GCC C/C++ Compiler Ported to WinCE

An anonymous reader writes "This interview at WindowsForDevices is with a young Russian programmer who earlier this year launched a project to port the open source GCC C/C++ compiler and supporting tools (library, manager, linker, etc.) to Windows CE and the Pocket PC platform. The result, according to Vitaliy Pronkin, the project's founder, is that it is now possible to develop applications directly on a Pocket PC PDA using the standard C/C++ programming language. Specifically, source code written in eVC (MFC isn't supported yet) can be built and then executed directly on the Pocket PC (or other Windows CE device) without conversion or additional runtimes. Find it, fix it, compile it, run it -- right on your Pocket PC!"

Comments

Open source for CE

[chochos]

Hopefully this will open the door for porting and developing many open source applications on CE. It would be interesting to see an open IDE, maybe an eclipse plug-in or something.

Ick.

[Piquan]

I tried writing C on my Palm (which has had a natively hosted compiler for years). It was not fun at all. Same goes for the more lightweight languages, Scheme and Forth, even though they were better.

I think I'll stick with a dev platform.

Re:Ick.

[great throwdini]

Yes, it'd suck ass to write just about any code on a Palm, especially an older one, 160x160 screen and Graffiti. But, there are WinCE devices out there with very good keyboards.

Why anyone would contemplate writing any large amount of code directly on any of the above-named devices is beyond me, integrated keypad or no. Writing a little Forth now and then on a Palm device (with stylus even!) isn't too bad, but again, we're talking small pieces of program logic.

OTOH, one can always write the programs on a less-mobile device like a desktop and sync the files over to the portable, or, in the case of the "older Palms" specifically, from day one (or at least the Palm III line) there have been folding travel keyboards available for use.

The one thing the Zaurus could do WinCE couldn't..

[RevAaron]

When people cheerlead for the Zaurus, and I made a reply pointing out that all of those things can be done on the Zaurus, the one thing that I couldn't come back that WinCE did as well with was a C compiler. All of the other stuff- SSH, VNC, writing code, etc- can be done on WinCE, and in some cases is actually done better on WinCE than it is on the Zaurus. For instance, writing, compiling and viewing LaTeX docs- it's easy to do on WinCE, with a decent app that integrates it all, but on the Zaurus, you're stuck with a lot of configuring and writing code in vi rather than integrating with the Qtopia environment. Eww.

Someone did a port of GCC to MIPS/WinCE a while back, but since everyone is using ARM processors now a days, that was pretty useless. NOt sure of the usefulness of this project, but certainly someone will get something out of it!

I for one do a fair amount of coding all on the WinCE device, never needing to get a desktop to intervene. No, I don't have a Windows desktop. Smalltalk, Python, Java, Perl/tk and a number of other languages are all available on WinCE- meaning you can do development without a Windows desktop or MS SDK.

Re:But....

[RevAaron]

Umm, I doubt a POS port of GCC will be possible until at least POS 6. Unless someone wrote a new C compiler and just happened to also call it "GCC," there's about zilch chance of GCC ending up on POS. The OS is primitive, whereas WinCE and Linux for the PDA (both with gcc ports) are "real" OSes in most senses of the word. Make jokes about WinCE as you may, but it has real multitasking, decent memory management, etc. Can you imagine doing a port og GCC that manages to confine itself to the 64KB (in POS 5.2; older POS confined to 32KB!) chunk of continuous RAM that POS limits its apps to? Or how slow GCC would be if someone write a memory management compat library for POS (why hasn't anyone?) that emulated grabbing larger chunks of RAM by getting them all in 64KB chunks and shuffling it all? Molasses, man, molasses.

Re:But....

[Josh Booth]

Is your calling Palm OS "POS" as in Piece Of Sh*t intentional or just because you needed an acronym?

+1 Funny if the former, +1 Informative if the latter.

Seems to me ...

[torpor]

... that there is a huge market here, for a *smart* PalmOS-based development tool.

You may not want to write C code (lord, I would default to (void *) for everything!) but I'm sure there are ways to approach PalmOS application-development in a "PalmOS GUI"-like manner...

It seems to me that a good test of a GUI system is how well that GUI system supports continued development of apps for that system ... well, s/GUI/user interface/ ... I mean, for text-mode user interface style interaction, a text-based programming language and development environment is appropriate.

But for a pen/graffiti/limited text entry capabilities/bitmap style interface ... what 'language' (should language even be used?) or development environment would work best?

For PalmOS, I'd love to see a drag 'n drop-style editor environment (like Delphi...) with a very smart 'scripting language', the basics of which are described in PalmOS-GUI metaphors ... making development *on* PalmOS the priority.

I'd pay for that, if it existed, as a developer, especially if it gave me the ability to do graphics fairly easily ...

Perhaps some of the FLASH-based Flash development environments would work? My Clie can play Flash now ... I should check into that.

Re:But....

[Trillan]

Woah, you're really off here.

Palm OS hasn't been limited to 64k blocks for several years now EXCEPT for resources. Palm OS 3.5 and later all support large allocations.