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Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 27, 2001 @ 11:25am
by Moose or Chuck

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 28, 2001 @ 1:36pm
by Moose or Chuck

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 28, 2001 @ 2:03pm
by Dan East

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 29, 2001 @ 3:03pm
by Moose or Chuck

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 29, 2001 @ 4:47pm
by Digby

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 29, 2001 @ 5:03pm
by Moose or Chuck

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 29, 2001 @ 8:42pm
by Dan East
I don't know if that would help (petitioning MS, etc). Part of the problem is that there are 3 mainstream processors used by CE, so you would either have to generate only applications for a single type of processor (of course the type of processor for the device you're using), or you would have to have 3 compilers, 3 assemblers, 3 linkers, and 3 complete sets of libraries (make that 6 if you include debugging support). I've actually thought about this a bit, and there exists GPL source code for several very good compilers. I have not studied compiler design (at least formally), but it should not be too difficult to modify a compiler for use with a different type of processor. A compiler that generates highly optimized code is another issue, and is completely processor specific, but I think that for most purposes the idea is to generate solid, bug free applications on the go. So just bread-and-butter compilation would do. Again, the problem is that there are 3 different processors. Each would have to be created from scratch, and would be a completely separate project. If you built each compiler for each type of processor (ie, so I could build a MIPS program on my iPaq), you would have 9 different compilers. :) Again, I think you and I are thinking along the same lines here, so creating an app that will run on the device it was compiled on is that main idea. I'm thinking more along the lines of prototyping and minimizing down-time on the go, more than "I'm going to turn off my finely tuned Windows 2000 developement machine and sit in front of my Pocket PC and write a game from scratch". <br>In case you're not familiar with C and how it is turned into an executable, there are basically 3 steps (three separate programs) involved. Some development tools may combine these steps into less than 3 standalone tools, and others break it down into even more pieces. But generally the three applications are:<br>C (and/or C++) Compiler: Converts the C source code into assembly source code for the target type of processor.<br>Assembler: Generates a hunk of machine language code (an Object file) from an assembly source file.<br>Linker: Combines all the Object files of the project, with all the needed external LIB libaries (like stdio, the Windows API, etc), and generates the end output file (An Executable, DLL, or LIB file).<br><br>So when you talk about creating a C compiler, you're talking about creating all 3 of the applications above to support a single type of CE device. There could actually be a 4th component, which would be a gui development environment. You could of course use Pocket Word for code editing, but it would be much better to at least have a syntax coloring, smart-tabbing C editor that would automically launch the compiler, assembler, etc, like the Make tool.<br>I think I stayed under a thousand words! ;)<br><br>Dan East

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 29, 2001 @ 10:10pm
by Moose or Chuck
well, moose until then, why not write the code in word, then just test when uu return home. I would find that the easiest. means u'd have to debug when u got home but whaa whaa don't cry.

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 29, 2001 @ 11:05pm
by Dan East
It looks like some degree of work was done to modify gcc to build for MIPS Windows CE devices:<br><br>He gave up in August of 2000.<br><br>Dan East

Re: Pocket Visual C++

PostPosted: May 30, 2001 @ 9:59pm
by Moose or Chuck
well moose, there is your project, u must port GCC over, and then figure out a way to squeeze out the crap from the SDK to make it fit on a ppc.