Pocket PC Development

digitaldeath

Hey guys! Just after getting an XDA IIs and would like to know what exactly do I need to start developing for Pocket PC?

Cheers!

damnyanks

digitaldeath wrote:

Hey guys! Just after getting an XDA IIs and would like to know what exactly do I need to start developing for Pocket PC?

Cheers!

What language do you want to develop with ? What OS is on the XDA?

digitaldeath

Windows Mobile 2003 2nd Edition.
I'm installing VS .NET at hte mo - I'll prob dev with VB.NET - is this a good choice?

Thanks.

Hobbes

If its pocket PC, best to go with C++. All the toolkits, etc are free from microsoft.

digitaldeath

But then I gotta learn C++! Lol!

Hobbes

Best get reading so.

digitaldeath

lol - with regards to mobile development, what can i expect to be and not be able to do?

NeverSayDie

I haven't done any Pocket PC development myself, but I'd imagine you should be able to use VB.NET for it - just target the .NET Compact Framework. Check the MSDN or Google for more info.

stevenmu

Yep, VB.Net through Visual Studio makes it very easy to develop, debug and deploy. It's a lot easier than using C++ but many people will say to use that because it will be faster (because it runs natively instead of having to be run through the CLR or whatever the dotnet version of a JVM is called), and also a lot of people don't see VB.Net as a 'real' programming language, which it is.

You can expect to do most things you would when developing for a PC, the main limitations being the screen size and you want to keep in mind that most people wouldn't use a keyboard. Other than that you have most of the controls you'd use in windows forms and you can do all the usuall file, database, networking, multimedia stuff you'd do on a PC.

damnyanks

.Net CE development is incredibly easy and straight forward. Thats what I use for my phone (Orange SPV 500). Not used C++ for anything other then basic non sense though

pbarry

I did some development for a Dell Axim x30. I used J2ME and developed the app using Websphere Studio Device Developer. It comes with a J9 jvm and deploys your app straight on to a synched device. It creates a shortcut for your app too.

You will be limited to using AWT or SWT. Swing is not an option. There aren't too many other limitations.

daymobrew

I downloaded a free version of Microsoft Developer Studio for PocketPC and used MFC to build the BusSched and TrainSched binaries as linked to in my sig.
I wrote the code for the desktop first and then recompiled [1] for PocketPC.

[1] Well, to be honest, I created a new MFC project in MSDEV PocketPC, created the methods/members and copy/pasted method code over. So, bar a resized gui and 'ce' as the end of my class names the code is identical.

amen

nice projects but you now have 2 sorce trees one for ce and one non ce. curious why u did this

daymobrew

amen wrote:

nice projects but you now have 2 sorce trees one for ce and one non ce. curious why u did this

There was a bit of laziness involved. I created the Windows desktop version and then opened the project in MSDEV CE and it wouldn't build (can't remember details). So, I created a new MFC project in MSDEV CE and did the manual stuff described earlier.

I could go back and #ifdef WINCE or something similar but I'm lazy.
The makefiles might be the most difficult part.

I spend more time typing out timetables because Dublin Bus don't provide a standard format that I've been able to parse.