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From: CS Imam on 6 Jul 2008 08:50
Hello,

Recently a university approached my small consulting company about
doing some work for them: building a small Java ME client to allow
students to download their grades and schedules onto their mobiles.

In a nutshell, I refused the project saying it was a waste of the
university's money since they could achieve the same functionality
cheaper by making their existing Web site (which has this
functionality) mobile/WAP friendly.

I am curious if others have a different opinion. As far as I know, a
JME client's strengths are caching and error correction on the mobile
itself.

*sigh* I'd love to discover other advantages to go back to them and
say we'll take the project - they are after us, and yet I feel I'd be
cheating them if I agreed.

Thoughts?

Ahmed.
From: Arne Vajhøj on 6 Jul 2008 10:02
CS Imam wrote:
> Recently a university approached my small consulting company about
> doing some work for them: building a small Java ME client to allow
> students to download their grades and schedules onto their mobiles.
>
> In a nutshell, I refused the project saying it was a waste of the
> university's money since they could achieve the same functionality
> cheaper by making their existing Web site (which has this
> functionality) mobile/WAP friendly.
>
> I am curious if others have a different opinion. As far as I know, a
> JME client's strengths are caching and error correction on the mobile
> itself.
>
> *sigh* I'd love to discover other advantages to go back to them and
> say we'll take the project - they are after us, and yet I feel I'd be
> cheating them if I agreed.

Usually Java ME is chosen over a web based solution to provide
a richer user experience.

At least for grades I can not see any reason to do it. It is a
relative simple task that is only done a few times.

For schedules then I would say maybe. You could create a fancy
UI for that utilizing lots of shortcut keys etc. - think
Google Maps Java ME app. Whether the university wants to pay
for that I do not know.

Arne
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