For those few who dare to venture into the world of programming for the Handheld PC, HPC:Factor has always maintained its list of patches and updates for using the Windows CE Development Tools. One of the long-standing pieces of advice here is that the highest version of the Windows Template Library (WTL) supported by eMbedded Visual C++ 3.0 has been WTL version 7.5 (from 2006).

Windows Template Library is a set of API tooling that can be used to create applications faster and more efficiently; offering templates for commonly used objects, actions, and user interface elements. For that reason, it has always been suggested for developers to install the Windows Template Library after installing your Windows CE IDE environment.

HPC:Factor member torch has done some testing and has discovered that versions of WTL after 7.5 also work when targeted against the H/PC using eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 and its eMbedded Visual C++ 3.0 IDE as well as through the established Visual Studio 6.0 environment.

Windows Template Library 9.1 was released the 17th of November 2015, and is the last release where the release notes mention supporting the Windows CE Toolkits for Visual C++ 6.0 - the final version to do so. With subsequent versions only stating support for later versions of Visual Studio. Unmentioned in the readme however is support for eVC++. torch has been able to confirm that versions 8.0, 9.0 and 9.1 all correctly integrate into eVC++ and compile the basic samples.

Windows Template Library 9.1 supports the following Windows CE compilers:

• eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 (Original and 2002 Editions)
• eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0
• Visual C++ 6.0
• Visual C++ 2003
• Visual C++ 2005
• Visual C++ 2008

For further information and downloads of the various Windows Template Library releases, along with a guide on how to install WTL, see the links below.
View: Windows Template Library (WTL) 7.5
View: Windows Template Library (WTL) 9.1
View: How to install Windows Template Library in Visual C++ or eMbedded Visual C++