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!