QM on Windows CE embedded 5.0 and 6.5

[Ben Rucka]

Hi

Is there anyone that has installed QM successfully on a windows mobile embedded either 5.0 or 6.5. I have 2 mobile devices and intested in someone sharing their success. Have downloaded qm and installed the qm application through an attached Windows PC. Appears to install and when I click on QM icon get invalid application. Any thoughts Thanks

Ben

[Tony Gravagno]

Wow.

> Is there anyone that has installed QM successfully on a windows
> mobile embedded either 5.0 or 6.5.

Yes. Worked neat but by the time I had started this effort of
curiosity, WinCE was outdated and the platform wasn't practical for
development. And that was a Loooooooooooooooooong time ago.

I wrote a few blogs on the topic back in 2008-2009. These might help
with your efforts.
http://nebula-rnd.com/blog/tech/mv/2008/12/mvpda01.html
http://nebula-rnd.com/blog/tech/mv/2009/01/mvpda02.html
http://nebula-rnd.com/blog/tech/2009/01/mvpda03.html

> Any thoughts

Yes, random ones...

This is fine if you're just looking to have fun but it's of limited
use for practical applications. That's coming from a guy who's been
blogging and talking about mobile development for MV for over a
decade.

Use a new device. You'll probably have fun with the old one but what's
More fun is thinking "wow, someone else might actually be able to use
this" compared to "wow, I just spent all that time and I'm the only
one doing this".

Don't ask colleagues for opinions about mobile. They'll tell you they
don't own mobile phones or that you should use a browser rather than
writing an app. ;)

Windows Phone in general has such a tiny market segment compared to
Android and iPhone that from a business perspective I don't bother
with it at the moment. QM on Android would be as awesome as it comes.

If you want to create something for sale rather than just have fun...
A database on a phone seems cool, but the most practical approach
would be to create a client/phone-side app that communicates remotely
with a full QM installation. The install is smaller and easier on the
client, and server updates are centralized. QM has client-side
libraries that can be used for this, and even if it didn't, web
services work on all clients so you don't even need the custom client
libraries on the device. That's only if an online resource is
practical for your application. Where you need a smart device and
local storage, other databases dominate on-board phone development and
it's tough to fight that uphill battle. So if your focus is to sell
apps rather than evangelize, don't pick any fights, go with the flow.

I'd love to do more with mobile development in this market but the
number of colleagues doing similar work is discouragingly low. On one
hand it's neat to do something that other people aren't generally
doing - differentiation is supposed to be a good thing. But on the
other hand it's a tough business position to be creating products that
might get obsoleted because the underlying components aren't being
used by a broad enough audience to justify support. This all points
back to using the DBMS on the server and using the client just for UI
stuff. The client can call Any MVDBMS or RDBMS, so no one will pull
components out from under you. That's my defensive strategy. YMMV

HTH
T

[Ben Rucka]

Thanks Tony ! WOW only your reply. Back when your blogs were written, I too had QM installed on a Window cell phone but backed off due to problems licensing QM without ctrl key. And then became part of the 85% that left Window cell phones. I find it amazing the number of hardware vendors with windows mobile CE devices. Must be a market waiting for a solution. With MS being only interested in $'s and not value, it makes many project unaffordable. Not to mention product reliability. With that said and your comments I do see a market !

Can you share your installation process? QM appears to install using Mobile Media, unfortunately errors out when starting QM application on both devices. Do you think its a hardware compatibility issue or ?? or just me -:)

Ben
--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 9/17/13, Tony Gravagno <wosc...@sneakemail.com> wrote:

Subject: RE: QM on Windows CE embedded 5.0 and 6.5
To: Ope...@googlegroups.com
Date: Tuesday, September 17, 2013, 1:00 PM

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[Tony Gravagno]

> From: Ben Rucka

> Thanks Tony ! WOW only your reply. Back when your blogs were
> written, I too had QM installed on a Window cell phone but backed
off
> due to problems licensing QM without ctrl key. And then became part
> of the 85% that left Window cell phones. I find it amazing the
number
> of hardware vendors with windows mobile CE devices. Must be a
> market waiting for a solution.

I think that's true. Manufacturers expect Microsoft's platform to be
in demand but the OS is largely irrelevant. Consumers want apps,
innovation, community, and useful features. As usual, Microsoft isn't
offering anything innovative, except perhaps a platform that has a
similar look and feel with the desktop, and they're integrating their
desktop and mobile platforms in various ways. But that's not enough to
distinguish them from their huge competitors, Android and iPhone.

> With MS being only interested in $'s and not value, it makes
> many project unaffordable.

I have to disagree there. Of course MS is interested in $ but that
comes with value. They're trying to capitalize on the app store
concept but they aren't adding any more value. This is all about the
consumer, not related to developers.

Development for the platform is generally cheap and easy, much less
difficult than iPhone with Objective-C and the fees that Apple charges
to participate in their ecosystem. Microsoft is very
developer-friendly in terms of providing tools and keeping costs down
so that developers can create value for their platform.

None of that helps with basic problem of lack of consumer interest in
the platform, leading to developer dis-interest. I have all the tools
I need for doing Windows Phone development. I choose not to use them
because I don't see enough people out there who will pay me for my
effort compared to the same effort for other platforms.

> Not to mention product reliability.

Well, there again, Microsoft has a reputation for being the most hated
platform while simultaneously being the most used. There are a lot
more people using it to hate it. :)

So while it's easy to mention "product reliability", just go back over
the last few years and you'll see that Windows Mobile 7/8 doesn't have
strikes against it for reliability where WinCE and all platforms of
that generation did.

But it doesn't matter that the platform has been largely stable for at
least 4 years. Neither Android nor iPhone have had game changing
issues that prompted a mass migration over to Windows. So reliable or
not, Windows still loses.

Since we're on that, I dunno about you but I find Android to be hugely
unreliable:
- Developers change permissions on a whim to downright invasive.
- Developers abuse the resources like they're the only users on the
device, and the platform doesn't do a good job about stopping them.
This causes some apps to grind the device to a halt, requiring a
reboot ... only to have them restart automatically on reboot.
- Apps can update even when set not to.
- You can't control which apps respond/process your requests once they
register as handlers. This causes apps to trip on one another as they
vie for your attention.

People who were advocating Linux so many years ago are now in a
closet, cringing from what has been done to their platform of choice,
now more unreliable than for consumer purposes than Windows in many
respects.

And I say all of that as someone who does do Android coding with Java
and as a dedicated Android user. When all of the platforms suck, I've
made my choice about which one sucks the least, not which one is the
best.

> With that said and your comments I do see a market !

Great! :)

> Can you share your installation process? QM appears to install
using
> Mobile Media, unfortunately errors out when starting QM application
> on both devices. Do you think its a hardware compatibility issue
or ??
> or just me -:)
>
> Ben

My last experience was 4 years ago. I'm not qualified to comment on
the modern installation experience.

I will suggest however that you get more specific about your device,
versions, etc. Are we really talking about the WinMobile CE/5/6 that
were notoriously buggy? Where's the market there? What do you/we hope
to gain by focusing on the installation process of QM on a platform
that no one uses, compared to the "Windows Phone" v8 that's available
today?

Regards,
T

[Ross Ferris]

Not ALL mobile development targets a phone. There are still plenty of Portable Data Entry devices sold for warehouse applications that are running WinCE, Win 5.0, 6.0 & 6.5

[Dick Thiot]

And not all development targets generalized deployment. Sometime specific device development is chosen for special needs. It depends on the application, doesn't it?  

Good point, Ross. 

Dick