Windows mobile programming

Windows Mobile Programming
L. Ramkumar PhD
Vision Technologies (HP Education)

• Windows Mobile is a mobile operating system
developed by Microsoft that was used in
smartphones and mobile devices, but is being
currently phased out to specialized markets.

Basic4ppc
• Basic4ppc is a programming language
designed for mobile applications
development.
• With Basic4ppc you can develop programs
directly on the Pocket PC / Window Mobile or
on the desktop.

• Basic4ppc includes a full featured Visual
Designer.
• Basic4ppc applications can be compiled to
native executable (EXE files) without any
additional runtimes.

• Basic4ppc supports: Windows CE 5.0,
Windows CE 6.0, Windows Mobile 2003,
Windows Mobile 5.0, Windows Mobile 6.0,
Windows Mobile 6.1 and Windows Mobile
6.5. Basic4ppc supports both touch screen
devices and non-touch screen devices (the
device IDE is only supported on touch screen
devices).

Basic4ppc v6.90 introduces the
following new features:
• Local variables can be declared with a specific
type. Declaring numeric variables significantly
boosts the performance of numeric calculations.
• Subs parameters types and subs return type can
also be declared.
• New types: Number and Integer. Correspond to
.Net Double and Int32.
• Subs parameters can be passed by reference
(ByRef). This can be used to return several values
from a sub.

• Improved syntax for working with dynamic objects and dynamic
controls. Instead of writing Control(ControlName, ControlType), it is
now possible to write ControlType(ControlName). The desktop IDE
fully supports the new syntax with autocomplete and with the usual
popup menu.
• Desktop forms size and layout is more accurate now.
• Scroll bar indicators. The desktop IDE now shows useful indicators
above the vertical scroll bar that helps with the code navigation.
• FileFlush keyword. Writes any cached data to the file.
• SQL library was updated to SQLite 3.6.16.
• More clear error messages for many common mistakes.

Modules
• Basic4ppc projects are made of one main file,
with the extension "sbp" and any number of
modules files, with the extension "bas".
• The main file holds the main module.
• A module can include code, forms and
controls and objects.

Subs
• All program code (including global variables
definitions) is written inside Subs.
• Subs declaration starts with [Public|Private]
Sub SubName (Parameters) [As ReturnType]
and ends with End Sub.

Variables
• Variables can be either global or sub local.
• Local variables value can be used only while
their parent sub is executing.
• Global variables’ values can be used
everywhere.
• Global variables are variables that were
declared (or used) in Sub Globals; all other
variables are local.

Sub Globals
a=20
End Sub
Sub App_Start
b=10
CalcVars
End Sub
Sub CalcVars
Msgbox ("a = " & a)
Msgbox ("b = " & b)
End Sub
Result:
First msgbox will show
a = 20
Second msgbox will
show b =
b is empty because it's
local and wasn't
assigned any value yet
in this sub.

Array
• Sub Globals
• Dim Books (20)
• Dim Buffer (100) As Byte
• End Sub

Structure Variables
• Structures are variables with customized
fields.
• Using structures the code can be clearer and
better organized.
• Structures must be declared in Sub Globals

Sub Globals
Dim Type(Name, ID, Age) person
End Sub
Sub App_Start
person.Name = "John"
person.ID = 1234567
person.Age = 30
End Sub

Controls
• Controls in Basic4ppc are global objects,
which means that each control has a unique
name

Operators
• Basic4ppc supports the following operators:
+,-,*,/ Basic math operators
^ Power sign
mod Modulus operator
& String concatenation
' Remarks (REM is not supported)
• The underscore character ( _ ) is used as a line continuation
character.
• Long lines could be broken to shorter lines by putting an
underscore at the end of each line (except of the last one).

Conditions
• The simple conditions can be combined into a
more complex condition using the logical
operators and using parenthesis.
• Conditions are "short-circuit" conditions.
Which means that the expressions will only be
evaluated if they can affect the result.
For example: If StrLength(TextBox1.Text) > 4 AND
StrAt(TextBox1.Text,4) = "a" Then msgbox(true).

Data Types
Name Description Range
Byte 8-bit unsigned integer 0 - 255
Int16 16-bit signed integer -32768 - 32767
Int32 32-bit signed integer -2,147,483,648 -
2,147,483,647
Int64 64-bit signer integer -9e18 - 9e18
Single 32-bit floating point -3.4e38 - 3.4e38
Double 64-bit floating point -1.79e308 - 1.79e308
Boolean 8-bit boolean value True, False
Decimal 96-bit integer value -79e27 - 79e27
Char A Unicode character
String

External Libraries and Objects
• As of version 4.00 Basic4ppc supports working
with external libraries.
• The external libraries are dll files which
include all kinds of new
functionality.

Code Files
• Basic4ppc supports separating the code into
several files.
• A project must include one main sbp file. The
other files are regular text files.
• Breaking the code into several files can be
handy when building large applications, or
when there is a need to write different code
for the desktop and the device.

Menu Editor
• The menu editor allows you to add menu
items to a form.
• Reaching the menu editor is done through the
Visual Designer - Controls - Menu Editor.

Visual Designer
• The Visual Designer
allows you to build
your GUI with little
effort.
• To open the
Designer, choose
Menu - Design -
Create New Form
(or one of the
already created
forms, if any).

Compiling
• Compiled files can target Windows EXE
(desktop), Device EXE (Pocket PC / Windows
Mobile) and Smartphone EXE (Windows
Mobile Smartphones).

Smartphone Applications
• The difference between a Smartphone device and a regular mobile
device is that Smartphones do not have a touch screen.
• Some controls are not useful without a touch screen and therefore
are not supported (OS limitation).
• The following controls are not supported:
• · Button
• · Calendar
• · ImageButton
• · ListBox
• · NumUpDown
• · RadioBtn
• · SaveDialog

Screen Size and Resolution
• As different devices have different screen sizes
and different resolutions, creating an
application that runs fine on all devices is not
a simple task.
• The most common screen sizes are:
QVGA - 240 * 320, dpi: 96 * 96
VGA - 480 * 640, dpi: 192 * 192

Unicode
• Basic4ppc supports Unicode formatted as
UTF-8.
• When working with a non-ASCII file make sure
to save it as UTF-8.

Database
• Database applications use the Table control.
• The Table control stores data in rows (records).
• If you do not want to show the table directly,
then change its Visible property to false and use
the table only to access the data.
• Each row consists of several columns.
• Rows are accessed by their index (starting from 0)
and columns are accessed by there names.

Demo
• Trail Version Available @ www. Basic4ppc.com
• MyMobiler – to show the mobile display in PC
• ActiveSync – to transfer files between your pc
and windows mobile.

Windows mobile programming

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