Microsoft released details of new features for the Win CE.net
handheld OS, including an SMS client and support for IP Version
6.
Service Pack Release 1 of Win CE.net will add an SMS client,
support for IPV6, and viewers for all Office applications and Adobe
files, said Microsoft product manager Scott Phillips.
Most salient among the numerous tidbits unveiled at the session was
the news that Service Pack 1 for the Win CE.net will also support
the .net Compact Framework in the second half of this year.
The .net Compact Framework is a "subset" of the desktop .net
desktop platform with full Web services protocol support and will
allow users to use Visual Studio.net as well as other third-party
tools for application development across multiple CPUs (central
processing units), according to Philips.
"With the support of the .net Compact Framework, developers will be
able to target multiple devices with one application tool," said
Phillips.
Support for IPV6 on the handheld side completes Microsoft's promise
to support the new Internet naming infrastructure on all of its
operating systems. IPV6 allows for "n" number of unique addresses.
Full support for IPV6 for Windows XP is also expected this year as
well as support in the yet-unreleased XP server OS.
Service Pack 1 will also make the Win CE.net source code "more
available," said Phillips.
"We still retain the [Intellectual Property] rights, it is not like
Linux, but we have been opening up the source code in Win CE over
time," Phillips added.
Windows developers had mixed reactions to the Microsoft source code
strategy.
Clemens Butz, senior product manager at bSquare, said it would make
debugging easier for developers.
But Majid Anwar, chief scientist for Picsel Technologies, and other
developers believe the strategy is intended to push more of the
work back onto the developers.
"Microsoft is leaving it to the [system manufacturers] to optimise
their applications for the operating system. They are now just
supplying low-level drivers," said Anwar.
Steven Dyer, marketing manager at Accelent Systems, which makes
toolkits for Win CE.net developers, also said by making the source
code available, Microsoft is asking developers to do more on their
own.
"Our challenge is to see how we can help the developer community
use [source code]," Dyer said.
Phillips said Service Pack 1 for Win CE.net will be optimised for
the Intel x-scale architecture and will also include an ARM Version
5 compiler.
Following the service pack update, Microsoft plans to unveil
Macallan, the code name for the next version of Win CE.net, in
2003. Phillips also revealed that the code name for the next
version of Window Embedded XP is Longhorn.