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Using Internet‐enabled mobile handheld devices to access the World Wide Web is a promising addition to the Web and traditional e‐commerce. Mobile handheld devices provide convenience and portable access to the huge information on the Internet for mobile users from anywhere and at anytime. However, mobile commerce has not enjoyed the same level of success as the e‐commerce has so far because mobile Web contents are scarce and mostly awkward for browsing. The major reason of the problems is most software engineers are not familiar with handheld devices, let alone programming for them. To help software engineers better understand this subject, this article gives a comprehensive study of handheld computing and programming for mobile commerce. It includes five major topics: (i) mobile commerce systems, (ii) mobile handheld devices, (iii) handheld computing, (iv) server‐side handheld computing and programming, and (v) client‐side handheld computing and programming. The most popular server‐side handheld applications are mostly functioning through mobile Web contents, which are constructed by using only few technologies and languages. On the other hand, various environments/languages are available for client‐side handheld computing and programming. Five of the most popular are (i) BREW, (ii) J2ME, (iii) Palm OS, (iv) Symbian OS, and (v) Windows Mobile. They are using either C/C++ or Java programming languages. This article will explain J2ME, a micro version of Java, and Palm OS programming, using C, by giving step‐by‐step procedures of J2ME and Palm application development.

With rapid increase of Android devices and application systems, there is a strong demand for Android application programmers. A lot of schools are offering Android programming courses to meet this demand. However, Android programming can be different from the conventional one because it needs interactive functions through interfaces with users, which makes the study more difficult. This paper aims to propose an Android Programming Learning Assistance System, namely, APLAS, to assist the Java-based Android programming study and education.

By adopting the test-driven development method, APLAS is designed to achieve independent learning without the presence of teachers. Using JUnit and Robolectric, the answers from the students are automatically marked in APLAS. To cover extensive materials in Android programming, APLAS offers four stages where each stage involves several topics.

To evaluate the effectiveness of APLAS, we implemented the Unit Converter assignment that covers the first two topics, namely, Basic user interface in the first stage and basic activity in the second stage. Through solving the assignment, it is expected to learn basic application development. Forty novice students of an IT department in Indonesia were asked to solve both topics separately.

The results show that APLAS is useful and helpful for the self-study of Android programming, as they could complete codes with good execution performances.

To advance Java programming educations, the authors have developed a Java Programming Learning Assistant System (JPLAS) as a web application system. JPLAS provides fill-in-blank problems for novices to study the grammar and basic programming skills through code reading.

To select the blank elements with grammatically correct and unique answers from a given Java code, the authors have proposed the graph-based blank element selection algorithm. Then, the code for this problem should be highly readable to encourage novice students to study it. Because code readability can be improved by proper names for identifiers, the authors have also proposed the naming rule testing algorithm to identify codes with correct names.

In this paper, the authors present a fill-in-blank problem workbook by collecting suitable Java codes from textbooks and Web sites and applying these algorithms with several extensions. The workbook consists of 16 categories with a considerable number of problems that follow the conventional learning order of Java programming.

The proper set of ready-made fill-in-blank problems is effective in enhancing the usability of JPLAS both for teachers and students. For the preliminary evaluation, the authors assign a few problems to students. In coming semesters, the authors will use this workbook in the course to verify the adequacy of the proposal for novices.

To advance Java programming educations, the authors have developed a Web-based Java programming learning assistant system (JPLAS). It offers the element fill-in-blank problem (EFP) for novice students to study Java grammar and basic programming skills by filling in the missing elements in a source code. An EFP instance can be generated by selecting an appropriate code, and applying the blank element selection algorithm. As it is expected to cover broad grammar topics, a number of EFP instances have been generated. This paper aims to propose a recommendation function to guide a student solving the proper EFP instances among them.

This function considers the difficulty level of the EFP instance and the grammar topics that have been correctly answered by the student, and is implemented at the offline answering function of JPLAS using JavaScript so that students can use it even without the Internet connections.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposal, 85 EFP instances are prepared to cover various grammar topics, and are assigned to a total of 92 students in two universities in Myanmar and Indonesia to solve them using the recommendation function. Their solution results confirmed the effectiveness of the proposal.

The concept of the difficulty level for an EFP instance is newly defined for the proper recommendation, and the accuracy in terms of the average numbers of answer submission times among the students is verified.

Computer simulations improve the knowledge of physical models and are widely used in teaching and research. Key aspects are to understand their solutions and to make interactive changes to the models, observing their effects in real-time. The drawback of creating interactive simulations of physical models is the high level of programming expertise required. The purpose of this study is to facilitate this task.

Java is the perfect language for this task; it yields high-quality graphics and is widely spread in the scientific community. Because many important physical models are described by means of partial differential equations (PDEs), the combination of Java with FreeFem++, a C++ PDE solver based on the finite element method, is considered.

In this study, a Java library is introduced to numerically solve PDE equations via a run-time connection with FreeFem++. The solution is encapsulated into Java objects that are ready to be used in different programming tasks. The library also includes new Java visualization elements for solutions and meshes in the context of the Open Source Physics project library. Together, the connection features and the visualization elements facilitate the creation of Java simulations by programming researchers. For those with less programming capabilities, this work has been included into Easy Java Simulations, a tool to further ease the creation of interactive simulations.

The present study approach allows simulating models given PDEs. The equations are solved either in local or in remote mode (e.g. by a network accessible to a high-performance computer) and visualized locally, providing a high degree of interactivity to the end user.

A unified application management framework for Linux and Java applications on mobile phones is presented. Although Java‐based applications for mobile phones are in strong demand, the complexity of interaction between these platform independent programs and the core functionality of mobile phones has made software development difficult. The unified framework presented here provides uniform application state management and inter‐application communication between Java based and operating‐system specific applications, allowing native Linux applications to be directly replaced with the equivalent Java application. The framework is described in detail and a trial implementation of the system is evaluated.

Rolling bearings are basic mechanical elements for supporting rotational and reciprocating motion in engineering products. Many approaches have been proposed by researchers in order to facilitate the procedure of bearing design, but mainly concentrating on the development of PC‐based systems or relative software packages.The authors present a novel approach to implementing a design support system for rolling bearings based on the World Wide Web so as to achieve agility in rolling bearing design. The system was developed based on the philosophy of agile manufacturing by integrating various information resources, artificial intelligence, and Web technology with expertise. This Web‐based distributed system will be globally accessible by the user on the Internet and can be automatically sized according to the demand of application requirements. The system implementation issues are discussed in detail in this paper.

Integrating laboratory work into interactive engineering eLearning contents augments theory with practice while simultaneously ameliorating the apparent theory-practice gap in traditional eLearning. The purpose of this paper is to assess and recommend media that currently fulfil this desirable dual pedagogical goal.

The qualitative approach compares the eLearner-content interactivity deriving from Mathematica’s Computable Document File (CDF) application, Pearson’s myLab and Lucas-Nuelle’s UniTrain-I. Illustrative interactive examples written in JavaScript and Java are thereby drawn from an engineering eLearning course developed at the University of Botswana (UB).

Based on its scientific rigour, wide application scope, engineering analytical depth, minimal programming requirements and cross-subject-cum-faculty application and deployment potential, the authors found the CDF to be a versatile environment for generating dynamically interactive eLearning contents. The UniTrain-I, blending a multimedia information and communication technology (ICT)-based interactive eLearner-content philosophy with practical laboratory experimentation, is recommended for meeting the paper’s dual eLearning goal as the most adept framework to-date, blending dynamic interactive eLearning content with laboratory hands-on engineering experimentation.

The lack of other competing frameworks limited the considerations to only the three mentioned above. Consequently, the results are subject to review as the ongoing research advances new insights.

The conclusions help eLearning designers plan ICT-based resources for integration into practical electrical engineering eLearning pedagogy and both CDF and UniTrain-I help dispel the prevailing apparent disquiet regarding the effectiveness of the eLearning-mediated electrical engineering pedagogy. In addition, the cited examples document an original electrical engineering eLearning course developed at the UB.