Re: WinCE 6.0 BSP (CEPC) for Virtual PC

OK, but don't put it on us to defend *your* decision. XPe and Windows CE
are not close in how they work. I went off and tried to do some XPe
development for a proof-of-concept a couple of years ago. Trying to apply
what I knew about Windows CE to it was a waste of time. I had to start with
what XPe was providing and think that way to do something. If you start out
from the other end, yes, you can probably do it, but you're wasting your
time. The closest you can get for a BSP for Virtual PC is "CEPC". Start
with that, if you like, but you're staring at the wrong end, according to
two guy who probably have 20 years combined CE development experience
between them...

Paul T.

"GJ" <GJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:DB1A62AC-3FE1-4956-B1D3-A02D92B21B93@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Why?"... because we want to. Development has been done for XPE using the
VPC as a target and it works VERY well. The VPC is just like the ICOP
box,
except it's virtual... no hardware to plug in or lug around; I can easily
take it home with me, or send it to a colleague. I can store it away and
easily retrieve it months (maybe years) later without the frustration of
finding long lost cabling. Some folks like to have hardware sitting on
their
desk; me, not so much. Some folks like emulators; I think they are a pain
in
the ***. I'm not saying a CEPC VPC is the perfect solution, but it's
more
useful and/or viable as a tool than you give it credit for.

I'm truly amazed at the lack of affinity for a virtual environment... a
larger question is "Why?".

"Chris Tacke, eMVP" wrote:

The large question is "why?" What purpose would this VPC server? There
is
already an emulator that can be used as a target. Trying to get a CE OS
running on a VPC would be a lot of work for seemingly little (or no)
benefit. Just install the emulator BSP, generate an image and have the
devs
use the that emulator as a target. In many cases, it would be less
expensive to just go buy each developer an ICOP eBox target than to even
spend the time trying to get the emulator builds generated and deployed
to
the devs. They are inexpensive and have working CE images already
loaded,
plus you can adjust the contents down the road if you so choose with PB.

The reality is that I've been doing non-WinMo CE development for a little
while now and I haven't loaded up an emulator in years. The times I have
were almost always to test something emulator related, not platform
related.
Emulators can be useful, but you really have to treat it as a product
itself
when developing your platform, and few OEMs go to that trouble since the
payback is often negligible.


--

Chris Tacke, Embedded MVP
OpenNETCF Consulting
Giving back to the embedded community
http://community.OpenNETCF.com




"GJ" <GJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4982C5A8-C33C-48CD-B6EB-0591CD1D670D@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks for the info. I do understand that CE doesn't support the full
.NET
Framework, and exploring what is "missing" is one of our objects in
doing
this "pre" development work.

However, I do still believe that a CEPC VPC would be a valuable tool to
have
at our finger tips. We may find that out differently once we get into
full
development, but all avenues should be explored.

Is it that difficult to do that no one has done it, even as an
exercise?
I
did find a CE 5.0 VPC on the web, so it can't be that great of a leap
to
produce a WinCE 6.0 VPC.

"Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]" wrote:

You won't be using .NET Framework 3.0 for CE development. The full
.NET
framework does not run on Windows CE. Windows CE can, optionally, be
equipped by the device OEM with .NET *Compact Framework* 1.0, 2.0, or
3.5.
VS2008 can be used for development with .NET CF 2.0 or 3.5, so your
tools
are fine, if your OS is set up correctly.

No, application developers don't need Platform Builder. Once you've
generated an OS image and the corresponding emulator image, Platform
Builder
allows you to generate a device SDK for that OS/device. This can then
be
installed on any VS2005/2008-equipped system, where it can be used.

Paul T.

"GJ" <GJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5897EEBC-70F1-4722-A0B7-E41BF21C882A@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks Paul for your message. The software development group is
using
VS2008
and developing in C# and .NET 3.0. So, each developer would have to
have
VS2005 w/PB installed also, even though they have no intension of
building
images. Other non-software team members would have to have VS2005
w/PB
installed to test drive or demo the applications. I do see the
value
in
using the emulator for some aspects of the software development, but
in
other
aspects it's a hinderance. I would have a hard time convincing
non-software
developers into installing VS2005 + SP1 + PB just to look at our
applications.

"Paul G. Tobey [eMVP]" wrote:

Platform Builder has an emulator target. I think that makes more
sense
than
trying to run the OS on a PC within a PC. Download the Platform
Builder
evaluation version via the www.microsoft.com/embedded page, install
VS2005
Pro and the evaluation and work through some of the tutorials in
the
help.
That will give you the ability to build some sort of an emulator
image
which
you can then play with to understand how application development
works.

There's also the no-Platform-Builder option, if you aren't going to
be
building Windows CE for your target hardware later. Install VS2005
Pro
or
better and one of Microsoft-provided SDKs. Something like Windows
Mobile
6
would do. That would give you an emulator target that you could
play
with.
Some of the APIs in WM6 are not available to generic Windows CE
platforms,
but, if you carefully avoid those, you should be able to
familiarize
yourself with what you have to do.

Paul T.

"GJ" <GJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:6C109E8C-4AB5-4DC1-9C66-463DC4EA9460@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We are considering WinCE 6.0 for a new project, and while the
hardware
guys
are out looking at/evaluating platforms, I would like to get
familiar
with
WinCE 6.0 application development. My thought is to run WinCE
6.0
in a
Virtual PC environment (or Vmware). I've searched the web and
found
vague
references to being able to do this. I will buy a commercial
product,
and
if
one isn't available I would attempt to build my own BSP (not
desireable
at
this point).

I can't imagine that I'm the only one who would like to do this.
I
would
greatly appreciate any info on this subject.

Thanks!











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