MS PDC Day 1 981012

Microsoft Professional Developers Conference
Monday, October 12, 1998
Denver, Colorado

For more information:
Windows CE 2.11 & H/PC Pro Articles.
Mini-reviews of Windows CE Books

Todd Notes

Keynote: Bill Gates presented the keynote address at the PDC. It was a reasonably interesting and well made presentation. The interesting aspects, to me, where that [1] the presentation focused almost entirely on Windows NT 5. I do not recall any mention of Windows CE. This is especially interesting since rumor was that 'Jupiter' (H/PC Pro) was originally scheduled to be introduced today by Mr. G. Instead it was announced with relatively little fan fare last week.

Session: Inside Windows CE. Michael Thompson Program Manager, Windows CE OS
This session focusd on the ETK (Embedded Tool Kit). Looking through my notes, I did not see anything that I wanted to spend time on reporting this evening. However, I will add details after the PDC.

Session: Writing Applications for the Handheld PC. Scott Skorupa, Development Manager - H/PC Applications

Decoding Product Versions As of Handheld PC Professional Edition
Current Windows CE OS	2.11
Windows CE Services	2.2
Applications & Shell	3.0

E-mail client now supports IMAP and folder hierarchy
640x480 and 800x600 with 16-bit color depth (65536) displays
Mouse and other pointing devices supported
USB supported
Euro languages (Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese/Brazil) versions will be relased in November.
Asian languages will follow.
Keyboard layout remains the same as in CE 2.0
OEM can added dedicated keys (e.g., app launching keys)
Euro key/symbol supported
Alt-"tap" now equivalent to right mouse button. Legacy applications need to add right button support.
Legacy applications need to properly restore mouse cursor.
USB support is host-only. E.g., you cannot sync a H/PC Pro with a desktop/notebook via USB.
The Beta Windows CE 2.11 SDK for the H/PC Pro will be released in a few weeks. Beta of the CE Toolkit for Visual C++ 6 will be released at the same time.
Lots of discussion of the new command bands.
Pocket Access exposes basic SQL support.
Max database record size is 128KB.
Four sort orders per database. Only one active sort order per open database.
First two characters of the index is uncompressed to speed up searching.
You can shell execute to send mail from an application. E.g., Pmail.exe -To "billg" -attachment "\data\ce.xls"
Mouse/stylus use is mutually exclusive (e.g., only one active at a time).
There is nothing in CE 2.11 that prevent upgrading older H/PCs. But, it is up to the OEM to determine whether or not current H/PCs will have an upgrade path to CE 2.11. Translation: Call your manufacturer and tell them you want an upgrade path.
The 16MB system RAM limit still exists in CE 2.11.
A CE service pack will be released in Spring 1999. No other details.

NS Basic. Current owners of NS Basic for the Apple Newton can upgrade to the Windows CE NS Basic for $79.95. List price is $99.95. Note: I bought a copy and installed it on my HP620LX. It must be installed in System RAM. It cannot be installed on a CF card. My opinion is that you need at least 16MB of System RAM to install this tool. I have not played with it much but it looks very interesting. You can learn more about it at http://www.nsbasic.com/

TO-TECH
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