Re: Tablets?

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"J French" <erewhon@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:43f590b9.68287179@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Thu, 16 Feb 2006 12:22:03 -0600, "Ralph"
<nt_consulting64@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>

Robert,

Please post back with the results or any issues you ran into on your
'conversion'. A few of my attempts have not been completely satisfying,
so I
am always looking for better ideas or things to watch for.

There are two other potential problems that I neglected to mention in my
first post.

One, is the fact most desktop apps assume there is always an accessable
connection to the outside world and it is always the same critter. Once
an
app moves onto a TabletPC, that is seldom the case.

Second, desktop apps also assume that they are the star of the show and
will
be asked to stop or close gently, and in their own sweet time. This is
not
the case with a TabletPC.

A very good point, one needs to ensure that all data is written, files
flushed (ideally closed) at any point in time.

Clients tend to drag the damn things everywhere and hibernated apps can
wake
up between events in totally new surroundings - and are expected to
continue
right along as though nothing has changed.

These issues have caused more than one, what appeared to management to be
a
simple port, to become a weekend of panic repair. <g>

More than just the GUI often needs re-engineering.

It is also a good idea to make the App very easy to navigate,
preferably a 'main menu' of Buttons that one can get back to with a
minimum of 'touches'.

Also to offer simple shutdown, reboot, restart options within the App
- in other words take over the entire tablet


I am glad to hear that last part - "... preferably a 'main menu' of Buttons
....".

I have been creating such an animal as a quick 'n dirty solution for ported
desktop applications. A sort of universal monitor - combination splash
screen and options dialog - which essentially just buys time to figure out
where it is and what it was doing ...
" MyApp <pretty icon>
[Continue with original data...]
[Seek new connection...]
[Save all and quit...]
[...<no buttons - just info>]
"
The actual dialog/options presented would depend if the app came out of
hibernation, paused, startup, or shutdown...

But I considered it an ugly kludge. The result of a Monday morning deadline.
Maybe I was on to something and need not be so embarrassed. <g>

Have you taken a look at the .Net-based support yet? I was frankly rather
surprised at the high degree of COM-based support in the latest TablePC SDK,
considering MS's current desire to stomp-out VB6 development. Of course all
the examples assume you will be using it with FoxPro.

[Why Billy keeps cuddling FoxPro developers with an installed base of twelve
over an installed-base of millions for VBc has me completely mystified. <g>]

I have to admit that the .Net toys and the default connectionless aspect of
ADO.Net makes TablePC apps a bit easier to manage if written from scratch. I
tried to create my 'universal monitor' as a .Net component - results so far
have been rather disappointing. To put it mildly...<g>

-ralph


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