Windows CE: Development tools considerations part III

Hi all,

as promised let’s continue with answering the 2nd question.

Question:
What if some developers rather use a command line than the PlatformBuilder IDE?

Answer:
Well this is a simple task. Starting with Windows CE 5.0 Microsoft introduced a feature called unified build. This great feature ensures that the outcome of a command line build is exactly the same as the outcome of a PlatformBuilder IDE. This is possible as the IDE is just a thin layer above the command line and hence there is a one-to-one mapping of the command line calls to the IDE. But you might find that you can not just use any command line it has to be one that you open from within the PlatformBuilder IDE. Now why is that? Well, when opening a command line from within the PlatformBuilder IDE, wince.bat is called which sets up the command line for you in accordance with the specific project settings.

NOTE:
Please don’t call wince.bat directly, we will discuss how to set up a command line outside of the PlatformBuilder IDE when answering the 4th question, so please be patient.

Now there are multiple possibilities to open a command line from within the PlatformBuilder IDE:

• From the IDE select Build -> Open Release Directory in Build Window

• Right clicking the desired directory in the Solution Explorer and selecting Open Build Window will open a command line with the correct path to that directory

So as you see as a developer you can either use the command line or the PlatfromBuilder IDE to build your system. The output will be the same.

Have fun!
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Don’t miss the next free Windows Embedded OEM Technical Seminar

Hi Folks,

if live in or near Ljubljana, Slovenia or just happen to pass by there on February 3rd, don’t miss the free Windows Embedded OEM Technical Seminar!

It is intended for technical decision makers and developers. MS will show you the latest innovations in embedded software development and present the Microsoft Embedded Products as well as their development tools and give you the opportunity to asked questions about them.

Location:
Microsoft d.o.o.
Smartinska 140
Ljubljana, Slovenia 1000
Phone: 00 386 01 584 61 00

Further information:
http://www.microsoftembeddedseminars.com/about.aspx?seminarid=210

Overview of MS seminars offerings:
http://www.microsoftembeddedseminars.com/Europe1.aspx

NOTE:
This seminar has been moved to March 31st!

Have fun!
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Windows CE: Development tools considerations part II

Hi all,

in yesterdays post, I stated a couple of questions regarding the suitability of PlatformBuilder, now here is the first answer:

Question:
It’s nice for one developer using PlatformBuilder but how can I make sure that every developer is using the same project configuration?

Answer:
When you start a new Windows CE project in PlatformBuilder which is called OS Design, you first select an appropriate template. The template is a collection of catalog items that Microsoft regards as necessary for the specific device type you have selected. Of course you can later on browse the catalog manually and select or deselect catalog items of your choice.
After creation of the project, you can choose weather you want to build your system in debug or in release.
Furthermore you can select some properties of your project such as debug, KITL or profiler options. You can also set some project specific environment variables or add some custom build actions.

As you can see these are quite a lot of choices you can make. And of course you want to make sure that every developer is using the same settings. How is that possible when using the PlatformBuilder IDE you might ask? The Answer is simple: all the above mentions settings are saved in but one file, the .pbxml file. So by making sure that every developer is using the same .pbxml file, for instance with the help of a version control tool, it is ensured that everyone has the same project settings.

So as you see it is not necessary to write any script files or avoid using the PlatformBuilder IDE in order to make sure that everyone is working with the same project settings.

Have fun!
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Windows CE: Development tools considerations part I

Hi all,

as you might know the tool for developing Windows Embedded CE devices is called PlatformBuilder; which, starting with Windows Embedded CE 6.0 is no longer a standalone IDE but is integrated in Visual Studio 2005. When working on large projects with more than one developer a couple of questions concerning the usability and suitability of the PlatformBuilder IDE might arise:

• It’s nice for one developer using PlatformBuilder but how can I make sure that every developer is using the same project configuration?

• What if some developers rather use a command line than the PlatformBuilder IDE?

• What files do I actually need to check into my version control tool?

• I want to start a daily automated build hence the IDE is not desirable. Is it possible to have the developers use the IDE and yet start an automated build without starting the IDE?

• What if I have set up my system to use script files instead of the PlatformBuilder IDE? What do I need to do in order to use the IDE?

If you are interested in these questions stay tuned as I will answer them one by one over the next days.

Have fun!
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MCP Exam for Windows Embedded Standard 2009

You may remember my recent post on the Windows Embedded Standard MCP Exam.

Well Lynda Allen, Program Manager for Windows Embedded Standard, announced yesterday that the Exam is now ready and will be available in February. The scheduled launch date is February, 5th.

To see what else Lynda has to say check the Windows Embedded Standard Blog and for further information on the Exam as well as certification, check this site.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Disabling Security when connecting to a device.

You will most probably know all the steps required when connecting to a device from within Visual Studio 2005/2008 but did you know that you can get rid of the annoying call of cMaccept.exe? Remember this is the .exe you have to call each time you lose the connection to the device. I was - again - astonished to see that this is not as clear as it should be, as it is very well documented in msdn.

All you have to do is disable the devices security by setting the following registry key:
HLKM\System\CoreConOverrideSecurity = 1

Once you have done that you can skip calling cMaccept when connecting to the device.

Note: It goes without saying that this registry key should only be set manually when you are developing applications for a device. I would not recommend shipping a device with this registry key set.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 Deep Dive Training in Erlangen, March 24th/25th

EB, Windows Embedded Gold Partner and Microsoft Training Partner are offering a two day training course which will provide a profound overview of the architecture of Microsoft Windows Embedded CE and its basic concepts. You will get acquainted with the available development tools and learn how to generate an operating system with Platform Builder. Application development and specific aspects of working with Windows Embedded CE are also covered in detail.

You are using Windows Embedded NavReady or MS Auto? No worries! The training allows you to ask all the questions you want to and EB's experts can point out the differences and specialities of these two Windows Embedded CE derivatives.

For more information about this training and to register visit EB's Windows Embedded Training site here: http://www.elektrobit.com/whats_new/events/trainings__seminars/windows_ce_deep_dive

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Windows Embedded CE 6.0 R2 Basic Training in Erlangen, March 24th

EB, Windows Embedded Gold Partner and Microsoft Training Partner are offering a one day training course which will provide you with basic knowledge of the Microsoft Windows Embedded CE real-time operating system. You will learn how the OS is structured and what you need to know for generating operating systems, developing device drivers and appliances as well as porting from another OS.

For more information about this training and to register visit EB's Windows Embedded Training site here: http://www.elektrobit.com/whats_new/events/trainings__seminars/windows_ce_basic_training

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Windows CE and Mobile: Microsoft Technical Chat on January 27, 2009

Hi Folks,

If you have missed the last chat on Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile, don’t worry the next one is coming up:

MS is hosting a live chat on, January 27th, 18:00 CET, regarding Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile.

Title: Windows Embedded CE and Windows Mobile Live Chat!
Date: Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 9:00 - 10:00 A.M. Pacific time (additional time zones)

Description:
Do you have tough technical questions regarding Windows Embedded CE or Windows Mobile for which you're seeking answers? Do you want to tap into the deep knowledge of the talented Microsoft Embedded Devices Group members? If so, please join us for a live chat and bring on the questions! Windows Embedded CE is the operating system that is powering the next generation of 32-bit, small-footprint and mobile devices. This chat will cover the tools and technologies used to develop devices using the CE operating system.

To join this chat, please log on via the main MSDN chat page at:
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/chats/default.mspx

There is also an archive of previous chats available at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/chats/aa497439.aspx

Have fun!

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Windows CE QFEs for month of December 2008 arrived

Hi Folks,
the latest Windows CE updates have been recently released and are available for download.

Windows CE .NET 5.0 Platform Builder Monthly Update (December 2008)
Download Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=95ff1dce-c726-477a-951b-352aecc0579f&DisplayLang=en

Download this set of updates for Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder released during the period of December 1 - December 31, 2008. These updates are fixes for Windows CE operating system problems you run into during the development and maintenance of your custom platform.

Fixes made in this update:
Component: Bluetooth
081203_KB959681 - This update addresses an issue with certain keyboards not sending proper data to the phone from the keyboard when the CAPS LOCK button is pressed.

Component: COMM
081205_KB958927 - Under certain circumstances RTL8139 IST may cause a system hang.
081205_KB960054 - Windows Server 2008 may not respond to Dhcpv6 packets sent by Windows CE 5.0 device.

Component: TimeSVC
081223_KB960785 - Some of Time Zone data is out of date resulting in incorrect DST transition time being wrong for some of the time zones. A number of new time zones is also added.

Windows CE .NET 6.0 Platform Builder Monthly Update (December 2008)
Download Link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d2ba5fd4-9964-411f-bcab-2299f5376abf&DisplayLang=en

Download this set of updates for Windows Embedded CE 6.0 released during the period of December 1 - December 31, 2008. These updates are fixes for Windows Embedded CE operating system problems you run into during the development and maintenance of your custom platform.

Fixes made in this update:
Component: Bluetooth
081205_KB959679 - This update addresses an issue with certain keyboards not sending proper data to the phone from the keyboard when the CAPS LOCK button is pressed.

Component: CoreOS
081202_KB960102 - When compacting default process heap, free regions were not destroyed due to mismatch between numBlkFree and numBlkTotal values in the region structure.

Component: DirectX
081223_KB960273 - This update addresses an issue when playing MP3 files with ID3 v2.4 tags and nested ID3 tags.

Component: Kernel
081204_KB960413 - ARM only. This update initializes the VFP state for new threads to VFP "run-fast" mode.

Component: RDP
081223_KB959490 - This update addresses the issue with the Network Projector performance tuning registry setting not workin

Component: SNMP
081231_KB961128 - SNMP service may freeze when service is being unloaded.

Component: TimeSVC
081223_KB960786 - Some of Time Zone data is out of date resulting in incorrect DST transition time being wrong for some of the time zones. A number of new time zones is also added.
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Enabling more USB printer devices under Windows CE

Hello guys,

take a look at this possible scenario: you have a USB (PCL) printer and want to use it under Windows CE. You have included the USB printer class driver in your run time image, built it and then attached the USB printer to the device. In some cases you will get a message that the device wasn't recognized.

This is caused by the "IEEE-1284" device ID string. USB printers report their capabilities via the class-specific command GET_DEVICE_ID which returns a device ID string that is compatible with IEEE-1284.

This device ID string is fetched from USB printer devices by calling the GetDeviceID function (implemented here: .\public\common\oak\drivers\usb\class\printer\usbprn.c).
The received device ID is then handled in the function RegisterPrinterSettings ( .\public\common\oak\drivers\usb\class\printer\lpt.c).
The device ID has to at least match one of the following tags: "DESCRIPTION:", "DES:" or "MODEL" otherwise the RegisterPrinterSettings funtction will fail and you will get the message box with "Unrecognized USB device" as a result.

Unfortunately some USB printer manufacturers implement the "MDL" tag, which is currently not implemented in the Windows CE Versions 4.2 or 5.0

You can avoid this problem and increase the amount of supported USB (PCL) printer devices by modifying the RegisterPrinterSettings function (.\public\common\oak\drivers\usb\class\lpt.c) so it accepts a "MDL:" tag as a valid description field, e.g.:


//
// parse for a Description string
//
if ((p = strstr(buf, "DESCRIPTION:"))!=NULL)
p += sizeof("DESCRIPTION:") - 1;

else if ((p = strstr(buf, "DES:"))!=NULL)

p += sizeof("DES:") - 1;
else if ((p = strstr(buf, "MODEL:"))!=NULL)

p += sizeof("MODEL:") - 1;

else if ((p = strstr(buf, "MDL:"))!=NULL)

p += sizeof("MDL:") - 1;

Thanks
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InfoBlast for January 2009

If you haven't already signed up for the InfoBlast Newsletter you can now read the January 2009 Issue here.

InfoBlast is a monthly Newsletter with information about Windows Embedded products, event listings, and the latest news from Windows Embedded Partners.
The benefit of subscribing the newsletter is that you get this information before it goes online.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Using Interop in the .NET Micro Framework V3.0

Hello guys,

there is a quite interresting article about using Interop in the .NET Micro Framework V3.0.

The .NET Micro framework provides a rich level of support for embedded systems development from handling interrupts on GPIO pins to talking to hardware on an SPI or I2C bus. Unfortunately, sometimes, that’s not quite enough. For example, an A/D converter built into the chip that is memory mapped to the processor core is unreachable by managed code in V2.5 and earlier. For this, and many other reasons, the .NET Micro Framework V3.0 Porting Kit supports extending the .NET run time libraries with custom interop code to call into native (C/C++) code.

You want to know more?
Just take a look at the complete article here.

Thanks
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Webcast: Windows Mobile Application Development

Hi guys,

hope you had a good start in this new year!!!! But enough of that, let's go!

MS will host a webcast tomorrow (January 14, at 10 AM PST) about Windows Mobile Application Development: Top Developer Tips for Windows Mobile. Presenter is Mike Francis, Mobility Development Consultant.
And Mike Francis will share his top Windows Mobile Development tips with you.
There is no shortcut for good development practices, but you can avoid the problems that slow you down with a little foresight.
In this webcast Mike Francis will discuss common obstacles for common architectures and will provide tips to avoid these obstacles and information on the Windows Mobile development resources that are available. He also will give some new stuff about Internet Explorer Mobile 6.

If you are interrested in this, then register for this webcast here.

Duration: 60 Minutes
Start Date: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 10:00 AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Thanks
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Windows Embedded Standard 2009 MCP Exam - soon to be launched

Hi folks

just a quick one to let you know that the MCP Exam for Windows Embedded Standard is to be launched in February. The exam will be available in English first, but other languages such as French and German will follow soon afterwards.

You can find an overview of this Exam, the skills measured and other information here.

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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Don't miss upcoming Windows Embedded OEM Technical Seminars

If you're living or even just visiting Sweden or Finland don't miss the Windows Embedded OEM Technical Seminars being held in January.

• On January, 22nd Microsoft and Arrow invite you to attend an OEM Technical Seminar and Workshop at the Microsoft Offices in Stockholm
  

and

• On January, 28th Microsoft and ABACUS invite you to attend an OEM Technical Seminar and Workshop at the Microsoft Offices in Helsinki

So long and thanks for all the fish!
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The International Cosumer Electronics Show starts today

The International CES, January 8th - 11th, 2009 in Las Vegas, features 2,700 exhibitors spanning 30 product categories from markets including audio, digital content creation and distribution, digital imaging, embedded technology, gaming (digital entertainment), high-performance audio & home theater, video, home networking, in-vehicle technology and wireless.

If you are visiting the CES don't forget to visit the following booths:

• Elektrobit Inc. Booth: 6618MP
• Microsoft Automotive Business Unit. Booth: Central CP7-A,Central CP7-B,CentralPlaza CP7

So long and thanks for all the fish!


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New Microsoft Video Site - Beta

Hi folks!

I hope all of you had great holidays and the chance to recharge your batteries as 2009 seems to be a very challenging year!

Some of you will already know about this, but still I wanted to point you to a new Microsoft Video Web Site, where you can find recent videos on Windows Embedded stuff.

At the moment it is in Beta stage and the videos are currently only in english but over time this is supposed to become "the site" for multimedia about Microsoft products and eventually the site will also support more languages.

So long and thanks for all the fish!

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