Inconsistency between 2003 and Mobile 5.0 platform - General Topics

Hi,
I'm new to this scene as this is a first project that includes pda's. I've installed the VS2005 and the Mobile 5.0 SDK to get the emulators. Our project (a j2ee web app) includes the requirement to be able to gather signatures on-field (we dong't manage signatures server side, it's only for archival purposes). As I think there is no way to gather a signature on a webform I figured to generate a rtf file filled with the data gathered via the web interface. The nice thing on the 2003 platform is that the pocket word supports a drawing mode. I couldn't find this mode in the word shipped with the emulator so this makes me a bit nervous on the future perspective of the MS mobile platform and our solution. Can please someone comment?

You would be better off talking direct with Microsoft on this.

Related

Stupid: DC++ Windows Mobile

Hello all,
I would have a question here: is there any DC++ Hub Viewer for Windows Mobile?
I googled all the search terms I could think of and here's the result:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mobiledc (good if you got Symbian UIQ )
Maybe some would find a thing like this useful...
Anyway, ***have a nice day***.
--- PS ---
Saw that poll?
Yeah, Symbian gets tons of good software. You know, I'd love to try to run Symbian on my Dash.
Read-Me-First (?)
For those who don't know what's DC++ (2 votes, this is getting bad... ) :
--- ENCYCLOPEDIA: DC++ HUBS ---
DC++ Hubs are... well, some tech thingies. (This was the description)
The hubs are used to host users. (Well, what else could they do and make them popular?)
The users connected to hubs can:
- chat in a main chat and in personal messages (PMs)
- share files from their computer (mostly pirated )
- respect some rules
You can connect to the hubs with a DC++ Client or Viewer, like StrongDC++ or oDC (those are the most known).
Almost all the hubs require a minimum share (ex. 5GB). That means you need to have at least that share to connect to a hub.
--- ENCYCLOPEDIA: DC++ HUBS (END) ---
You want more info? Go to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_Connect_(file_sharing)
Hope that helps, newbies to DC++! (I don't want any more votes at "What's DC++?" !!!)
*** Have a nice day! ***
I've never used DC on PC or other devices. However, WMTorrent is an absolutely great app if downloading is your thing.
If there's code on sourceforge for UIQ, and DC is an open protocol, you could try to knock together a client yourself. Not a quick solution, but c'est la vie
V
Thanks for the encouragement, V.
Knocking it toghether may be a solution, but if I am not mistaken, it takes the WM SDK and VB Studio (commercial )... or d'you know a free WM-development application?
And where on earth is the source code at SourceForge?!
*** Have a nice day! ***
eMbedded Visual c++ 4 is absolutely free together with WM 2003 SDK (I am too lazy for links so please search MS downloads)
Apps written with it will work on WM 5 and 6 and if you know how to play with linkage you can even get access to new APIs not supported in WM 2003 SDK.
They give you full functionality and in my opinion is still the best way of coding for WM.
levenum said:
Apps written with it will work on WM 5 and 6 and if you know how to play with linkage you can even get access to new APIs not supported in WM 2003 SDK.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a rough guide on how to do this? I did a search and it seems that people are much happy to pay for a £100+ new Visual Studio and do not borther to find ways to get a free dev env for windows mobile. I think (think) the software I'm writting now runs on WM5, but I think there are quite some API missing in WM2003-SDK. Do you think it will work if I were to throw everything *.h stuff from WM5-SDK to overwrite WM203-SDK?
Ref:
No free dev env for WM5-SDK, for eVc+ or the VS Express - http://www.pocketsoap.com/weblog/2006/07/1656.html
Q: Do you think the hobbyist and $10-per-program shareware market is important for Windows Mobile? If so, can you explain why Visual Studio 2005 Standard ($249) is required for targeting WM5? eVC++ 4 was free. The WM5 SDK cannot be installed on VS Express.
A: Jack2, there are various evaluation versions of Visual Studio 2005 available that you can try out before making a purchase decision, there is one for Visual Studio 2005 Professional edition (90 days) and one for Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite (180 days),
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats/transcripts/mobileembedded/06_0125_msdn_ce.aspx
There are basically two ways to use missing APIs (personally I never found one I really needed except maybe "ExitWindowsEx" once).
1) Manually unpack the MSI file for the SDK you want. (Sorry, I do not remember the link for the extractor).
Then in Project->Settings->Link you can just redirect the default libraries to the folders of that SDK. What you need are the headers for the prototypes (h files) and the actual lib files.
2) If its just one or two functions you can use LoadLibrary and GetProcAddress to dynamically connect with the DLL. If I am not mistaking this is call "implicit" linking.
Note that if you use method 1 your app will not run on WM 2003. If you use method 2 it will run on 2003 but get NULL as function pointer and fail to execute the missing API so this way you can make widely compatible apps.
P.S.:
In my personal opinion, M$ gave away an IDE at first to gain a wide application base for its new platform. Now that Windows Mobile is an established and even leading mobile OS they are back to their usual policy of selling expensive, bloated and overcomplicated software.
They simply no longer need freeware developers for WM.
levenum said:
eMbedded Visual c++ 4 is absolutely free together with WM 2003 SDK (I am too lazy for links so please search MS downloads)
Apps written with it will work on WM 5 and 6 and if you know how to play with linkage you can even get access to new APIs not supported in WM 2003 SDK.
They give you full functionality and in my opinion is still the best way of coding for WM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, eVC++ would be good (if you know how to fight with it), but the installer asked me for a serial. Why am I always cursed?
PocketDC++ for Pocket PC *Awesome*
I found this cool DC++ Client for Pocket PC called "PocketDC++". It seems like it doesn't have Download support yet. It wil be awesome if Download option is added.
PocketDC++ homepage : http://mistysoft.jino-net.ru/
External download Link : http://xpojnt.iglu.cz/download/tklienti/pocketdc0.1.8.9.rar
I have a copy of DC++ Source code and a copy of VS .NET and VB as well as Dephi I even altered a version of DC++ a while ago....but yeah I think it would be great for on the go downloaders for file checking and user checking/count....excellent idea

Creating a WM Application - Where to start ?

I hope this is the right place to put this, if not, mods, feel free to remove and/or delete it. I've dabbled a bit with C before, but that's about the extent of my programming experience. I'd like to create a program that will parse the information from a website and display it... I don't imagine something like that would be hard to do, but I have no idea what tools I would even need to start writing a PPC application.
Kitco (a website that gives live quotes of precious metals) recently came out with an application for the iphone that neatly formats all this information:
http://www.kitco.com/images/banners/KitcoiPhone/iphone.html
I'd like to basically create a PPC version of this application.
Is this something that an individual with next to no experience could hope to achieve ? I'd have to create a GUI, initialize the internet, connect and retrieve a webpage and remove the relevent information before displaying it.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've always wanted to become more familiar with these sorts of things and figured this project would be a great way of learning it.
Thanks!
ThreadMoved
Next to no experience? I dont think so. You have to have a little under your belt first and the only way to achieve that is to start readin right here!
I'm also interested in the expert answers to this question.
My very non-expert understanding is as follows:
VS 2005 (microsoft visual studio) can create executables for WM devices using a SDK (low level) or .Net CF (medium level) interface. You want to use .Net CF (compact framework) because it is supposed to make things easier. I think you have to use C++ to use the SDK but you can use C++, C#, or Visual Basic and write to .NET CF.
VS 2005 is an IDE (integrated development environment). It contains features to edit, compile, and even test your program using simulator/debugger. I think there are some non-microsoft IDE's that can also generate Windows Mobile code -- there is a market for cross-platform environments (e.g. programmers write code using a special library instead of the windows SDK or .NET function and the same source code can be compiled to run on Blackberry, iPhone, S60, Windows Mobile, etc...)
Instead of writing to the phone hardware (or .NET abstraction) directly, you can write your application using Java. You would use some Java compatible IDE (like Eclipse, Jbuilder, or NetBeans) to create Java applets that you download to your phone. You'd have to install a Java VM (virtual machine) on your phone to run these applets. I think the downloadable games for phones are Java applets.
Disclaimer: I haven't worn my "programming cap" since 2001 and hopefully things have gotten simpler. In my previous life I designed operating systems for mainframe computers.

Views sought on cross platform development

Hi
I work for a small research firm/IT consultancy. I'm attending a meeting in a few weeks time, the meeting is being held by the University of the West of England (a UK Uni) and various local business groups. The aim is to discuss the development of a GPS-based program to help encourage children to exercise. As I have a bit of knowledge about various GPS-based software programs and platforms, I have been asked by a contact of mine to attend.
I've been thinking that by far the most obvious platform to target is the mobile phone - every kid has one and most these days have either GPS built-in or can access a bluetooth GPS device. Now, there are five mobile phone platforms, Java, Nokia's Symbian, Apple's iPhone, Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Mobile. If an app could be developed across all five platforms, it would be pretty much available to all kids.
As I have very limited experience of these platforms, I was wondering if anyone cared to give any views on the difficulties involved in developing for all five platforms (is it even possible to cross-develop across all these five platforms, or would each one be a separate project?) and any other views pertinent to GPS-based programs for mobile.
Also, if you know of any Android developers (companies) in the South West of England, preferably Bristol, that would also be great.
Rupert Plumridge
Senior Research and Commercial Manager
OTR-Group
www.otr-group.com
All depends of the language that you choose, but remember that mobile devices have some limitations.
Here are some lists of the Windows Mobile limitations: DevBuzz - Windows Mobile Limitations
Cheers for the reply, yeah, I guess language is most important - Java seems the most cross platform - not sure if the iPhone can handle that though.
For iPhone the better choice is Objective-C(CocoaTouch Framework), but you will need to have a Mac if you want to develop for it. This was because I didn't buy a iPhone to start developing for it, I don't have a Mac
For Windows Mobile I suggest you to use C#(.Net 3.5) with Visual Studio 2008 Professional. It's the most featured environment for WM development, or you can try CeGCC.
For Android the best choice will be Java with a very good knowledge of XML. A good link to start is How-To Develop Android Applications
And for Symbian, the best choice will be C++, also take a look at Getting started with Symbian development
Now you choose
You can use C++ on iPhone, WinMobile, Android and Symbian using Airplay SDK - the same compiled app will run on all of them too.
This is a magic bullet for cross platform dev, enjoy!
"For Android the best choice will be Java"
think you get more kernal power in their c++ tdk then java

[App] Apache 2.0

For those interested...
I've put the native Windows RT binaries for Apache 2.0 on GitHub:
https://github.com/bfosterjr/windowsrtdev/blob/master/apps/Apache/2.0.65/bin/apache_2.0.65_arm.7z
Don't even bother asking me how to configure it. There are hundreds of wiki pages, documents, books, etc dedicated to Apache configuration.
Its probably missing some features (SSL comes to mind), but its a working web server for people to tinker with on the tablet. If someone can give me a _compelling reason_ for wanting a full blown Apache web server on a Windows RT tablet, I'm happy to spend more time on this and make it more fully featured.
Cheers!
bfosterjr said:
If someone can give me a _compelling reason_ for wanting a full blown Apache web server on a Windows RT tablet, I'm happy to spend more time on this and make it more fully featured.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure about use-cases either, but still, this is seriously cool!
Reasons for maintaining a full-blown (at least partial, without HTTPS fancy stuff, but the essentials like mod_rewrite etc.) WAMP (so MySQL and PHP too) stack on Windows RT would be:
1. There would be a platform for developing and testing websites on a Windows RT tablet, much to the delight of potential web developers. We already have Notepad++ as a decent code editor.
2. Porting MySQL (+ libmysql) would be useful for other applications as a library itself, and then PHP is a (overly) popular scripting language which can also be used to develop console applications (php-cli is compiled along with PHP. along with the Apache extension for mod_php). There probably won't be many native Windows RT applications developed for it (the only library for PHP to develop really useful native GUI apps is Php-Gtk, but GTK+ isn't ported and the PHP-GTK project itself is very.. silent), but it is handy if quick stuff needs to be coded. Porting PHP is pretty much close to the reasons for porting Python, plus it can be used on a local web stack too.
3. When a MAMP stack was ported to iOS I remember someone made a working music player (PHPPod) with it, so it still might be useful if the resources are there. I'll personally think of some ideas for "apps" that can be run in the browser with the WAMP stack on Windows RT and try to code them if this is ported.

What we know about microsoft windows 10

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Microsoft has released a new Technical Preview build of Windows 10 at this year’s Build developer conference. Although not all the new Windows 10 features that were announced at Build are available in this Insider Preview release, users will find improvements to Continuum, Cortana and more.
There’s a lot of visual changes on the surface with build 10074, with improvements to the general user experience. The translucent Aero Glass from Windows 7 is making a reappearance on Windows 10, and Microsoft is also adding support for high DPI displays as well.
Multitasking
There are notable improvements to multitasking and switching tasks between tablet and desktop views for users with two-in-one hybrids or tablets. The update makes Continuum more intuitive to tablet users.
“When you close an application in Tablet mode, we take you back to the Start screen instead of the desktop as you would expect when using a tablet,” Microsoft said of the change in a blog post. “You will see general polish on snapping, and the shared divider between two snapped windows now let’s you adjust the size.”
For multitaskers, Snap Assist now supports the ability to close apps.
Cortana
Cortana is now more integrated into the Windows experience on build 10074. You can now start to search for an app within the Start menu, and Cortana will take over. Cortana’s interface has also been revamped.
“The new Windows split view control has been added to Cortana’s left rail, offering quick access to key Cortana functionality like the Notebook, Reminders or Feedback on how Cortana’s doing,” Microsoft said, “This split view control helps anchor Cortana to the rest of the Windows UI and provides navigation consistent with many other Windows first party applications.”
Cortana can also now return results to more types of queries now. You can check for the flight status, perform mathematical calculations, convert units, ask Cortana to tell you a joke, find out the time in a different time zone, lookup definitions, check the weather and stocks, define words and also get tech help.
More updates
The new release also brings with it new updates to the Xbox, Music and Video apps inside Windows 10. The Windows Store Beta app, which is formerly a gay tile, is now a blue tile.
“Apps you purchased on a PC running Windows 8.1 will now show up in the Store Beta on Windows 10 as owned (and vice-versa),” Microsoft said as it is expanding its Store Beta more markets.
Windows Store
The update also adds new system sounds to Windows 10. Additionally, on the Lock screen, Microsoft is adding new learning experiences so Insiders can get the most out of their Technical Preview experience.
“This ranges from tips and tricks on the Lock screen, to helping users discover high quality apps through Start, the Lock screen and Cortana,” Microsft said.
The new Windows 10 build 10074 is now available through Windows Update.
Microsoft brings Android, iOS apps to Windows 10
Company says that it’s “building bridges” to developers on other platforms.
Things have sure changed since 2007.
Aurich Lawson
SAN FRANCISCO—Microsoft announced a four-pronged effort to bring developers and their apps to Windows at its build conference today. One of these prongs—a way for Web developers to present their sites as apps—was already announced at Mobile World Congress earlier in the year.
The second prong is logical but not altogether surprising. In Windows 10, developers will be able to specially prepare existing Windows apps, whether Win32, .NET WinForms, .NET WPF, or any other Windows development technology, and sell them through the Windows Store. Unlike the “traditional” Windows application installation experience, these apps will be guaranteed to install, update, and uninstall cleanly—one of the important things that Store apps do to ensure that users feel confident trying apps out and removing them if they don’t like them. Behind the scenes, virtualization technology will be used to provide this isolation and robustness.
Islandwood and Astoria
The next two prongs are the more surprising: Microsoft is going after Android and iOS developers. With Project Islandwood, iOS developers will be able to take their iOS apps and build them for Windows. Microsoft has developed an Objective C toolchain and middleware layer that provide the operating system APIs that iOS apps expect. A select group of third parties have been using the Islandwood tools already, with King’s Candy Crush Saga for Windows Phone being one of the first apps built this way. King’s developers had to change only a “few percent” of the code in order to fully port it to Windows Phone.
For Android, there is Project Astoria. Rumors of Android apps on Windows have been floating around for some time, and in Windows 10 Microsoft is delivering on those rumors. Astoria will allow Android apps to run in Windows. Specifically, Windows Mobile (and yes, that’s now officially the name for Windows on phones and sub-8 inch tablets) will include an Android runtime layer that’ll let them run existing Android apps (both Java and C++) unmodified. Unlike Islandwood, which will require developers themselves to recompile their software to bring it to Windows, Astoria will in principle work with any old APK, without requiring the developer to do anything but publish the app in the store—as long as the APK sticks to the APIs that Astoria will provide.
As we’ve written before, there are two aspects to Android: there is the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) that’s a mix of GPL and BSD-licensed open source code that anyone can take and fork, and there’s Google Mobile Services (GMS), an ever expanding closed-source set of applications and APIs that Google develops. Applications that need GMS, for example for its geolocation capabilities or its in-app purchasing, will not run on a plain AOSP platform. They’ll need GMS.
When we spoke to Microsoft about Astoria, the company would not tell us what proportion of the AOSP and GMS APIs would be supported, but it did confirm that it wouldn’t be 100 percent; there will be APIs that Astoria does not provide, and accordingly, APKs that use those APIs will not run.
On the flip side, Astoria will offer some integration points with Windows so that Android devs can, with minor alterations, support features like Cortana in their apps.
The broader theme of Microsoft’s work is to make Windows 10 the platform for developers. It will give them one app platform that spans phone, tablet, PC, hybrid, and console, and thanks to the free upgrade for Windows 7 and 8 users, it should be much less fragmented than Windows in the past. The company has the incredibly ambitious goal of having 1 billion users on the Windows 10 family within 2-3 years of launch.
The underlying strategy behind the four bridges is to allow developers to use the code they already have. Microsoft’s intent isn’t to make a BlackBerry 10-style capitulation, where the answer to the app gap is “just use Android apps instead.” Rather, the hope is that developers will still make Windows apps; they’ll just be Windows apps that happen to share a ton of code with iOS or Android apps.
Goodbye Internet Explorer, hey Microsoft EdgeWHAT WE KNOW ABOUT MICROSOFT WINDOWS 10
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