Mobile Applications

[ruaVB2?]

I've recently discovered Appforge's MobileVB ( www.appforge.com ). It's an addin to VB allowing you to write apps and compile them for mobile devices like a Palm OS or Win CE for example. Is there another method (freeware, shareware) allowing us to compile without having to shell out hundreds of hard earned dollars? By the way I don't code in C but rather in VB. I'll learn C if I gotta.

Wouldn't coding for mobile devices be the next category in VB Forums?

[si_the_geek]

You can use several development environments/languages to develop for mobile devices.

If you dont want to pay for the IDE then that limits you somewhat, but you still have several options. If you want to use VB (unless there are other options like MobileVB that I havent seen yet) then your only option is Microsoft.

I think there is a free version of VB.Net for mobile devices, but it will only work with Windows CE/Pocket PC devices. I would recommend visiting www.msdn.microsoft.com for more info, as I havent actually used it.


As for adding a category to the forum: it would be nice, but there are nowhere near enough posts for it (there have only been a few since I got a PDA about 5 months ago).

[ruaVB2?]

Thanks for your response to an inquiring mind. I'm going to look into Palm SDK ( http://www.palmos.com/cgi-bin/sdk40.cgi ) and see what kind of progs can be created.

Just a quick unrelated note that I thought you might like to know, I use MZ Tools and I love it.

[Sgt-Peppa]

Originally posted by si_the_geek
...(unless there are other options like MobileVB that I havent seen yet) ...

I think it is called eMbedded Visual Basic

Stephan

[si_the_geek]

Originally posted by Sgt-Peppa
I think it is called eMbedded Visual Basic

Stephan

yep, that is one of the Microsoft options (I'm not sure if it costs anything)

I use MZ Tools and I love it

same here, I wouldn't work without it

[dragon4spy]

AppForge cost about $900 for a all-in-one. You can write a program and distribute it to most mobile markets, such as nokia phones, sony ericsson phones, palm pc, and smart phones. Microsoft supports only its smart phone, pocket pc, so they would only stick with their product.

Inconclusion, It depends on you, if you want your app to run on most mobile devices, then AppForge is the best choice.

Though, you can do it in vb with appforge, you are limited what appforge give you to do with vb. I think, c/c++ would help to push the limit. For me, i am try to learn c/c++ too, so let's learn together if you like.

[ruaVB2?]

limited what appforge give you to do with vb

Got that right! They don't support certain functions like VAL or SPLIT. They also lack an emulator to test the app. It's only when you try to compile the exe that you find out that what ran OK in VB environment won't work in AppForge. Supported funtions are in the readme . . . but who reads a readme?

[Shaggy Hiker]

There are two Microsoft options, and they both suck to one degree or another. I have tried to write the same thing in both, and found interesting problems with both.

If you use eMbedded VB, you get a stand-alone IDE that looks much like VB6. However, the flavor of VB is VBScript, which has several drawbacks and limitations. There are a few emulators that you can use, but the emulators are not perfect emulations, so anything that works well on the emulator may not work at all on the real device. I eventually stopped using this when I encountered an emulator problem that may not have occured had I used the physical device to test the program. However, I called MS, and they told me to use .NET instead, which was fine with me at the time.

Thus I boldly went to .NET with the expectation that I'd get a full-fleged language integrated into VS.NET. I expected the emulator to work better, and I expected the language not to have the shortcomings of VBScript. I was right on both counts, but .NET adds some shortcomings I hadn't anticipated.

.NET requires the runtime to be installed on the target machine. Since the runtime is pretty big, to get it onto a PDA, a new, smaller, version called the "compact framework" was created. If the features you need are included in this reduced feature set, you have an excellent IDE with a good language. Unfortunately, some valuable features are left out of the feature set. The one that killed me was that you can't change backcolor for buttons. Buttons are fine, as long as you want gray. There are a few PDA programs that use gray, but not many. On a touchscreen, being able to give the user feedback is even more important than on a normal screen, but one of the most powerful forms of feedback is denied.

In the end, I shelved the project, though I expect to get back to it if I can find an API method for altering button color.

[king_scott_2]

I would LOVE a section on developing software for the PALM. As long as it had a tutorial on it recommending where to start

p.s I saw appforge avaliable to download of some user on kazaa. I woulden't recomend kazaa though, you never know what your getting (just assuming by the name of the app )

[Shaggy Hiker]

I was under the impression that the AppForge code wasn't prohibitively expensive.

I would like to see and read more on Palm PC development, especially with the new .NET compact framework, but I'm not sure that there would be many posts in such a forum.

[king_scott_2]

I found something.

I found a program for myself and I remembered you when I found it. It's compiler and environment is kind of set out like visual c++ but you can't run the applications to test it unless you have the palm emulator (with the rom file) or a Palm connected to your computer. It is a basic language (a LOT like VB) This is a free full version but I am told that a message will pop up every time you run the compiled program telling your to regester (about 900 dollers or something like that) But it still works (full version and everything) without paying.

It is called handheld basic (HB++)

Sorry, but I can't remember the website (Search google for HB++)

p.s If you have a palm can you please give me the ROM file from it. I really really need it.

[CornedBee]

Distributing the ROM of a Palm is illegal, so you might want to watch what you're saying

Java Micro Edition runs on various PDAs, though I don't know which.

The Palm SDK is for writing C apps for the Palm. It's just a few tools, no IDE, so you need a programmer's text editor like jEdit to work effectivly. Metroworks has a version of CodeWarrior for Palm development.
But these apps are Palm-only.