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and performing I/O. The GCF has proven to be so popular that it has been widely adopted
outside its initial application; platform architects now abstract communications to files,
other network protocols, smart cards, radio-frequency identification (RFID) cards, Blue-
tooth peripherals, and even bar codes using the GCF. In fact, there's work underway to fold
the GCF back into Java SE, as documented in JSR 197, demonstrating how the convergence
of fixed and mobile computing paradigms draws from both environments.
Contained within the
javax.microedition.io
package, the GCF provides an abstracted
approach to connectivity. By providing an extensible interface hierarchy of common
classes (see Figure 12-1) and a factory to create instances of those classes based on a
common request scheme based on URLs, the GCF significantly decreases the number of
classes required to support communicating applications. This reduces both the Java ME
platform footprint and the complexity that you as a Java ME developer must manage
when building your application.
Figure 12-1.
The GCF hierarchy as originally introduced in CLDC 1.0
