Re: Developing a driver targeting both 5.0 and 6.0

Hi Dean,

Thanks. I was actually wondering about the dot verisons. Thanks for that
clarifications. It really helps in several areas from trying to know what
version one has to making sure the right version is used with something else.
Thanks again!

Regards,
Tom


"Dean Ramsier" wrote:

Also note that there is no CE5.1 and CE5.2 releases. WM5 and WM6 are both
based on CE5, but both were pulled from a point (separate points, probably)
in the code stream subsequent to the external CE5.0 release. These points
are sometimes referred to internally as 5.01 etc, but no one on the outside
has thse versions. There has never been an external dot release for CE5, so
the folks in embedded all have CE5.0.
--
Dean Ramsier - eMVP
BSQUARE Corporation


"Tom" <Tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:F7D55AAB-6431-4FEB-A336-FF8400A65E93@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Really great info. Thanks tremendously!

Regards,
Tom


"Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]" wrote:

Yes, CE5 and PB5 are paired. The same for Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and
PB6.
What PB5 and PB6 *are* is no longer the same. PB5 was a stand-alone
development IDE, while PB6 is a plug-in for Visual Studio 2005 (this
saves
the Windows CE group from having to maintain that IDE code). As I
recall,
most of the CE5 stuff is still available for download and you can
certainly
still *buy* CE5/PB5 from your Microsoft distributor.

We don't have any direct contact with the Web site people, but you can
certainly Send Feedback from some of those pages...

Paul T.

"Tom" <Tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5182900D-8A79-4F60-88A9-D228B125C8DA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Bruce,

Thank you for the fast reply (and thanks to everyone else who replied
as
well).

Yeah, I took someone's info that WM 6 matched to CE 6 as if they had
looked
into it. For whatever it's worth, I searched around quite a bit on
Microsoft's site and didn't find it spelled out. I actually had this
happen a
few years ago when I wrote a client USB driver for CE. Finding the
initial
roadmap to resync on what product versions relate to what seemed more
difficult to find than I'd expect.

I finally found the version info on Wikipedia as well as this site:
http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/wce/versions.htm

I wonder if Microsoft could have a easy to find roadmap? For example, I
went
to the WM6.0 page, and then clicked For Developers in the left pane,
and
on
that page, I find "Introducing" WM and stuff like that, but no quick
high-level. It seems to me that new developers as well as devs who are
coming
back after a break might benefit from something that highlights the
recent
versions. I'm sure Msoft has something somewhere, but I did not find it
immediately available on the WM sites FWIW.

Here's what I have based on your message and the above sites:

WM 5.0-->CE 5.0 and CE 5.1...
WM 6.0-->CE 5.2...

And just so I don't assume, are the following correct:

Platform Builder 5.x ---> CE 5.x
Platform Builder 6.x ---> CE 6.x

Actually, it seems like they've changed the names slightly to this:

Platform Builder for Windows® Embedded CE 6.0 ---> CE 6.x
Platform Builder for Microsoft Windows CE 5.0 ---> CE 5.x

I have to say, though, when I go to the CE Embedded home page on
Microsoft's
site, you go right to 6.0 and there isn't any obvious product link I
could
find to go to 5.x. I guess the idea is to target new hardware folks so
I'm
guessing they want to push CE 6.0 to that audience, somewhat hiding CE
5.0.
But if you're a driver developer, or even a WM 5.0 or 6.0 developer who
needs
lower-level information, you can get lost just trying to figure out
what's
what.

Please excuse the long email but I wanted to offer the user experience
in
case you have somewhere where you can forward any suggestions.

I really appreciate your answers and clarifications! I'd still be
wondering
with them.

Regards,
Tom



"Bruce Eitman [eMVP]" wrote:

Tom:

Paul is correct WM 6 is not based on CE 6.0.

It is important to understand that WM versions do not match Windows CE
versions. And becuase this newsgroup is focused on Windows CE, your
subject
implicitly refers to Windows CE 5.0 and 6.0. But because WM is based
on
Windows CE, this group is a perfectly acceptable place to ask
questions
about WM driver development.

--
Bruce Eitman (eMVP)
Senior Engineer
beitman AT applieddata DOT net

Applied Data Systems
www.applieddata.net
An ISO 9001:2000 Registered Company
Microsoft WEP Gold-level Member

"Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]" <p space tobey no spam AT no instrument no spam
DOT
com> wrote in message news:eQAnehQ2HHA.6072@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
You might be able to write certain types of drivers in a form that
would
work in both. If I recall, WM6 is not based on Windows CE 6, but on
CE5,
no? If so, there should be no problem targeting WM5 and having that
same
driver work with WM6, in most cases. There will always be
exceptions,
of
course. If I'm wrong and WM6 is based on CE6, I think you're out of
luck.

Paul T.

"elysion" <elysion@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:12DC79D8-F920-4437-9AC5-9E576F2996A4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,

From what I understood from the Microsoft's help files, tutorials
and
videos, the drivers in CE 5.0 and CE 6.0 are quite different, so
you
can't
just use the same binary you used in CE 5.0 in CE 6.0. Also I
haven't
found
any switch in PB6 to tell the compilers and linkers to build the
driver
for
CE 5, so I guess you would need to get the PB5 also. But I'm no pro
in
these
things, so a lot of this is just guessing. Hope someone else has
more
solid
info for you :).

"Tom" wrote:

If someone wants to develop a driver that will work on both
Windows
Mobile
5.0 and 6.0, are both Platform Builder 5.0 and 6.0 needed?

If the answer depends on the driver, it would be nice to know
that.
For
example, if in some cases, PB 6.0 can be used for DD development
targeting
both CE 5.0 and 6.0, while in other cases it cannot target both,
knowing
that
would be helpful. Then the answer is a matter of finding out what
areas
of DD
development we're touching upon.

If the binaries are different, or something is so different across
the
board
that one would never target CE 5.0 with PB 6.0, that would be
helpful
to
know
as well. (I'd find this "across the board" incompatibility hard to
understand
since I'm guessing that some drivers from 5.0 must be usuable on
6.0,
but
that's just my guess.)

If there are any good Inet or Msoft articles, it would be great to
have
a
URL.

I'm trying to avoid purchasing both PB 5.0 and 6.0 if only PB 5.0
is
needed.
Or, if PB 6.0 supports development of CE 5.0 compliant drivers,
there's
no
need to invest in PB 5.0. Hopefully the purpose of my question
makes
sense.

Thanks in advance!

Regards,
Tom











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