Update availiabe PDA 8.0.1

[i2dx]

a few days ago, I was browsing the NI FTP-Server for updates, and I found an Update to Version 8.0.1 for the PDA Module.

Update

Readme

The bad news are: If you want Windows Mobile 5 Support, you need a Visual Studio 2005 License. I'm not very amused about that, because I think a toolset, which costs about 1200 Euros should contain all tools needed for developing and deploing

Besides: VS 2005 Pro costs about 1200 euros, too ...

What do you think about that?

cheers,

CB

[Bob Y.]

I agree! I already spoke to my local rep to ask if that was really the case and he has not gotten back to me. Maybe they are working with Microsoft to get the embedded tools included in the Visual Studio Express (free) package. That is not the way it works right now, that is my hope. In the mean time, there is a 90 day trial for Visual Studio 5.0 Standard and I will be using that until the middle of June .

I am also a bit ticked that after you spend extra for the ability to program for the PDA, you also have to pay licensing. This can be quite expensive per PDA for smaller customers. I would like to see the licensing portion removed (even if it required charging more for the PDA development toolkit).

All in all it is like they would really rather us not bother with PDAs!

Be sure and send your complaints to NI through all the channels available!

Bob Young

[i2dx]

All in all it is like they would really rather us not bother with PDAs!

Be sure and send your complaints to NI through all the channels available!

besides, you could the the idea: hey, if I have allready VS2005 (and the standard edition is sufficient ...) I could try to write PDA Software with C#

.... and I have to admitt, I did allready and it's not THAT difficult to get used to it ...

if you think twice, you could get the impression, NI does not like the PDA Toolkit and would be glad to "shift" the users/developers to Microsoft?

OK, I am a "impatient-quick-ranting user", but the PDA Toolkit isn't that bad! And to be honest: who really want's to care about datatype conversion when communicatig with TCP/IP between an PDA/C# Software and a PC/LabVIEW Software?

I will give my local sales representative the appropriate input, when I meet him next time

[Yair]

I totally agree. It doesn't look like NI currently considers the PDA market as a priority market. I wouldn't be surprised if that was because of a small market size and the amount of work they have to do in order to be able to use LV to build PDA apps (and it still isn't up to the PC standards).

It looks like they're just trying to get those who do need to buy to buy the PDA module to pay a lot (relatively) so they can cover some of the development costs.

The main reason I was thinking of getting 8 (or, as seems more likely, 8.1) was the improvements to the PDA module, but if it requires having another software package AND paying licenses AND not getting very good results I'm afraid we'll just have to resort to using other languages for PDA apps and that way I don't know if we will get 8 at all.

[Michael P]

This topic seems to generate a lot of confusion, and it is certainly not true that you need to install Visual Studio 2005 to use the PDA Module. Let me clear things up for everyone.

As described in this KnowledgeBase article, there are two sets of Microsoft tools that can be installed to use with the LabVIEW PDA Module. The set of tools that includes Visual Studio 2005 will add support for Windows Mobile-specific functionality (such as the Picture Picker). However, using the other set of free tools (eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0, ...), you can still create LabVIEW applications that will run on Windows Mobile devices. This is because you are creating PocketPC executables, which are compatible with Windows Mobile.

To summarize, there are two sets of tools: one free, one not free. If you install the tools that are not free, you get added functionality (VIs), but if you install the free tools, you can still create executables that will run on Windows CE, PocketPC 2003, and Windows Mobile devices.

Michael P

National Instruments