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Re:Kindle Development Kit by andrewcooke on Thursday January 21, 2010 @08:17AM (#1067213)
what's the technology? is it java based? i can't see any relevant details on that page... [edit: i've searched around and can find no answer, although the underlying os is apparently linux] [edit2: see http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1066942]
Re:Kindle Development Kit by ashinohara on Thursday January 21, 2010 @08:47AM (#1067254)
It could be Java. The IDE in the picture up top looks very similar to Eclipse (although Eclipse handles more than just Java).
Re:Kindle Development Kit by umjames on Thursday January 21, 2010 @10:10AM (#1067402)
Yeah, if that picture has any accuracy, it'll be Java in Eclipse. I stare at Eclipse doing Java all day at work. That is definitely Eclipse and the format and length of the lines of code look like Java.

Is Amazon hoping/expecting big companies to buy Kindles in bulk for their employees to use these applications, or are they going for a large number of developers that already know Java so that development seems easier? My experience in big companies is that they don't buy new devices for everyone. It's more likely that a significant number of employees have to purchase devices outside of work and bring them into the office before the company considers supporting the device with applications.

Re:Kindle Development Kit by davidw on Thursday January 21, 2010 @09:14AM (#1067293)
Java is a safe bet for this kind of thing: you can sandbox things up pretty well and keep people from doing Evil Things. Also, it's pretty popular with Big Companies, so it's a likely bet for that reason as well.
Re:Kindle Development Kit by rubinelli on Thursday January 21, 2010 @09:39AM (#1067336)
Kindle Simulator... on Mac, PC, and Linux desktops.

Simultaneous release? It could be another VM, but it smells like Java to me.

Re:Kindle Development Kit by joubert on Thursday January 21, 2010 @09:09AM (#1067285)
Not sure whether the SDK will be Java-based, but here's some info on the software that runs on the Kindle: http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2007/11/linux-on-ama...
Re:Kindle Development Kit by bukster on Thursday January 21, 2010 @10:32AM (#1067452)
The Kindle runs Java ME so I'm guessing a CDC implementation with some proprietary extensions.
Re:Kindle Development Kit by fhars on Thursday January 21, 2010 @11:53AM (#1067663)
And that will probably mean that you cannot run software you wrote on a piece of hardware you own without paying somebody $200 a year for the privilege of a developer certificate. Oh how I hate Java ME. (Well, technically you can run anything on Java ME if you don't mind answering a security dialog every five seconds. Like every time your app tries to save a backup or changes to a new directory in a file selection dialog.)
Re:Kindle Development Kit by andrewcooke on Thursday January 21, 2010 @11:55AM (#1067668)
ah, thanks. for those (like me) that don't know what cdc is, it's "the more capable configuration" of JavaME - see http://java.sun.com/javame/technology/ and http://java.sun.com/javame/technology/cdc/
Re:Kindle Development Kit by lemming on Friday January 22, 2010 @07:30AM (#1069552)
It's Java - see:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=639899&p... http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61093

For some previous attempts to hack apps together. It uses a modified AWT for display. The problem has always been that the API was heavily obfuscated.