A little assistance please . . .

[Job]

I have never coded any program before (only websites), but I want begin once I receive my Axim. Where should I start? Could you please post links to any helpful tutorials, programs, or any other pertinent information.

[Kati Compton]

I have never coded any program before (only websites), but I want begin once I receive my Axim. Where should I start? Could you please post links to any helpful tutorials, programs, or any other pertinent information.

Does this mean you have no grounding in programming languages?

[Pony99CA]

I have never coded any program before (only websites), but I want begin once I receive my Axim. Where should I start? Could you please post links to any helpful tutorials, programs, or any other pertinent information.
My Pocket PC Web site has some developer links (http://www.garlic.com/~svvg/svvgppc.html#DEVELOPMENT). Check them out.

Steve

[Job]

Kati: Basically no computer language background. I know a very little bit of Javascript (for my website, pop-up windows and the like), but I have no knowledge or BASIC or C++ or anything else, really. Should I learn those first?

[Sven Johannsen]

Absolutely you should learn Basic or C++ first, but that doesn't mean you can't learn it with the PPC. You have to learn it on some platform.

The great news is, that the embedded Visual Tools 3.0 suite is still a free download. http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnppc2k2/html/PocketPC2002DownloadsNodeAnchorPage.asp and you'll want the PPC2002 SDK (Software Developement Kit)

Then I'd say get a book on developing for the device. I haven't looked recently to see if there are some more books specifically on PPC but there is a pretty good book by Larry Roof, Professional Visual Basic Windows CE Programming (WROX Press) that gives a good start. Throw some terms in the Amazon search and you'll likely find a good number. There are always the online forums too.

[Janak Parekh]

While Sven has good points, it's worthwhile to do some programming on PC's first, as debugging and executing are much easier when they're on the development platform itself.

If you're going to do Windows programming, you might want to start off with a language like Visual Basic, which is relatively easy syntax-wise. Consider getting a book on that instead. C++ is a bit too deep as a first language, IMHO, unless you're willing to skip the object-oriented concepts and start with it as a simple procedural language.

Programming is a skill that takes some time - but if you want to, you can master it. :)

--janak

[blazingwolf]

Here are a couple of sites that have tutorials. www.devbuzz.com and www.justppc.com. Also, if and when you download embedded visual tools the help files have some things that you can read.

[Kati Compton]

I recommend getting a general book on the language you'd like to use. There are some things in there that just won't be covered by a "how to program for the PPC" type of book or help file. I also agree that you should try writing a couple of programs on the PC first to get the hang of it. Much faster and easier to make sure that you understand some of the basic issues.

I've heard that VB gets you to actual programs quicker than C++ (and I believe it). But since I've never even touched the language, I can't say definitively. I've been playing with eVC, myself.

[twowheels]

I would agree that VB is much easier to learn than C++, however I can't recommend either of them as good introductions to general programming - an object-oriented language such as Java would be better.

For Windows-specific apps then Delphi, C# or VB.NET are good choices. The latter two are the best choices for device development as they are directly supported in the .NET compact framework on the Pocket PC platform. I'm currently playing with C# and have found it very similar to Java/Delphi. The choice between C# and VB.NET seems largely to be one of syntax - most of the code is very similar.

Having put the case for .NET the obvious drawback is that you don't get it for free - you have to buy Visual Studio.NET. The next release of this will have the device stuff built in and in my opinion .NET will be the strategic choice for PPC development.

[Job]

Thanks, everyone, for the help, unfortunately it is all a little over my head. I am sure I will eventually start somewhere tho.