Written by Larry Roof
Published by Wrox Press
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<span class="subheading">
Table of Contents
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<span class="text">
<ol>
Getting Started
Creating a handheld application
Designing applications for Windows CE
ActiveX Controls for Windows CE - Interface Tools
ActiveX Controls for Windows CE - Data Tools
Working with Files
Working with Databases
Moving Data Between Devices
Using Help with your CE applications
The Inventory Manager: Scanning and Recording Data
The Note Manager
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There are also three appendixes:
- Example Listings
- Bugs
- Further Information
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<span class="subheading">Our Review</span>
<span class="text">
Unless you've been living under a rock, you have probably seen the growing number of handheld computers that are becoming available at reasonable prices. The bulk of these machines are using the Windows CE operating system, and Microsoft has come out with an add-on for Visual Basic that will let you program for this new platform. However, as usual, the Microsoft documentation is not particularly good. Professional Visual Basic Windows CE Programming, written by Larry Roof, shows you how to take your traditional VB skills and apply them to the new WinCE platform.
Before getting into the technical details, the author wisely takes a few chapters to cover some of the differences in programming a handheld vs. a traditional desktop. You don't even have 640x480 to work with...you're on a much smaller screen, but at the same time, you have to make things larger because of the differences in how you input data (stylus, tiny keyboard, etc.). These tips are probably the most useful ones in the book, especially for those of us who haven't worked in the environment before.
The first few chapters in the book cover setting up the development environment and the ActiveX controls on your developer's palette. Because you do development on a different machine than the application runs, there is a bit of connectivity you have to verify before you can run one of your applications. The chapters also cover the emulator available with the WinCE toolkit so that you can debug your applications before you deploy them to the WinCE machine.
Active Data Objects are the primary data access mechanism in Windows CE. Luckily, if you're already familiar with ADO from VB or ASP, you're in luck -- ADO is the same everywhere, for now. The chapter does provide a good introduction if you're not already familiar with ADO.
As I've mentioned in other reviews, many books simply present snippets of code and never combine the code into full, working applications. This book doesn't follow that path and instead presents two complete applications: an inventory manager and a note manager. Both of these applications use many of the technologies covered in the book, such as ADO. You can easily see how to adapt these applications for your own use, or you can use them as the basis for new applications.
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<span class="subheading">The Bottom Line</span>
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This book covers a lot of ground but at the same time gives you many of the tools you'll need to write good WinCE applications. The inclusion of design techniques is a valuable addition and includes things that traditional VB would probably never think of. While this book isn't the end-all and be-all of references, it is a very good choice to get you started in WinCE development.