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1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
2 %% Name: wxmsw.tex
3 %% Purpose: wxMSW and wxWinCE platform specific informations
4 %% Author: wxWidgets Team
5 %% Modified by:
6 %% Created:
7 %% RCS-ID: $Id$
8 %% Copyright: (c) wxWidgets Team
9 %% License: wxWindows license
10 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
11
12 \section{wxMSW port}\label{wxmswport}
13
14 wxMSW is a port of wxWidgets for the Windows platforms
15 including Windows 95, 98, ME, 2000, NT, XP in ANSI and
16 Unicode mode (for Windows 95 through the MSLU extension
17 library). wxMSW ensures native look and feel for XP
18 as well when using wxWidgets version 2.3.3 or higher.
19 wxMSW can be compile with a great variety of compilers
20 including MS VC++, Borland 5.5, MinGW32, Cygwin and
21 Watcom as well as cross-compilation with a Linux hosted
22 MinGW32 tool chain.
23
24 For further information, please see the files in docs/msw
25 in the distribution.
26
27 \subsection{wxWinCE}\label{wxwince}
28
29 wxWinCE is the name given to wxMSW when compiled on Windows CE devices;
30 most of wxMSW is common to Win32 and Windows CE but there are
31 some simplifications, enhancements, and differences in
32 behaviour.
33
34 For building instructions, see docs/msw/wince in the
35 distribution, also the section about Visual Studio 2005 project
36 files below. The rest of this section documents issues you
37 need to be aware of when programming for Windows CE devices.
38
39 \subsubsection{General issues for wxWinCE programming}
40
41 Mobile applications generally have fewer features and
42 simpler user interfaces. Simply omit whole sizers, static
43 lines and controls in your dialogs, and use comboboxes instead
44 of listboxes where appropriate. You also need to reduce
45 the amount of spacing used by sizers, for which you can
46 use a macro such as this:
47
48 \begin{verbatim}
49 #if defined(__WXWINCE__)
50 #define wxLARGESMALL(large,small) small
51 #else
52 #define wxLARGESMALL(large,small) large
53 #endif
54
55 // Usage
56 topsizer->Add( CreateTextSizer( message ), 0, wxALL, wxLARGESMALL(10,0) );
57 \end{verbatim}
58
59 There is only ever one instance of a Windows CE application running,
60 and wxWidgets will take care of showing the current instance and
61 shutting down the second instance if necessary.
62
63 You can test the return value of wxSystemSettings::GetScreenType()
64 for a qualitative assessment of what kind of display is available,
65 or use wxGetDisplaySize() if you need more information.
66
67 You can also use wxGetOsVersion to test for a version of Windows CE at
68 run-time (see the next section). However, because different builds
69 are currently required to target different kinds of device, these
70 values are hard-wired according to the build, and you cannot
71 dynamically adapt the same executable for different major Windows CE
72 platforms. This would require a different approach to the way
73 wxWidgets adapts its behaviour (such as for menubars) to suit the
74 style of device.
75
76 See the "Life!" example (demos/life) for an example of
77 an application that has been tailored for PocketPC and Smartphone use.
78
79 {\bf Note:} don't forget to have this line in your .rc file, as for
80 desktop Windows applications:
81
82 \begin{verbatim}
83 #include "wx/msw/wx.rc"
84 \end{verbatim}
85
86 \subsubsection{Testing for WinCE SDKs}
87
88 Use these preprocessor symbols to test for the different types of device or SDK:
89
90 \begin{twocollist}\itemsep=0pt
91 \twocolitem{\_\_SMARTPHONE\_\_}{Generic mobile devices with phone buttons and a small display}
92 \twocolitem{\_\_PDA\_\_}{Generic mobile devices with no phone}
93 \twocolitem{\_\_HANDHELDPC\_\_}{Generic mobile device with a keyboard}
94 \twocolitem{\_\_WXWINCE\_\_}{Microsoft-powered Windows CE devices, whether PocketPC, Smartphone or Standard SDK}
95 \twocolitem{WIN32\_PLATFORM\_WFSP}{Microsoft-powered smartphone}
96 \twocolitem{\_\_POCKETPC\_\_}{Microsoft-powered PocketPC devices with touch-screen}
97 \twocolitem{\_\_WINCE\_STANDARDSDK\_\_}{Microsoft-powered Windows CE devices, for generic Windows CE applications}
98 \twocolitem{\_\_WINCE\_NET\_\_}{Microsoft-powered Windows CE .NET devices (\_WIN32\_WCE is 400 or greater)}
99 \end{twocollist}
100
101 wxGetOsVersion will return these values:
102
103 \begin{twocollist}\itemsep=0pt
104 \twocolitem{wxWINDOWS\_POCKETPC}{The application is running under PocketPC.}
105 \twocolitem{wxWINDOWS\_SMARTPHONE}{The application is running under Smartphone.}
106 \twocolitem{wxWINDOWS\_CE}{The application is running under Windows CE (built with the Standard SDK).}
107 \end{twocollist}
108
109 \subsubsection{Window sizing in wxWinCE}
110
111 Top level windows (dialogs, frames) are created always full-screen. Fit() of sizers will not rescale top
112 level windows but instead will scale window content.
113
114 If the screen orientation changes, the windows will automatically be resized
115 so no further action needs to be taken (unless you want to change the layout
116 according to the orientation, which you could detect in idle time, for example).
117 When input panel (SIP) is shown, top level windows (frames and dialogs) resize
118 accordingly (see \helpref{wxTopLevelWindow::HandleSettingChange}{wxtoplevelwindowhandlesettingchange}).
119
120 \subsubsection{Closing top-level windows in wxWinCE}
121
122 You won't get a wxCloseEvent when the user clicks on the X in the titlebar
123 on Smartphone and PocketPC; the window is simply hidden instead. However the system may send the
124 event to force the application to close down.
125
126 \subsubsection{Hibernation in wxWinCE}
127
128 Smartphone and PocketPC will send a wxEVT\_HIBERNATE to the application object in low
129 memory conditions. Your application should release memory and close dialogs,
130 and wake up again when the next wxEVT\_ACTIVATE or wxEVT\_ACTIVATE\_APP message is received.
131 (wxEVT\_ACTIVATE\_APP is generated whenever a wxEVT\_ACTIVATE event is received
132 in Smartphone and PocketPC, since these platforms do not support WM\_ACTIVATEAPP.)
133
134 \subsubsection{Hardware buttons in wxWinCE}
135
136 Special hardware buttons are sent to a window via the wxEVT\_HOTKEY event
137 under Smartphone and PocketPC. You should first register each required button with \helpref{wxWindow::RegisterHotKey}{wxwindowregisterhotkey},
138 and unregister the button when you're done with it. For example:
139
140 \begin{verbatim}
141 win->RegisterHotKey(0, wxMOD_WIN, WXK_SPECIAL1);
142 win->UnregisterHotKey(0);
143 \end{verbatim}
144
145 You may have to register the buttons in a wxEVT\_ACTIVATE event handler
146 since other applications will grab the buttons.
147
148 There is currently no method of finding out the names of the special
149 buttons or how many there are.
150
151 \subsubsection{Dialogs in wxWinCE}
152
153 PocketPC dialogs have an OK button on the caption, and so you should generally
154 not repeat an OK button on the dialog. You can add a Cancel button if necessary, but some dialogs
155 simply don't offer you the choice (the guidelines recommend you offer an Undo facility
156 to make up for it). When the user clicks on the OK button, your dialog will receive
157 a wxID\_OK event by default. If you wish to change this, call \helpref{wxDialog::SetAffirmativeId}{wxdialogsetaffirmativeid}
158 with the required identifier to be used. Or, override \helpref{wxDialog::DoOK}{wxdialogdook} (return false to
159 have wxWidgets simply call Close to dismiss the dialog).
160
161 Smartphone dialogs do {\it not} have an OK button on the caption, and are closed
162 using one of the two menu buttons. You need to assign these using \helpref{wxTopLevelWindow::SetLeftMenu}{wxtoplevelwindowsetleftmenu}
163 and \helpref{wxTopLevelWindow::SetRightMenu}{wxtoplevelwindowsetrightmenu}, for example:
164
165 \begin{verbatim}
166 #ifdef __SMARTPHONE__
167 SetLeftMenu(wxID_OK);
168 SetRightMenu(wxID_CANCEL, _("Cancel"));
169 #elif defined(__POCKETPC__)
170 // No OK/Cancel buttons on PocketPC, OK on caption will close
171 #else
172 topsizer->Add( CreateButtonSizer( wxOK|wxCANCEL ), 0, wxEXPAND | wxALL, 10 );
173 #endif
174 \end{verbatim}
175
176 For implementing property sheets (flat tabs), use a wxNotebook with wxNB\_FLAT|wxNB\_BOTTOM
177 and have the notebook left, top and right sides overlap the dialog by about 3 pixels
178 to eliminate spurious borders. You can do this by using a negative spacing in your
179 sizer Add() call. The cross-platform property sheet dialog \helpref{wxPropertySheetDialog}{wxpropertysheetdialog} is
180 provided, to show settings in the correct style on PocketPC and on other platforms.
181
182 Notifications (bubble HTML text with optional buttons and links) will also be
183 implemented in the future for PocketPC.
184
185 Modeless dialogs probably don't make sense for PocketPC and Smartphone, since
186 frames and dialogs are normally full-screen, and a modeless dialog is normally
187 intended to co-exist with the main application frame.
188
189 \subsubsection{Menubars and toolbars in wxWinCE}
190
191 \wxheading{Menubars and toolbars in PocketPC}
192
193 On PocketPC, a frame must always have a menubar, even if it's empty.
194 An empty menubar/toolbar is automatically provided for dialogs, to hide
195 any existing menubar for the duration of the dialog.
196
197 Menubars and toolbars are implemented using a combined control,
198 but you can use essentially the usual wxWidgets API; wxWidgets will combine the menubar
199 and toolbar. However, there are some restrictions:
200
201 \itemsep=0pt
202 \begin{itemize}
203 \item You must create the frame's primary toolbar with wxFrame::CreateToolBar,
204 because this uses the special wxToolMenuBar class (derived from wxToolBar)
205 to implement the combined toolbar and menubar. Otherwise, you can create and manage toolbars
206 using the wxToolBar class as usual, for example to implement an optional
207 formatting toolbar above the menubar as Pocket Word does. But don't assign
208 a wxToolBar to a frame using SetToolBar - you should always use CreateToolBar
209 for the main frame toolbar.
210 \item Deleting and adding tools to wxToolMenuBar after Realize is called is not supported.
211 \item For speed, colours are not remapped to the system colours as they are
212 in wxMSW. Provide the tool bitmaps either with the correct system button background,
213 or with transparency (for example, using XPMs).
214 \item Adding controls to wxToolMenuBar is not supported. However, wxToolBar supports
215 controls.
216 \end{itemize}
217
218 Unlike in all other ports, a wxDialog has a wxToolBar, automatically created
219 for you. You may either leave it blank, or access it with wxDialog::GetToolBar
220 and add buttons, then calling wxToolBar::Realize. You cannot set or recreate
221 the toolbar.
222
223 \wxheading{Menubars and toolbars in Smartphone}
224
225 On Smartphone, there are only two menu buttons, so a menubar is simulated
226 using a nested menu on the right menu button. Any toolbars are simply ignored on
227 Smartphone.
228
229 \subsubsection{Closing windows in wxWinCE}
230
231 The guidelines state that applications should not have a Quit menu item,
232 since the user should not have to know whether an application is in memory
233 or not. The close button on a window does not call the window's
234 close handler; it simply hides the window. However, the guidelines say that
235 the Ctrl+Q accelerator can be used to quit the application, so wxWidgets
236 defines this accelerator by default and if your application handles
237 wxID\_EXIT, it will do the right thing.
238
239 \subsubsection{Context menus in wxWinCE}
240
241 To enable context menus in PocketPC, you currently need to call wxWindow::EnableContextMenu,
242 a wxWinCE-only function. Otherwise the context menu event (wxContextMenuEvent) will
243 never be sent. This API is subject to change.
244
245 Context menus are not supported in Smartphone.
246
247 \subsubsection{Control differences on wxWinCE}
248
249 These controls and styles are specific to wxWinCE:
250
251 \itemsep=0pt
252 \begin{itemize}
253 \item {\bf wxTextCtrl} The wxTE\_CAPITALIZE style causes a CAPEDIT control to
254 be created, which capitalizes the first letter.
255 \end{itemize}
256
257 These controls are missing from wxWinCE:
258
259 \itemsep=0pt
260 \begin{itemize}
261 \item {\bf MDI classes} MDI is not supported under Windows CE.
262 \item {\bf wxMiniFrame} Not supported under Windows CE.
263 \end{itemize}
264
265 Tooltips are not currently supported for controls, since on PocketPC controls with
266 tooltips are distinct controls, and it will be hard to add dynamic
267 tooltip support.
268
269 Control borders on PocketPC and Smartphone should normally be specified with
270 wxSIMPLE\_BORDER instead of wxSUNKEN\_BORDER. Controls will usually adapt
271 appropriately by virtue of their GetDefaultBorder() function, but if you
272 wish to specify a style explicitly you can use wxDEFAULT\_CONTROL\_BORDER
273 which will give a simple border on PocketPC and Smartphone, and the sunken border on
274 other platforms.
275
276 \subsubsection{Online help in wxWinCE}
277
278 You can use the help controller wxWinceHelpController which controls
279 simple {\tt .htm} files, usually installed in the Windows directory.
280 See the Windows CE reference for how to format the HTML files.
281
282 \subsubsection{Installing your PocketPC and Smartphone applications}
283
284 To install your application, you need to build a CAB file using
285 the parameters defined in a special .inf file. The CabWiz program
286 in your SDK will compile the CAB file from the .inf file and
287 files that it specifies.
288
289 For delivery, you can simply ask the user to copy the CAB file to the
290 device and execute the CAB file using File Explorer. Or, you can
291 write a program for the desktop PC that will find the ActiveSync
292 Application Manager and install the CAB file on the device,
293 which is obviously much easier for the user.
294
295 Here are some links that may help.
296
297 \itemsep=0pt
298 \begin{itemize}
299 \item A setup builder that takes CABs and builds a setup program is at \urlref{http://www.eskimo.com/~scottlu/win/index.html}{http://www.eskimo.com/~scottlu/win/index.html}.
300 \item Sample installation files can be found in {\tt Windows CE Tools/wce420/POCKET PC 2003/Samples/Win32/AppInst}.
301 \item An installer generator using wxPython can be found at \urlref{http://ppcquicksoft.iespana.es/ppcquicksoft/myinstall.html}{http://ppcquicksoft.iespana.es/ppcquicksoft/myinstall.html}.
302 \item Miscellaneous Windows CE resources can be found at \urlref{http://www.orbworks.com/pcce/resources.html}{http://www.orbworks.com/pcce/resources.html}.
303 \item Installer creation instructions with a setup.exe for installing to PPC can be found at \urlref{http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/creatingsetup.html}{http://www.pocketpcdn.com/articles/creatingsetup.html}.
304 \item Microsoft instructions are at \urlref{http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnce30/html/appinstall30.asp?frame=true&hidetoc=true}{http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnce30/html/appinstall30.asp?frame=true&hidetoc=true}.
305 \item Troubleshooting WinCE application installations: \urlref{http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q181007}{http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q181007}
306 \end{itemize}
307
308 You may also check out {\tt demos/life/setup/wince} which contains
309 scripts to create a PocketPC installation for ARM-based
310 devices. In particular, {\tt build.bat} builds the distribution and
311 copies it to a directory called {\tt Deliver}.
312
313 \subsubsection{wxFileDialog in PocketPC}
314
315 Allowing the user to access files on memory cards, or on arbitrary
316 parts of the filesystem, is a pain; the standard file dialog only
317 shows folders under My Documents or folders on memory cards
318 (not the system or card root directory, for example). This is
319 a known problem for PocketPC developers.
320
321 If you need a file dialog that allows access to all folders,
322 you can use wxGenericFileDialog instead. You will need to include
323 {\tt wx/generic/filedlgg.h}.
324
325 \subsubsection{Embedded Visual C++ Issues}
326
327 \wxheading{Run-time type information}
328
329 If you wish to use runtime type information (RTTI) with eVC++ 4, you need to download
330 an extra library, {\tt ccrtrtti.lib}, and link with it. At the time of
331 writing you can get it from here:
332
333 \begin{verbatim}
334 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830482/en-us
335 \end{verbatim}
336
337 Otherwise you will get linker errors similar to this:
338
339 \begin{verbatim}
340 wxwince26d.lib(control.obj) : error LNK2001: unresolved external symbol "const type_info::`vftable'" (??_7type_info@@6B@)
341 \end{verbatim}
342
343 \wxheading{Windows Mobile 5.0 emulator}
344
345 Note that there is no separate emulator configuration for Windows Mobile 5.0: the
346 emulator runs the ARM code directly.
347
348 \wxheading{Visual Studio 2005 project files}
349
350 Unfortunately, Visual Studio 2005, required to build Windows Mobile 5.0 applications,
351 doesn't do a perfect job of converting the project files from eVC++ format.
352
353 When you have converted the wxWidgets workspace, edit the configuration properties
354 for each configuration and in the Librarian, add a relative path ..$\backslash$..$\backslash$lib to
355 each library path. For example: {\tt ..$\backslash$\$(PlatformName)$\backslash$\$(ConfigurationName)$\backslash$wx\_mono.lib}.
356
357 Then, for a sample you want to compile, edit the configuration properties
358 and make sure {\tt ..$\backslash$..$\backslash$lib$\backslash$\$(PlatformName)$\backslash$\$(ConfigurationName)} is in the Linker/General/Additional
359 Library Directories property. Also change the Linker/Input/Additional Dependencies
360 property to something like {\tt coredll.lib wx\_mono.lib wx\_wxjpeg.lib wx\_wxpng.lib wx\_wxzlib.lib wx\_wxexpat.lib commctrl.lib winsock.lib wininet.lib}\rtfsp
361 (since the library names in the wxWidgets workspace were changed by VS 2005).
362
363 Alternately, you could could edit all the names to be identical to the original eVC++
364 names, but this will probably be more fiddly.
365
366 \subsubsection{Remaining issues}
367
368 These are some of the remaining problems to be sorted out, and features
369 to be supported.
370
371 \itemsep=0pt
372 \begin{itemize}
373 \item {\bf Windows Mobile 5 issues.} It is not possible to get the HMENU for
374 the command bar on Mobile 5, so the menubar functions need to be rewritten
375 to get the individual menus without use of a menubar handle. Also the
376 new Mobile 5 convention of using only two menus (and no bitmap buttons) needs to be
377 considered.
378 \item {\bf Sizer speed.} Particularly for dialogs containing notebooks,
379 layout seems slow. Some analysis is required.
380 \item {\bf Notification boxes.} The balloon-like notification messages, and their
381 icons, should be implemented. This will be quite straightforward.
382 \item {\bf SIP size.} We need to be able to get the area taken up by the SIP (input panel),
383 and the remaining area, by calling SHSipInfo. We also may need to be able to show and hide
384 the SIP programmatically, with SHSipPreference. See also the {\it Input Dialogs} topic in
385 the {\it Programming Windows CE} guide for more on this, and how to have dialogs
386 show the SIP automatically using the WC\_SIPREF control.
387 \item {\bf wxStaticBitmap.} The About box in the "Life!" demo shows a bitmap that is
388 the correct size on the emulator, but too small on a VGA Pocket Loox device.
389 \item {\bf wxStaticLine.} Lines don't show up, and the documentation suggests that
390 missing styles are implemented with WM\_PAINT.
391 \item {\bf HTML control.} PocketPC has its own HTML control which can be used for showing
392 local pages or navigating the web. We should create a version of wxHtmlWindow that uses this
393 control, or have a separately-named control (wxHtmlCtrl), with a syntax as close as possible to wxHtmlWindow.
394 \item {\bf Tooltip control.} PocketPC uses special TTBUTTON and TTSTATIC controls for adding
395 tooltips, with the tooltip separated from the label with a double tilde. We need to support this using SetToolTip.
396 (Unfortunately it does not seem possible to dynamically remove the tooltip, so an extra style may
397 be required.)
398 \item {\bf Focus.} In the wxPropertySheetDialog demo on Smartphone, it's not possible to navigate
399 between controls. The focus handling in wxWidgets needs investigation. See in particular src/common/containr.cpp,
400 and note that the default OnActivate handler in src/msw/toplevel.cpp sets the focus to the first child of the dialog.
401 \item {\bf OK button.} We should allow the OK button on a dialog to be optional, perhaps
402 by using wxCLOSE\_BOX to indicate when the OK button should be displayed.
403 \item {\bf Dynamic adaptation.} We should probably be using run-time tests more
404 than preprocessor tests, so that the same WinCE application can run on different
405 versions of the operating system.
406 \item {\bf Modeless dialogs.} When a modeless dialog is hidden with the OK button, it doesn't restore the
407 frame's menubar. See for example the find dialog in the dialogs sample. However, the menubar is restored
408 if pressing Cancel (the window is closed). This reflects the fact that modeless dialogs are
409 not very useful on Windows CE; however, we could perhaps destroy/restore a modeless dialog's menubar
410 on deactivation and activation.
411 \item {\bf Home screen plugins.} Figure out how to make home screen plugins for use with wxWidgets
412 applications (see {\tt http://www.codeproject.com/ce/CTodayWindow.asp} for inspiration).
413 Although we can't use wxWidgets to create the plugin (too large), we could perhaps write
414 a generic plugin that takes registry information from a given application, with
415 options to display information in a particular way using icons and text from
416 a specified location.
417 \item {\bf Further abstraction.} We should be able to abstract away more of the differences
418 between desktop and mobile applications, in particular for sizer layout.
419 \item {\bf Dialog captions.} The blue, bold captions on dialogs - with optional help button -
420 should be catered for, either by hard-wiring the capability into all dialogs and panels,
421 or by providing a standard component and sizer.
422 \end{itemize}