What is BREW?

BREW stands for Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless debuted in 2001 by Qualcomm. It is a platform providing rich set of API's to develop applications targeting wireless environment. Qualcomm's BREW is NOT a hobbyist platform. There are costs involved if you want to distribute your application or just want to run it in your mobile for personal use. Presently, the BREW platform is available only in CDMA Phones, which is a Qualcomm's forte. However, you can freely download the SDK from Qualcomm and develop application that will run in BREW Simulator.

The programming language for BREW is C and C++. BREW is written in C and so its all of the API's. You can start your BREW Application development with your PC and port it to your phone late

Getting Started with PC
When you are developing BREW in a simulator environment the applicaton will be compiled as native Win32 dll file using the Microsoft C/C++ Compiler.
You need to download and install the following tools

1. Microsoft Visual Studio 6 or above to compile the BREW for Simulator envionment.
2. BREW SDK from Qualcomm's website .
3. BREW SDK TOOLS from Qualcomm's website .

Note: You can also use the free express edition of the Microsoft Visual C++, but then you have to do the project settings yourself. In case on Microsoft Visual Studio you get a BREW AppWizard in your Project Dialog box, which will create a barebone BREW App for you.

Now, that you have successfully setup your environment, you can start developing you BREW application. There are some nice sample application that comes along with the SDK, try to understand them. The BREW API Reference document is the most important document you need when you develop any BREW Application. It is a comprehensive documentation of all the BREW API's.