Starting parking of Windows CE development
In recent time, mobile devices have become more and more of the topic of the programmer community. Mobile devices mainly include smartphones and PDAs, which is a very important direction in embedded development. J2ME supported by most mobile phone vendors is undoubtedly leading sheep, with Dopod launched 515 mobile phones, and the Smartphone based on Microsoft CE platform has gradually become focus on focus. The PDA market that has not been tempered is also harvested in the industry application field, and the Pocket PC has been favored by developers due to its consistency of the Windows platform.
During the course of the long-term attention programmer Forum, I found that due to the uniqueness developed by Windows CE, plus multiple versions, lacking Chinese reference information, so the forum is full of large number of entry issues. I hope to understand some concepts for the programmer who has just been transferred to the Windows CE, explain the relationship between the existing Windows CE version and the development tool, explained it clearly, in the end, the Chinese book developed by Windows CE And foreign websites.
WINDOWS CE and platform development
Windows CE is Microsoft's operating system for embedded devices, and embedded devices can be described as a variety of diversified, which requires CE operating system to be customizable, so Microsoft is designed to design Windows CE as a modular operating system. To put it simply, we can imagine Windows CE into a box of building blocks, you can build any objects with blocks, but don't have to use all the blocks.
The object of Windows CE is the platform. It is an operating system subset that adapts to a fixed standard embedded device. The most famous platform is the Pocket PC, which is a platform for handheld a handheld computer without a keyboard. Due to the consistency of platform and hardware, sometimes we also use the name of the platform to call the entire system - the sum of the hardware and the operating system.
We can also develop platforms, developing tools are Microsoft's Platform Builder, Platform Builder's version number is consistent with the version number of Windows CE.
More programmers care about the development of applications, and application development is for specific platforms. We must install the target platform's SDK before developing to develop a development tool for the target platform.
Summary of Windows CE Development Environment
Another confidential concept is a version of the problem. Now you can see two generations of Windows CEs, which are based on Windows CE 3.0 and Windows CE.NET (ie, 4.0), respectively.
Microsoft will collectively known as Windows Mobile 2003 this year, and most of us is still used to use old.
The Pocket PC 2002 that is often seen on the market is a platform based on Windows CE 3.0, and Pocket PC 2003 is a platform based on Windows CE.NET. It should be noted that the kernel of Pocket PC 2003 is Windows CE.NET 4.2. The smartphone2003 is also based on Windows CE.NET. The initial version of SmartPhone is 2002, based on Windows CE 3.0, but Microsoft does not launch the Chinese version of Smartphone2002.
Clear the relationship between the platform and the CE, the relationship between the platform and the development tool is easy. Microsoft is provided to application developers include: Embedded Visual Tools 3.0, including Embedded Visual C 3.0 and Embedded Visual Basic 3.0; Embedded Visual C 4.0 and Visual Studio.Net.
The version number of the development tool is corresponding to the version number of the Windows CE. EVC3.0 and EVB3.0 are used to develop applications based on Windows CE 3.0 platforms, and more common platforms include: Pocket PC 2002, PCKET PC 2000, Palm-size PC, HPC. The EVC4.0 is used to develop a procedure for the Windows CE.NET platform, mainly including Pocket PC 2003 and Smartphone 2003.
Visual Studio.net develops support for embedded devices that require SDE, and SDE includes SDE in VS.NET 2003, which is not required to be installed. The program developed by Visual Studio.net requires the target platform to support .Net Compact Framework. Now supports the platform of the .NET Compact Framework has Pocket PC 2002 and Pocket PC 2003. It should be noted here that Smartphone 2003 is not supported .NET Compact Framework.
EVB development entry
Microsoft has announced that EVB no longer supports Windows CE.NET, so the final version of EVB is 3.0. However, due to the characteristics of EVB's easy-to-hand, it has become a rapidly developed unblocation of the Windows CE platform before VS.NET is shipped. Evb is still suitable for rapid development of small applications on the Windows CE 3.0 platform. If you are not a full-time Windows CE programmer, just need to develop a part of the entire system on the Windows CE platform, then EVB allows you to develop your you want with a short time.
EVB's development environment is also very simple, you can download EVT 2002 from Microsoft's website, which contains EVC 3.0, EVB 3.0, and Pocket PC 2002 SDK and Smartphone 2002 SDK. Follow the prompts to install the EVB and Pocket PC 2002 SDK. The SDK contains an emulator. In the case of no actual devices, the simulator can be used to debug the program.
It should be noted here that the development environment and the simulator communicates between the network connection protocol, so there must be an active network connection on the computer used. If not, you can install Microsoft's virtual network cards. Please refer to my article in the 9CBS column "Use Simulars without a network".
The EVB development environment is similar to VB, because the Windows CE application needs to debug on the simulator or actual device, so we must select the output target of the program. If you select emulation, after you press (or F5), the EVB will automatically start the simulator and download the program to the simulator.
Since new Windows CE.NET will no longer support EVB, Microsoft recommends that the EVB programmer uses VB.NET to develop new programs, and for the original EVB program, the migration path is given, about this discussion, you can refer to MSDN's article "Moving from Embedded Visual Basic TO Visual Basic .NET".
EVC development
Whether it is a Win32 platform or a WinCe platform, Visual C is a powerful development tool. And EVC is also a mainstream development tool on Wince. The EVC supports the subset of the MFC class library, which provides developers to provide the most powerful support, making the VC programmers on the Win32 platform can easily migrate to the WinCe platform. However, since the MFC class library requires a DLL, this is a big burden for some embedded devices for some storage space, so Smartphone does not support MFC.
Said so much, let us create an EVC project. Is it very similar to VC, you need to remind you that it is necessary to choose the CPU type supported by the project while choosing the CPU type of the embedded device. The process of creating a project is the same. Of course, different platforms support engineering is different, such as Pocket PC 2003 has two projects supporting MFC and APIs, while Smartphone 2003 has only one project that supports API. The EVC is more than a row of drop-down menu than the VC environment, which is used to select: Engineering, SDK, CPU types, and output devices. Take the Pocket PC as an example, debugging on the actual device should select Win32 (WCE ARMV4) Debug, and on the simulator, Win32 (WCE Emulator) Debug is required.
VS.NET development
I came to our .Net time, how do I say? It's all, everyone is blocked by java and .net? No matter how everyone is noisy, .Net Compact Framework is undoubtedly a big gospel for embedded programmers in their hands. Visual Studio .NET 2003 fully supports the development of mobile devices, well, let us start a fantasy .NET tour.
Open vs.net 2003, select File - New - Project, open the above interface. Let us build a Visual C # project, then select Smart Device Application, then OK.
You are here to choose a target device: Pocket PC, Smartphone, Windows CE (referring to other platforms), the following is the selected engine type, we select "Windows Application", the left is the simulator supported by the selected platform. Finally click OK, we can enter the main interface of VS.NET.
Selecting the output device and the EVB is very similar, just select the output device without selecting the CPU type. Of course, because .NET is running on the virtual machine. In the CPU type, there are many embedded fields, .NET and JAVA can truly play their strengths.
Of course, we can also choose
VB.NET
As a language, situation, and in the development of smart devices
C #
exactly the same. Current intelligent equipment development only supports
C #
with
VB.NET
. Hobby
C
The programmer may have to wait for a while.
