Visual Basic —

Win32 API

Microsoft estimates that there are some 4.76 million professional developers worldwide, a large number of which currently program Win32 using languages such as Visual C++ or Visual Basic. Of this number, it is estimated that around 300,000 are embedded developers (developers who write software to control hardware devices). For this reason, basing Windows CE on the Win32 API provides a sound foundation from which to build. Don't be fooled, though; if there were not such a large user base, it is feasible that Windows CE might have been based on some other API. With a development team of around 700 on Windows CE alone, Microsoft is more than capable of achieving this!

The API set for Windows CE is very much scaled down from the desktop and server operating systems. Whereas Windows NT has around 10,000 API routines, Windows CE has a mere 1200. This isn't a bad thing, because the new versions are highly optimized and the duplicated functions that exist in the Windows NT/9x operating systems have been removed. If you will be porting from an existing application to Windows CE and you use Win32 API calls in your code, I hope you will have converted to the newer calls. For example, where a function Foo and FooEx exists you should be using the newer FooEx version. If you haven't then never mind, the conversion should not be too painful, although you will need to convert because the older routines do not exist in Windows CE.

The subset of API calls should be sufficient for most tasks. Remember that Windows CE has been built with a "ground-up" approach, so the immediate requirements have been dealt with first. As the operating system's development progresses, new calls will be added as required by users.

The Object Store within Windows CE

The object store is the collective name for the data storage elements within the Windows CE operating system. On the HPC, physical RAM is divided into application memory space and emulated disk space. The disk portion of RAM is where the object store resides. The object store is home for such items as the Registry, Windows CE databases, user files, and applications. Applications that are built into the operating system core are actually held in ROM and cannot be accessed using the object store API calls. A default Registry is also stored in ROM and therefore it, too, cannot be accessed using the API.

An important feature within the Windows CE object store is its transaction mechanism. Microsoft stipulates that if for any reason data cannot be written to the object store, the whole operation will be canceled. This mechanism works on a record level-for example, if you are writing 10 records to a database and a power loss occurs during record 8, records 1 to 7 will have been saved, but no fields in record 8 will be. This applies to the Registry and file system in the same way.

The object store comprises three elements: the database, the Registry, and the file system. These are explained in the following sections.