learn J2me but no previous Java knowledge

[Wal]

Hi
I need to learn programming in j2me but I have no knowledge in Java before. Is it possible to learn J2me before java? if that is possible I am looking for the best books/websites that teach me j2me. If it is not possible what shall I do?
I have programming experience in other languages such as C, Fortran, JavaScript and perl.

Please let me know
Thanks
Wal

[DarrylBurke]

Yes, it's possible. I started with Java ME myself, and just two weeks later had put up a toy application up on getjar.com for free download (search for 'Colorz' if you're interested to take a look -- doesn't run well on some of the latest large-screen phones). My previous programming experience was mainly with XBase (dBaseIII+, foxbase, foxpro, VFP) so with your experience in C, which has a syntax rather similar to Java, you're better placed than I was. At the same time, don't fall into the trap of expecting Java to do everything the same way C does.

These tutorials are a good starting point:
J2ME Tutorial, Part 1: Creating MIDlets | Java.net
Wireless Development Tutorial Part I
Note that they are a little dated and you can now get a Java ME SDK (3.0?) which is more advanced than the old Sun Wireless Toolkit aka WTK, or like me, you can download NetBeans with ME support and use that as your development IDE for both ME and SE (or even EE, database ...) projects. Just try to not use the drag'n'drop designer features until you learn enough of the API to understand the autogenerated code ... say the first 6 months.

Here's the core Java ME API: MID Profile (there are many optional APIs, I think the Nokia site has a single download for all/most of them).

Luck, db