Development tool(s)

Hi there,

I am looking to start a development project for myself and need to understand the best tool(s) to use.

I am an experienced programmer (22 years) but all my work has been on large scale systems (developing RPG), I have never really tinkered with programming on PC or PDA or HPC before.

My application needs a GUI, a relational database (keyed files) and access to the POOM libraries (create an appointment, delete a contact etc.)

Being used to larger systems, I take for granted that a database system is there & only ever use the one tool!

I would like my project (when it works!) to run on HPC and maybe a modified version to run on a PDA as I own both.

What tools do you suggest, I don't mind learning a new programming language - in fact I'm quite looking forward to it!

thanks,

Mike

The good news here mmarks is that developing for Windows CE is vastly similar to developing for Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2K/XP. There's only a few minor things to watch out for, but for the most part, the transition should be a breeze.

Your best place to start: http://www.hpcfactor.com/developer/

Feel free to reply if you have any more questions.

As Jorkapp says, the Dev section is a good place to look for downloads of the software tools required.

Ultimately, for serious lower level development, you have two options. Do it in C++ or take two steps down the stairs and do it in Assembler. With C++ you clearly have access to the API, both Win32, MFC, POOM and the SysDatabase objects which are the optimal way of creating databases for use with applications without resorting to a new engine - if you need one MS SQL Server CE is available.

The optimal route is to program for Windows CE 3 and lower using Visual C++ 6 and the Toolkits, Visual Studio 2003+ and the SDK's for CE 4 and above. The alternative is to use the free embedded Visual C tools.