Developing for Windows CE

January 1997 / Reviews / At Last: Pocket PCs That Run Windows / Developing for Windows CE

Microsoft has designed the Windows CE API as a subset of the Windows 32-bit API (approximately 25 percent of it). All the basic calls are familiar. If a programmer wants to put up a window or manipulate the screen, then the data structures and procedure calls will be exactly the same. Of course there are challenges. The screen of the target device is much smaller, and the behavior of the windows is somewhat limited. Developers must pay attention to the little amount of available RAM and current lack of color displays.
Windows CE is currently on several hardware platforms, including Mips (NEC's VR 4101 and the R3900 core in Philips' chip set) and Hitachi's SH3. Like NT, Windows CE is isolated by a hardware abstraction layer (HAL), which keeps low-level programming to a minimum. Manufacturers don't have to spend time writing device drivers and glue code. Programmers are writing CE code on NT desktop systems using simulation of the CE environment.
At this time, however, developing for CE is an option available only to a select group. You can't yet simply purchase a compiler and an SDK and write your own applications. Contrast this with the US Robotics Palm Pilot. You can build programs for that hand-held machine using Metrowerks' CodeWarrior 10, which comes with development tools for the Pilot and for devices based on General Magic's Magic Cap (see our review "Multiplatform CodeWarrior").

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Matthew Wilson
My approach to software engineering is far more pragmatic than it is theoretical--and no language better exemplifies this than C++.

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