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WindowsCE.[Essential Windows CE Application Programming].Jon Wiley & Son.zip

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<B>Essential Windows CE Application Programming</B>
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<I>(Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.)</I>
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Author(s): Robert Burdick
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ISBN: 0471327476
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Publication Date: 03/01/99
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<H2 ALIGN="CENTER"><FONT COLOR="#000077"><I>Part Three<BR>Windows CE User Interface Programming
</I></FONT></H2>
<P><BIG><BIG>M</BIG></BIG>icrosoft has big plans for Windows CE. The company hopes to make Windows CE become for consumer electronics what Windows 98 and Windows NT have become for personal computers. The Microsoft vision puts Windows CE on everything from handheld computing devices to Internet-enabled telephones. Although you shouldn&#146;t exactly count on (let alone want) Windows CE to toast your bread in the morning, you can expect a growing number of consumer electronics companies to market devices driven by the Windows CE operating system.</P>
<P>Many have compared this phase of the technology revolution to the introduction of the first personal computers. To their way of thinking, the growth of handheld and mobile computing devices and the introduction of new sophisticated consumer devices is the next &#147;paradigm shift&#148; the computer industry has been waiting for.</P>
<P>Along with this wave of innovation in product and software design has come the usual army of designers. These are the folks that are tasked by companies to design the user interfaces for next generation products.</P>
<P>Using such nontechnical personnel who are dedicated exclusively to designing the look and feel of Windows CE applications is usually justifiable. Someone needs to constantly be interacting with a product&#146;s potential user community to try and figure out what consumers want from a particular Windows CE device or application.</P>
<P>A second argument usually given for hiring user interface designers goes something like this: Since many companies are designing devices intended for a consumer audience (a polite way of saying non-PC-savvy users), this new breed of Windows CE-based devices must first and foremost <I>not look like PCs</I>.</P>
<P>This is generally woefully interpreted to mean, &#147;make the user interface look as different from the traditional Windows user interface as possible.&#148; Unfortunately, this often leads companies to release products with user interfaces that make their products <I>more difficult to use than the PC</I>.</P>
<P>While many visual improvements on the standard Windows CE interface components are indeed useful in order to more clearly convey the meaning of various user interface elements, many Windows CE user interfaces end up just as cluttered, busy, and confusing as the desktop applications they were meant to improve upon.</P>
<P>Furthermore, those improvements often come at enormous software development cost. One of the largest mistakes being made today by companies pursuing their fortunes through Windows CE is to adamantly insist that the wishes and visions of interface design teams be realized at any cost.</P>
<P>Windows CE is nothing more than a big piece of software. Like any piece of software, there are things Windows CE can do and things it can&#146;t. There are things it can do easily, and things it can be made to do with lots and lots of ugly application code. Of all the people in your organization, no one understands the strengths and limitations of Windows CE better than your software engineering staff.</P>
<P>Part III of this book focuses on the vast subject of implementing Windows CE user interfaces and controls that look different from the standard Windows CE model. The focus will be on features provided by Windows CE that allow application programmers to customize the look and feel of the various parts of a user interface. Like all the other chapters in this book, the chapters in this section are primarily intended for Windows CE software developers.</P>
<P>However, if there is one part of this book that I recommend be read by project management, application developers, and user interface designers alike, it is this one. If your entire organization understands the limits and abilities of Windows CE, more realistic user interface designs and more realistic development schedules will result. This ultimately means that you will do what so few companies so far have done: release a Windows CE&#150;based product into the marketplace.</P>
<P>A final word, and then it&#146;s off the soapbox and back into programming: If you are in charge of a Windows CE development project, involve your software engineers in the user interface design process from day one. And heed their words if they say certain things can&#146;t be done; what they generally mean is that they can&#146;t be done before your competition begins shipping.</P>
<H3><A NAME="Heading1"></A><FONT COLOR="#000077">What We Will Learn</FONT></H3>
<P>In the following chapters, we will cover the following Windows CE features for implementing a custom user interface. The order in which they are presented follows the progression of simplest feature to most complex. The features covered are:
</P>
<DL>
<DD><B>&#149;</B>&nbsp;&nbsp;Owner draw controls
<DD><B>&#149;</B>&nbsp;&nbsp;Customizing the application&#146;s main window class
<DD><B>&#149;</B>&nbsp;&nbsp;The Windows CE custom draw service
<DD><B>&#149;</B>&nbsp;&nbsp;Implementing custom controls
<DD><B>&#149;</B>&nbsp;&nbsp;Window subclassing
</DL>
<P>This section also includes chapters on programming the Windows CE HTML Viewer control, and some of the Palm-size PC input techniques such as the rich ink control and the voice API.
</P>
<P>We begin in the next chapter with a discussion of owner draw control techniques. This discussion will focus on applying these techniques to owner draw buttons.</P><P><BR></P>
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