Runtime Support hides differences between different runtime implementations from the API developer.

Runtime Support aligns different runtimes (including different JVMs so that API implementations can rely on them in all runtimes (MIDP3 Runtime, CDC main, eRCP Runtime) have different implementations of Runtime support API, but runtime differences are hidden behind Runtime support API. Runtime Support also provides API for hiding differences between different JVM vendors and for hiding some differnces between CLDC and CDC.

Runtime Support provides following services:

  • Application related services.
  • Special services provided by the JVM.
  • System property extension mechanism.

    • Application related services

    Application related services provides utilities for getting application specific static information like name, uid, vendor, version etc. Application related services provides also some utilities that are application lifetime dependent like ability receive a notification when the application is about to close.

    For further details see {@link com.nokia.mj.impl.rt.support.ApplicationInfo} or {@link com.nokia.mj.impl.rt.support.ApplicationUtils}.

    JVM services

    The basic idea is to provide helper utilities for cases where there is need to use different implementation depending on the used JVM or the used configuration. In other words the underlying JVM is tried to hide from the API developer.

    There are two cases where port layer is needed:

  • Some standard API either is used differently or is missing from certain configuration. This is most commonly needed to hide differences between CDC and CLDC. For example System.loadLibrary doesn't exist in the CLDC and therefore when using CLDC JVM we need to call some proprietary API provided by the JVM vendor, which must be hidden from the API developers. Another example is Class.forName. If the we are using CDC JVM and we are trying to load a class which is int 'normal' classpath from a class that is in the bootclass path, we need to provide the class loader. In CLDC we don't have class loaders, so the Runtime support variates the usage of Class.forName in different configurations.
  • The JVM provides some proprietary APIs to do some things in more advanced/faster way than it is possible using the standard Java APIs. One example could be {@link com.nokia.mj.impl.rt.support.NativeMemoryBlock}, which provides a way to read some resource from the jar file and store the content in a native memory block instead of copying the content to Java side.

    JVM services are divided into two different classes: {@link com.nokia.mj.impl.rt.support.Jvm} and {@link com.nokia.mj.impl.rt.support.JvmInternal}. Jvm is meant for all API developers while JvmInternal is meant only for Runtime's internal usage.

    Finalizers

    Some public API are defined so that implementation requires usage of Java finalization feature. Since finalization is not part of CLDC, the Runtime Support provides a common way to hide VM specific implemetation from the API developer. The provided way works also in case where the used configuration (e.g. CDC) officially supports finalization.

    For further details see {@link com.nokia.mj.impl.rt.support.Finalizer}.

    System property extension mechanism

    Many APIs need to introduce new system properties into the system. Since the JVM is delivered in binary format, it is needed a mechanism to extend (and overwrite) existing system properties.

    System properties can be divided into three categories:

  • Static ones, that will never change during the runtime of the JVM (e.g. microedition.jtwi.version).
  • Dynamic static ones, that will be solved during first query, but will not change after that during the runtime of the JVM (e.g. microedition.platform).
  • Dynamic ones, that may change any time during the runtime of the JVM (e.g. com.nokia.memoryramfree)

    • No matter which category the system property belongs to, it is stored into the hash table from where it can be found fast. Only the value of the property tells if the property is static or dynamic.

    The usage of System property extension mechanism is explained in more detailed in {@link com.nokia.mj.impl.rt.support.SystemPropertyProvider here}.

    Runtime Support wiki pages

    Here is a link to the Wiki pages of the Runtime Support.