My experiences with the BB Java Development Environment were interesting to say the least. Before I had signing keys I was frustrated wondering why different sample code that Blackberry themselves suggested in their documentation wasn’t working in the simulator. Turned out it worked fine on an actual device, but for some reason the simulator couldn’t handle it. I didn’t find that out until a few days of rewriting code and installing and uninstalling the JDE while waiting for my keys.

Then there’s the phantom API’s – the classes that are supposed to serve a certain funciton and are in the documentation, but when you try to use them they just plain don’t work on a device or a simulator.

Stumbling blocks like these are what developers face dealing with BB development and a good book by a knowledgeable author would be a welcome addition.