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Technical Comparison Of Windows CE vs. PalmOS?

Posted by Cliff on from the advantages-and-disadvantages dept.

caprio asks: "I work for a software company in Illinois. We want to port our current application, which is a EMS Data Collection tool, to the PDA scene. It is a Visual Basic program (COM, ADO, the works..) It would involve collecting data at the scene of the accident, then uploading it to the server back at the station. A complete re-write is not out of the question. So my question is this, can anyone give me a good, technical comparison between Windows CE and the PalmOS? We are leaning towards Windows CE becasue the machines are beefer. But I also hear that cable connection is better on the Palm. Anyone with some tips or suggestions?"

2 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. WinCE vs PalmOS by Betcour · · Score: 4

    Well, Windows CE is more like a full OS, complete with almost everything you can find in the deskstop Windows : installer/desintaller, TCP-IP networking with dial-up wizard, bunch of dll's, desktop wallpaper or a lightweight DirectX. PalmOS is a pure handheld OS made for handhelds and handhelds only : there's the bare minimum of services and code.

    Both OS have merits, but for a developper Windows CE is clearly better, because it uses a subset of the Win32 API and have most services you expect to find in an regular OS. Also, Pocket PC PDAs have larger screens (240x320 pixels and 12 or 16 bits per pixel) while Palm devices have a tiny one (160x160 in gray scale or 256 color). PocketPC have MUCH beefier CPUs, sound, easy connectivity through Ethernet or Modem cards, mass-storage availability (Flash cards or Microdrive, etc...).

    Another BIG advantage of Windows CE : Microsoft is giving away the full SDK AND Visual C++ AND Visual Basic for Windows CE (not just the add-on, the full complete apps with cross-compiler and all !). If your app already exists as a Visual Basic program, then it will mike porting easier than rewriting from scratch for PalmOS, un C and with a totally different API.

    Overall Palm devices are nice calender/todo/agenda/etc. but they just don't cut it if you want desktop functionnalities.

    1. Re:WinCE vs PalmOS by dutky · · Score: 5
      Windows CE is more like a full OS, complete with almost everything you can find in the deskstop Windows : installer/desintaller, TCP-IP networking with dial-up wizard, bunch of dll's, desktop wallpaper or a lightweight DirectX.

      Which is wonderfull if you want a comfortable desktop/development platform, but next to useless in a handheld/embedded setting.

      PalmOS is a pure handheld OS made for handhelds and handhelds only : there's the bare minimum of services and code.

      Which is really nice if you want to deploy it on a slimmed down compuuting platform designed to fit in someones shirt pocket and run for weeks on a couple of AA batteries, but sucks some (but not nearly all or even most) other computing tasks.

      for a developper Windows CE is clearly better, because it uses a subset of the Win32 API

      Ah, this must be some new usage of the word better to which I have been hitherto unaware!

      Pocket PC PDAs have larger screens (240x320 pixels and 12 or 16 bits per pixel) while Palm devices have a tiny one (160x160 in gray scale or 256 color). PocketPC have MUCH beefier CPUs, sound, easy connectivity through Ethernet or Modem cards, mass-storage availability (Flash cards or Microdrive, etc...)

      None of which are features of the OS, and, hence, are irrelevant to the question that was asked.

      Microsoft is giving away the full SDK AND Visual C++ AND Visual Basic for Windows CE (not just the add-on, the full complete apps with cross-compiler and all !).

      Or you could use the GCC cross-compiler tools for PalmOS, which are also free and run on some of the most successfull and program friendly computing environments ever written.

      If your app already exists as a Visual Basic program, then it will mike porting easier than rewriting from scratch for PalmOS, un C and with a totally different API.

      Of course, you will have to rewrite the program anyway, since the assumptions you made about the human interface will likely be completely different in a handheld device that it was for the desktop systems you orriginally wrote the program for.

      Overall Palm devices are nice calender/todo/agenda/etc. but they just don't cut it if you want desktop functionnalities.

      Which begs the question: why are you targeting a handheld device if what you really want is a desktop?