CLDC Specification Doubts

[Jose Campana]

Howdi There Ranchers !

I've been trying to dive into programming for small devices, so I started where I figured would be best, By digging in some theory.
So I wish someone could answer me a really transcendental question I have..

This is what I understand so far:

CLDC provides the basic set of APIs to do JME programming and

CLDC provides a Virtual Machine (or virtual machine capabilities)

So, My question is:

How exactly is the VM provided by CLDC?

I don't get it, since I thought APIs were an entirely different thing from the VM.
So, that's the the right question for me: How is it that the VM is specified or provided by CLDC?
And what if it applies would be in this case, the term: "specifies"?; What does it mean?

I hope you guys can give me a hand, I'm just gettin' started.

[Tim Holloway]

Technically, CLDC is the spec, and it's implemented by a vendor/manufacturer-supplied JVM. Usually the JVM comes with the device, though IBM makes a J2ME VM (Websphere Anywhere) that can be added to devices that are compliant with its needs.

Most phone vendors that support J2ME will detail the specific levels and features that their devices incorporate and typicvally also have a developer program that included resources and an emulator implementation. Sun provides the archetypical emulator if you haven't yet picked a hardware platform.

[Jose Campana]

Good day to everyone,
Hello Mr. Tim.

I present to you my most sincere gratitude for your kind reply.
However, I feel I still haven't understood the concept completely.
Quoting what you said earlier: "CLDC is the spec". Could please tell me, sir, What exactly qualifies as a spec?

Correct If I'm wrong: according to me: CLDC are the hardware minimal requirements to implement a JVM, in this case the KVM. Am I correct?

Then how come CLDC is software you can download from SUN?

Thank you very much,
Sincerely,
Jose

[Tim Holloway]

Have you visited this page: http://java.sun.com/products/cldc/ ?

Among other things, you can use this page to locate and download Sun's Reference Implementation of CLDC.