Sams Teach Yourself Windows CE Programming in 24 Hours (Paperback)

~ (Author), Steven Makofsky (Author), Andrew Tucker (Author), Bsquare Corporation (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Sams Teach Yourself Windows CE Programming in 24 Hours is a step-by-step tutorial that teaches you how to create fully functioning Windows CE applications. The material is presented in a focused, easy to follow manner. Topics covered include standard controls for CE devices, HTML Viewer control, working with icons, fonts, and graphics, persistent storage, threading, serial communications, WinSock, and WinInet, printing, CE Mail, power and system resource management, and debugging.

From the Back Cover

Sams Teach Yourself Windows CE Programming in 24 Hours is a step-by-step tutorial that teaches you how to create fully functioning Windows CE applications. The material is presented in a focused, easy to follow manner. Topics covered include standard controls for CE devices, HTML Viewer control, working with icons, fonts, and graphics, persistent storage, threading, serial communications, WinSock, and WinInet, printing, CE Mail, power and system resource management, and debugging.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Que Corporation,U.S. (August 19, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672316587
• ISBN-13: 978-0672316586
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,746,032 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good general WinCE book - authors are well-respected, October 18, 1999

By A Customer

Chapter Headings:

1. Getting Started with Visual C++ for Windows CE 2. What's Different about Windows CE? 3. Building User Interfaces - Command Bars and Bands 4. Using the HTML Viewer 5. Working with Standard Controls 6. Incorporating Common Controls 7. Activating the Common Dialogs 8. Working with Graphics Devices 9. The Object Store: Files and the Registry 10. Advanced Object Store: The Database API 11. Threads and Processes 12. Controlling Interprocess Communication 13. Winsock and Serial Communications 14. Printing 15. Targeting the Palm-Size PC 16. Using AppInstall to Redistribute Your Programs 17. Working with the Contacts Database API 18. Creating Mail-Enabled Applications 19. Monitoring Power and System Resources 20. Communicating with the Desktop 21. Creating ActiveSync Modules 22. The Cure for the Common Crash 23. Debugging Windows CE Applications with Visual C++ 24. Advanced Topics: MFC, ATL and POOM

This is a generally good introductory book on Windows CE programming. It does not try to teach you C, Windows and Windows CE programming all at the same time, rather it concentrates on the differences between Windows CE and other versions of Windows. The book was written by three well-respected BSQUARE employees; BSQUARE is one of the leading Windows CE development and porting companies.

Several of the chapters cover topics specific to Windows CE, such as command bands and bars. Since the Microsoft documentation for these controls is somewhat lacking, this is very useful. Other chapters cover areas which are common to both Windows CE and Windows 95/98/NT but nonetheless do a good job of pointing the areas where Windows CE differs.

Probably because the book was written by three authors rather than one it doesn't flow quite as well from one chapter to the next quite as smoothly as other books of this type. Each topic is, though, covered well. There are some strange omissions, however, such as very little discussion on Unicode. Readers would be well advised to also obtain Richter's excellent Advanced Windows for a comprehensive discussion on Unicode (and many other) topics.

A very useful chapter discusses how to get your program installed using the Windows CE Services (now called ActiveSync) Application Manager. Since coverage of this topic is woefully lacking in the Microsoft documentation, this information alone might be worth the price of the book.

All of the examples in the book are in straight C. C++ is not used at all while MFC and ATL are just touched on in the last section. The included CD-ROM contains the book's source code and evaluation copies of bSQUARE's bUSEFUL and bPRODUCTIVE application suites.

At $24.95 cover price (may be less on Amazon.com) and about 450 pages this book is a welcome relief from the trend these days of $50-$80 1000 page monsters.

Fair disclosure and disclaimer: I was the technical editor for this book. I had no input on the content or design of the book, but I did correct factual information where necessary and point out where explanations were unclear etc. The opinions stated herein are mine alone and not those of my employer or anybody else.

NOTE: Amazon.com wouldn't let me post a review without selecting a star-rating. Since I had a hand in the book's production I didn't feel that it was appropriate for me to rate the book. I've therefore given it 3-stars so as to not influence the average too much.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Non beginners book, November 29, 1999

By	Borut Lunder (Ljubljana Slovenia) - See all my reviews

If you are an absolute beginner in Windows CE programming you will not find answers to your questions in it. You need a lot of skills to read it through. Sample code is excellent: very short, useful and IT WORKS!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Inconsistent, wrong examples - Pay Attention!, April 14, 2000

By	Matt Myers - See all my reviews

I bought this book not knowing a lick of Win32 API programming, so I had to take a crash course in Win32 programming first, as the book starts off assuming you know the API. Thankfully, it leaves MFC and ATL to the last chapter and focuses solely on C and the API.

One problem I had with the book is that the examples in the text are often quite wrong in terms of number/use of parameters, and leave out some details that can be misleading. Besides the examples, the text has frequent misleading information (p.44: "First you can call the CommandBar_InsertButton() function..." Later on the same page: "The other function you can use to add buttons is the CommandBar_InsertButton() function..." - the first quote should have said CommandBar_AddButton())

If you are paying attention and following the book closely, you will weed out these inconsistencies, though, and should come out of it with respectable knowledge of CE.