Customer Reviews

Essential Windows(r) CE Application Programming

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Most of the book is a rewording of the Douglas Boling book on the same subject. If you have that book (which is much better) this book will be mostly a rehashing of the same material. This book attempts to give information that the Boling book doesn't cover on Custom Draw (Tree Controls, etc), the HTML viewer control and Active Sync and a few other minor topics. Unfortunately, the MSDN articles on these topics are actually better then the authors coverage of them.

Overall a decent introduction to programming for Windows CE using Visual C++ and the Win32 API (no MFC or Visual Basic here, folks). Does a good job covering basic applications, common controls and CE databases, and is the _only_ book I've found that discusses ActiveSync programming. Most chapters contain sample code to illustrate the subject matter, and an accompanying CD-ROM contains the full sample apps. This book does not have the depth of Douglas Boling's "Programming Windows CE" -- some of it seems to be taken nearly verbatim from Microsoft's documentation -- but it does cover some subjects that Boling does not (e.g., owner-drawn and custom controls, ActiveSync, HTML viewer and Voice control).

I recently had a chance to review this book. It's very normal. I've been doing WinCE for 4 yrs, can't find anything up-to-date in this book. Any WIN32 programmer will feel the same.

Features happen to latest Windows CE 3.0 are not mentioned. No Pocket PC stuff either. You can't find useful stuff for programming Shell, Today's APIs and upside down User Interface. To be able to get updated programming information, MSDN and SDK help are your best bet.

I had all but given up on CE after struggling with the miserable VB CE kit on and off for several years, till I opened up Burdick's book and tried several of his programs. I was astounded! They all worked flawlessly and I was off to a start with CE and C development. I'm by no means an expert at C but had no problems in following the code examples and getting some serious applications to work. I've looked at some other CE programming books but I really wouldn't be without this one.

This is the clearest, best Windows CE programming book to date. The desktop connectivity examples alone are worth the price of the book.

Robert Burdick's "Microsoft Windows CE Programmer's Guide is more than a guide. It is an indispensable reference. The introduction had the overview I needed to understand Windows CE and how I can use it. This is a book that assumes you understand programming, but is easy to understand and use. The chapters are in logical order, but can also be used for ready reference. The enclosed CD has the emulation software, Microsoft's online help and programmer's reference as well as the device driver kit and other useful documentation. I'd recommend it to anyone who is (or wants to be) a CE coder.

Robert Burdick, a windowsce-dev mailing list regular and veteran Windows CE programmer has put together a great book on developing applications for Windows CE devices. While much of the book complements horizontal platforms such as the H/PC, P/PC and H/PCpro, a lot of it will make sense for those programmers working on custom devices.

Burdick's book is for people with some Windows development skills who want to get involved with Windows CE app development. It is a rather complete excursion into CE app-land.

The book is very well written with clear, concise examples, easy-to-understand passages and a simple layout that works. It probably won't be of much help to the elitist looking for some elusive tidbit of CE secrets, but for just about everyone else it will probably fit best no further than arm's length.

I found this book to be the best resource for developing Windows CE applications. It has the best coverage of desktop connectivity issues, and is the only book to cover ActiveSync well.

Robert's book is very geared towards the API Developer. The book provides great source code examples which make the price of the book alone, well worth it!

This is a good book. It's got everything I need to know about Windows CE in one place. Highly recommended.