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C++ on Pocket PC?

Posted by Cliff on from the taking-your-code-with-you dept.

hoibbes asks: "I was wondering if anyone knew of a C++ program for my Pocket PC. Now, I know that I will probably get quite a few replies saying Embedded Visual C++, and while they would be right, that is not what I am looking for. I am looking for a program that will let me write C++ code on my Pocket PC. So that while I am away on a trip I can still work on my code. I have been searching for a while now and have come up with nothing. I come to ask the help of Slashdot in a final attempt to find what I need."

16 comments

  1. Step away from the code! by jpsst34 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Look, you're going on a trip. Leave the pocket PC and the C++ code behind. Go to your nearest bike shop and pick up a shiny new Kona NuNu for about $650 US and go hit the singletrack. It will do you some good. Remember, there is life outside of your pocket PC. Trust me, this is the best advice you can recieve, lest you look back in 40 years and see that you spent your life doing anything but living.

    --
    How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
    1. Re:Step away from the code! by Lord+Omlette · · Score: 1
      $650
      *sob*
      --
      [o]_O
  2. Is this what you are looking for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This might be helpful.

  3. Well... by Descartes · · Score: 1

    I'm not sure I understand the problem. If you just want to write code, might I suggest the text editor that came with your PocketPC. Seriously though, you should install linux on it and just use gcc. Am I missing something here, 'cause this seems like a "no brainer".

    1. Re:Well... by jhunsake · · Score: 1

      This askslashdot is such an obvious troll, I can't believe the editors posted it!

  4. I can relate by GCP · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I like to write code for fun as well as profit. And a lot of people don't see the fun.

    People wouldn't give you any flack if you wanted to write music or poetry or draw, or even numb your brain with a game of solitaire, but they'll see writing code as "working" (heavens!) instead of as doing something creative in an interesting medium, and think that makes you pretty weird.

    If it does, at least you're not alone.

    I will say, though, that I don't find writing C++ to be much fun compared to something like Lisp. The creativity I feel when writing code is degraded, not heightened, when I have to take care of menial chores like memory management. I wouldn't want to write C++ on a small device, either, because it requires so much source code to say anything, and then you have to juggle header files, and root around in a debugger to see what damage your C operations are doing to memory, etc. You need a lot of those things in front of you simultaneously to be productive.

    I think that C++ on a pocket device wouldn't be worth doing (until we have full retinal scan displays), so I don't expect you to find much, but as .Net grows, you may eventually have access to things like Scheme or Python that run interactively on the device and do some pretty fun things.

    --
    "Those who have never entered upon scientific pursuits know not a tithe of the poetry by which they are surrounded."
    1. Re:I can relate by jpsst34 · · Score: 1

      I know that I'm the one with the first post to this article about buying a Kona Nunu, but I agree that there can be fun in coding. But I am also an advocate of not spending too much time on any one thing. Now, on to a more direct response...

      "I will say, though, that I don't find writing C++ to be much fun compared to something like Lisp. The creativity I feel when writing code is degraded, not heightened, when I have to take care of menial chores like memory management"

      OK, the only Lisp experience I have is from an AI course in college, but isn't taking care of all those damn parentheses a menial chore? Personally, I like wrtiting web stuff in PHP. It makes stuff like setting up a DB connection and doing something with it so trivial that you don't have to concern yourself with it. It leaves you with tons of time to do all sorts of cool stuff with you easily opened connection. For non web stuff, at the risk of running into flameland, I like writing apps with Java. The 1.4 jdk offers a huge advancement in speed, and the swing set offers better handling of the windows AI than the microsoft languages. And it's portable!

      That's all I got. It's Friday night and I'm posting to /., after telling the submitter to go out and have fun. Shame on me. Off to dream about the Kona NuNu that I want...

      --
      How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
  5. Another option... by Judebert · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    While I can't say much about C++ on the PowerPC, I did just purchase a Sharp Zaurus ($200 refurb at TigerDirect, sometimes cheaper at other places). It can handle an install of gcc 2.95.1, so it would be capable of the coding you desire.

    --

    For geek dads: Contraction Timer

    1. Re:Another option... by Glonoinha · · Score: 1

      >Democracy is failing because you can't write an informed, active voting public into a constitution.

      I tried hard to resist ... but look into what the founding fathers mandated as their intended voting subset of the American public - and you will see why it worked so great back then and not so great now.

      As for the real topic ... it sounds to me not that you want to write code on your PocketPC, but that you want to -compile- and -debug- C++ code on your PocketPC. If you just want to write C++ code on the handheld use the handheld text editor. Sucks to write code and not know which line has the syntax error, so I am guessing you want to compile the code while you are at it.

      Question : Are you writing pretty standard C++ code or are you using MFC and all the aftermarket stuff Microsoft saddled VC++ with in order to do anything that interacts with the OS?

      I am guessing there is a C compiler out there for your machine, hell I found one for the C=64 when I was in college so you will probably find something.

      Finding a way to let you compile and run MFC apps on your PPC - now that is a different story altogether.

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
    2. Re:Another option... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      but look into what the founding fathers mandated as their intended voting subset of the American public - and you will see why it worked so great back then and not so great now.

      But MTV said my knowledge of pop music was enough to not only validate my right to vote, but in fact to rock the vote! Take that, history!

  6. Do you want a compiler or an editor? by embobo · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm not sure what you mean by "program."

    However, you may wish to go PocketPC's Open Source Portal. There you can get gcc (which includes g++ I suspect) or vim.

  7. Its called by arcadum · · Score: 0

    Get a laptop

    1. Re:Its called by Glonoinha · · Score: 2, Informative

      Poor Arcadum got b!tchslapped a little too quick, methinks. Actually given that the writer is going to be doing coding that he expects to compile and run on a PocketPC - odds that it will easily run on laptop hardware that is three or four generations old.

      Heck I have a Dell Latitude CPiA with a PII/366 CPU, 256M of RAM, 20G of drive space, 802.11b, a PCMCIA 10BaseT NIC and Modem, a 13" active matrix screen, and the whole thing weighs like 6lbs (3kg). Maybe with power adapter and nylon case it is 10lbs total, and cheap. Maybe $400 on the high end, cheaper than a nice new PocketPC. Running Windows 2000 Professional and Visual Studio 6.0 with all the other advantages of a desktop (nice full size keyboard, full size 1024x768 display, use a nice external mouse, run the code, compile at a reasonable speed, run Linux if that is your thing ...

      If the original guy is going to be travelling by bicycle then it may not fit his travel plans, but if he is travelling by car or commercial travel (plane, train, etc...) then an older laptop wouldn't be that much bigger or more expensive than a Handheld, and would offer a LOT more functionality.

      --
      Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
  8. I suggest this... by BurKaZoiD · · Score: 1

    It makes stuff ... so trivial that you don't have to concern yourself with it

    I suggest using the .Net compact framework & C#! OOP complex enough to make you happy, but clean enough and no memory management issues to make quick work of just about anything.

    --


    Spread the RC luvin'
    1. Re:I suggest this... by jpsst34 · · Score: 1

      What if I were serving up my active pages from apache and don't have an IIS server?

      --
      How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
  9. ummm by geekoid · · Score: 1

    Any text editor will due.
    If you want to compile. you're probably out of luck.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect