The original Watch example was designed to run in an applet in a browser on Windows, and was soon extended to support Linux. This thus covered the two most common MetaEdit+ platforms. Whilst MetaEdit+ does not yet run on MIDP(!), the original idea of a watch application appeared suitable to the platform. This would also provide us with an example of a real embedded application, along with the accompanying limits on memory, speed, power etc.

Thus we began looking at MIDP, and extending the Watch example to support it. In the meantime, and completely coincidentally, Nokia released its first generation of MIDP phones, which included as preloaded applications a Stopwatch and a World Time display.

The main hurdle to supporting MIDP was simply MIDP itself: the subject was still new, developing quickly, and the documents and software to support it were spartan and hard to use. All the more reason to have a simpler solution for developers: our fictitious watch developers could carry on designing watches as before, without needing to know anything about MIDP.