Rart in AWT and JDK 1.1.8
  • The Abstract Class Universe
  • A universe executing as Applet or Application
  • The uParameter class for Observer Interaction
  • The RartRunner versions
  • Rart Demo, especially Lines and Flakes
• Porting AWT to J2ME
  • AWT vs MIDP: Color
    • ColorME, ColorCanvas and ColorMEtst (Demo)
    • The Abstract UniverseME Class
    • The LinesME universe
  • AWT vs MIDP: Math without floating point
    • MathME and MathMEtst (Demo)
    • The FlakesME universe
    • The rP60ME class supporting Flakes

Invitation

Java graphics tools have been assembled in AWT, the abstract windowing toolkit, from the first edition of Java, JDK 1.0, in 1996. While the rest of Java has seen major changes, AWT has remained essentially unchanged. However, the small screen and the limited memory of MIDP devices forced significant reductions in the tools available to the graphics designer working in the J2ME environment. Jan Aminoff has attacked the problems of porting a graphics intensive project to J2ME. He will present his strategy and tactics as well as the results, including a class for the conversion of AWT colors to corresponding J2ME colors.

Jan has been working on and off for more than 10 years on an ambitious project for computer generated art. The project is Rart®, which stands for random art. Rart® is based on the premise that much of what we consider beautiful appeals to us because of the combinations of randomness and order in the arrangements of nature, especially in its dynamic manifestations in, for example, clouds marching across a summer sky. The computer is an excellent tool to combine randomness and order in animations on a computer screen. The concept was formulated by Jan in the late eighties and first implemented on the MAC using MS QuickBasic. When Java and the Internet emerged in the later nineties, Applets and AWT were custom-made for Rart®, and Jan used Java to implement Rart® as a platform independent Internet enabled framework for art. You can see more about Rart® at www.rart.com. In his presentation Jan will give a short overview of the AWT implementation of Rart® and then go on to what had to be done to transfer Rart®, mutatis mutandis, to the J2ME environment.

Jan has an MSEE from Polytechnic Institute of New York (called Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn when he graduated in 1972). He did software support development, including the definition of a programming language, for telecommunications systems with Ericsson and GTE. Jan has worked as an independent consultant with his own company, A-Square, Inc., since 1989.