INTERVIEW:
Microsoft’s Roger Gulrajani on the
Development of Windows CE 2.0
Q: What were the major changes requested by users of Windows CE 1.0?
I’ve answered these questions from the perspective of the customers and developers
of the Handheld PC, which is powered by Windows CE. However, Windows CE 2.0 is a robust
operating system, designed for many different devices in many different categories. The
Handheld PC is just one of the device categories.
Based on customer feedback, Microsoft has worked hard to incorporate the following new
functionality:
Improved ease of use:
 | Support for color and improved gray scale displays. |
| Taskbar & tool bar customization capabilities. |
| A cascading menu off of the Start menu. |
| Support for scaleable TrueTypeTM fonts. |
| Integrated web and file system views in Pocket Internet Explorer. |
Improved connectivity:
| Support for standard Ethernet LAN connections. |
| Improvements in local and remote connectivity, adding PPP dial-in through network RAS
servers or directly to PCs as well as improvements in serial or infrared connectivity. |
| Support for secure connections through NTLM challenge/response authentication and SSL 2
& 3 protocols. |
| Direct printing from the H/PC via serial or infrared connections. |
Improved synchronization with the new ActiveSyncTM technology:
| Email and file synchronization in addition to PIM data synchronization between the H/PC
and PC. |
| Synchronization on connect and continuous synchronization. |
| The ability to partner an H/PC with two PCs, or a PC with any number of
H/PCs. |
Email attachments:
| Attach any file to an email message, and it will be delivered to the H/PC converted to
the appropriate format for a Windows CE 2.0 application, or in native format directly
readable on the H/PC. |
| Group scheduling requests (that are processed as attachments) can be accepted by, or
created on the H/PC. |
New and enhanced applications:
| Pocket PowerPoint — author a presentation on the desktop and deliver it using the
H/PC on the H/PC’s screen or on external 640x480 VGA resolution screens (projectors,
etc.) in 256 colors using a third-party card. (Some of the new H/PCs will provide built-in
VGA support. Also, an H/PC-to-NTSC TV signal card is under development by a third-party
vendor.) |
| Pocket Word — spell check documents. Drag your custom spelling dictionary to the
H/PC to use the same words you’ve added on your PC. |
| Pocket Excel — split screen, freeze pane, list management (sorting/filtering) and
database functions. |
| Pocket Excel and Word — Document zoom, full screen view, richer formatting,
templates and file-level passwords are now supported. |
Q: What are the most important improvements in this release from the perspective of a
developer.
Windows CE is an operating system (OS) for many applications, not just for the Handheld
PC. Windows CE 2.0 offers the embedded OEM developer a small, flexible, Win32-based OS
which can be configured for many different devices and yet still have the support of the
most popular third-party development tools.
Windows CE systems can be built from the kernel only or on up to devices with full
kernel, USER, GDI, communications, and shell. Windows CE 2.0 supports printing, color
display, NDIS and Ethernet, ActiveX controls, Visual Basic, and JavaVM.
The goal of Windows CE 2.0 was to develop a small, flexible, Win32 based OS which can be
configured into many different devices and yet still have the support of the most popular
development tools. Another goal is to leverage on the widespread Win32 programming
expertise, and large amounts of Win32 source code. In addition to the new features,
the main difference is that the OS is more configurable, making it easier for a hardware
vendor to choose just the portions of the OS required for a particular device. All of this
has been achieved without making the footprint for minimal systems significantly larger.
Q: Windows CE handhelds are positioned as PC companions. It seems that Windows CE 2.0
has led to the development of H/PCs that have a little more stand-alone capability. Is
this an intentional shift in Microsoft’s strategy?
Microsoft believes there is a market for a number of highly portable, highly functional
devices that leverage the customer’s existing computer infrastructure. The
Handheld PC, powered by Windows CE, is one such device. Microsoft believes there are other
devices that also meet these criteria. Microsoft has been researching ways to extend the
Windows CE platform. There are a number of innovative products that this company and
its partners are planning on introducing.
Q: Is Windows CE 2.0 backward compatible, i.e., will third-party software written for
Windows CE 1.0 work on a CE 2.0 H/PC?
We did not remove APIs or change APIs in going from version 1 to version 2, or
otherwise do things that would break applications. Of course, applications written for
Windows CE 1.0 will not exploit the features of Windows CE 2.0. Whether an
application works or not really depends on the specific third-party applications. If its
developers followed MS API guidelines, the product will work with Version 2.0. If they did
not follow the guidelines, the product may work.
Q: I have seen that Windows CE 2.0 will support a number of other CPUs, including the
PowerPC Chips. Will this help improve connectivity to the Mac? Any Mac connectivity
solutions coming that you know of?
Microsoft has been working closely with the leading CPU manufacturers to ensure broad
support for Windows CE 2.0 from the industry’s leading 32-bit CPUs. With version 2.0,
the Windows CE kernel has been ported to more microprocessors. Windows CE now supports the
following CPU families: the AMD ElanSC400; Hitachi SH3; Intel 486DX and Pentium; Motorola
PowerPC 821; NEC VR4101, VR4102, and VR4300; Philips PR31500; and Toshiba TX3912.
Additional members of these CPU families may also run Windows CE but have not yet been
certified in Microsoft test labs.
Future releases of Windows CE will support the DEC SA1100 StrongArm, IBM PPC 403GC(X) and
future Hitachi SuperH processors.
I don’t know what the connectivity implications are and am not aware of any
Macintosh connectivity solutions.
Q: One of the biggest difficulties with the Windows CE 1.0 release was the way it
handled PCMCIA cards. Data files associated with the applications can be backed up
to a PC Card, but the application cannot directly access data from a card. As data files
grow, the amount of memory available to run applications decreased. Has this been
addressed?
The ATA flash has disk drive software interface not a RAM interface. So accessing files
in flash is just like accessing files on disk, i.e., you read them into RAM in pieces
through I/O calls, not through memory addresses. The support in Version 2.0 is the same as
in Version 1.0. Microsoft will be researching ways to address this question in future
releases of Windows CE.
Q: A lot of new development tools have come out for Windows CE 2.0. How will Microsoft
support those tools and the developers that use them?
The robust development environment for Windows CE has been designed to take advantage
of the expertise that thousands of software developers already have with Windows-based
programming interfaces and tools, and guarantees the broad availability of after market
applications and custom business solutions.
Windows CE 2.0 now supports the following new Win32 services:
| Support for a subset of ActiveX Technologies included for processing COM functions and
building flexible software components. |
| Support for Visual Basic« programming system run time for Windows CE enables rapid
solutions development. |
| Support for Javatm virtual machine is based on JDK 1.1. |
| The familiar Win32« API programming model and recently expanded choice of development
tools including Microsoft Windows CE Embedded Toolkit for the Visual C++« 5.0, Windows CE
Toolkit for Visual C++ 5.0, Windows CE Toolkit for Visual Basic 5.0 and Windows CE Toolkit
for Visual J++tm 1.1. |
Q: Will a Pocket version of Access be coming?
Microsoft has no announced plans for a Pocket version of Microsoft Access.
Q: What is the future of Windows CE? What improvements and new Pocket applications are
Microsoft working on?
Microsoft is always looking for customers to provide feedback so we can improve our
software. After the release of v2.0 for the Handheld PC, we will evaluate and make
decisions about what future additions and improvements to the Handheld PC and Windows CE
2.0 are the most appropriate. We have no announcements to make at this time, however.
About the Interviewee:
Roger Gulrajani is mobile electronics group product manager for Microsoft's Consumer
Appliance Group, and is responsible for marketing PC Companion devices powered by the
Windows CE operating system Prior to joining Microsoft, Gulrajani was VP of Marketing for
MediaLink Technologies. Prior to that he was VP of Marketing of Numera Software. Gulrajani
started his career at Aldus Corporation as director of Sales and Marketing.
|
