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Can .pvb apps be run on a post-CE 2.0 device?

CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2021-10-15 1:45 AM
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Having previously gotten the eMbedded Visual Basic runtimes for CE 2.11/3.0 working with .vb apps on the Casio BE-300, without having to make \Windows persistent, I rekindled an old curiosity about whether the older Pocket Visual Basic runtimes for CE 2.0 could work with .pvb apps on a CE 2.11 or later device. With the limited native APIs (but also with the needed ole32.dll and oleaut32.dll present) on the BE, and with the easy restore process of data to the device, it seemed a prime candidate for testing this. However, because of the typical 480x240 landscape orientation of the few .pvb apps ever developed (to accommodate the displays of CE 2 H/PCs, of course), the better choice for such testing was a BE-500 in landscape mode. The windows of .pvb apps were all movable by dragging the title bar, so the cut-off 240x160 of the app's window could be viewed by dragging the window horizontally.

I tried at first by copying the four PVB runtime files to \Windows on a landscape BE-500 with the \Windows folder persistent, and then individually registering pvbrt.dll and vbscript.dll with regsvr2.exe. (The third DLL, vbsen.dll, doesn't register in either the PVB runtimes or the eVB runtimes on any device.) I then flushed the registry. But I couldn't open any .pvb apps before or after soft resetting, and after soft resetting the .pvb apps didn't adopt the PVB icon. I checked the registry and found that the icon value in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT was absent even though .pvb was identified as a registered file type.

Fortunately, among my huge collection of files for CE devices, I have a few .pvb-based apps that include CAB installers for both MIPS and SH3. These include several apps written by Larry Roof (of Microsoft's CE team back in 1997) as well as a pair of word game apps by Tracker Software (the only PVB-based apps I've ever found that weren't written by either Roof or Vincent Collura). As it turns out, each of these CAB files installs the PVB runtimes as well as the apps themselves. (Also included are a few object controls, including MSCEFile.dll and MSCEComDlg.dll.) So I tried one, and was shocked to see how quickly and easily most of those apps (including both word games) opened after the CAB install (as did several of Collura's apps once the runtimes were installed). The .pvb apps had also adopted the PVB icon. Not only that, but the word games and some of Roof's apps adapted to the 320x240 display, so no window dragging was necessary.

Thus far I haven't tried this on any H/PC Pro or H/PC 2000 device, but will report results when I do. (I'll also be adding the apps to the SCL that aren't already there once I confirm them to work on one or more CE 2.0 devices. None of them had been tested before now.) Needless to say they won't work on an ARM device since there were no ARM CE 2.0 devices to compile the runtimes for. Also, clearly any device on which to test this can't already have the eVB runtimes for CE 2.11 or 3.0 installed.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2021-10-15 9:01 AM
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Interesting discovery. Are you able to reverse engineer the registry and installation steps needed and we can document it in the CESD? With an easy VB route, it might encourage a few more people to have a play with coding.
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2021-10-16 11:36 PM
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That'll be the hard part, since the CAB installer did all the work for me.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2021-10-17 8:13 AM
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Send me a cab, hopefully it won't use a setup.dll
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2021-10-17 8:30 AM
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I was just searching the forums while you wrote that, and found that Rich created installation CABs for the PVB runtimes for CE 2.0 for both MIPS and SH3 here:

https://www.hpcfactor.com/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=17316&st...

I haven't checked those yet, but the CABs of the apps I mentioned above do indeed create a setup.dll file.
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2021-10-17 10:14 AM
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Oh good spot. Conversations we had 7 years ago . Let us know if that solves all the problems here and I should get them added to H/PC:Update for all CE 2.00 devices shouldn't I. Or higher if there is no dll conflict?
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2021-10-17 9:36 PM
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Like I said, I haven't tested this on any H/PCs with CE 2.11 or higher yet, so I still have to confirm that it works on some of them too.
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