What is the technology used to build u-blox's u-center? - gps

u-blox's u-center is a desktop application for Windows OS that is light-weight and accommodates all the streamed data without problems.
What is the toolkit or framework (.Net "I doubt it", Win32 API, MFC) used to build such a desktop application like u-blox's u-center?

It is based on Win32 API and MFC. MFC is statically linked. See also the second page of the user manual.
https://www.u-blox.com/sites/default/files/u-Center_UserGuide_%28UBX-13005250%29.pdf

Related

Using COM libraries in Win10 Core IoT?

I want to create an IoT application in VisualStudio 2015 community and want to add a reference to Windows Portable Device, which is a COM library. But the whole COM tab is missing from the references window. Is there a way to include COM libraries in Windows 10 Core IoT, or is that impossible? If the second, does that mean I would have to write drivers for any USB devices myself?
Windows Core libraries are included. Many legacy libraries have been reworked into those core libraries. I suggest checking the core libraries for the functionality you are looking for. Libraries need to be compatible with the Windows Universal Platform.
You will need to write drivers for non-supported devices.

Choosing Windows Runtime Components versus Portable Code Library

When sharing code between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, the two core options for developers are 1) Windows Runtime Components and 2) Portal Class Libraries.
Windows Runtime Components use WinRT and can be projected into all the supported languages. They require linked files in separate projects (binaries) when used on different platforms. They, however, share 90% of the available WinRT APIs.
Portable Class Libraries are a subset (sometimes a significant subset) of the BCL that has binary compatibility across platforms. They can be used on WinRT applications but also on other project types like Silverlight, Xbox, etc.
When a developer is choosing a "sharing strategy" which project type is the go-to technique to do the best job sharing code between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8? Thanks.
It depends what form of sharing you need:
1) If you have a common C++ business logic layer you can use Windows Runtime (WinRT) components to expose this to both Windows Phone and Windows Store app (that's the only use-case for Windows Phone as you can't write a WP8 app using JavaScript or use .NET to author a WinRT component).
You'd have to build two separate WinRT components however, one for Phone and one for Windows Store. It should be possible to share the C++/CX code of your WinRT interop layer using preprocessor directives (#if) to mark the platform specific code.
2) You have business logic in C#/VB that only has dependencies on the .NET APIs which are available in a Portable Class Library. Then you can use Portable Class Library (PCL) to contain that logic. Basically if you can build your library into a PCL DLL then this should work. You can then reference this PCL in binary form in both Windows Phone and Windows Store app.
However as Martin has said you need to take care when using 3rd party libraries as these will also need to be built for PCL. Some 3rd party libraries are already available in PCL form (JSON.NET for example).
3) You want to share code for that has platform API dependencies (or 3rd party library dependencies) which are not supported by PCL. Then you'd need to create separate DLL libraries, one per platform. You can avoid code duplication using linked C#/VB source files and use a build flag (#if again) to allow small code changes between your target platforms.
If you want to share code between Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8, then you cannot use Windows Runtime Components, because there are different components used for Windows 8 and different for Windows Phone 8 and they are not interchangeable.
I would go for either Portable Class Libraries for some simple generic libraries, or for code sharing via links and #if WP8 compilation directives - this just works and is more powerful than Portable libs.
Keep also in mind that most external libraries like MVVM Light cannot be referenced in Portable Libs, so if you want to use them, you have to use the code sharing via file references.
For some guidance on how to effectively use Portable Class Libraries to share code between platforms, see this blog post: How to Make Portable Class Libraries Work for You
This question is no longer relevant with the introduction of Windows
Phone 8.1 Universal Apps in Visual Studio 2013 Update 2 which supports
Shared Projects.
Wait a moment, as for me even in Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 this question is still relevant because there are two types of projects there:
Class Library (Portable for Universal Apps) - PCL
and
Windows Runtime Component (Portable for Universal Apps) - WinMD
I can see only one big difference between them:
WinMD uses only WinRT and PCL could be used also with .Net and Silverlight. But I also want to know more about which one and when better to choose.

Are Metro style apps managed or native and if native how can they run on both arm and x86?

I originally assumed that Metro style apps were managed (.NET) assemblies whether they are written in C# or C++ and I thought C++ for Metro style apps would be similar in concept to C++/CLI.
However, I now heard on a DotNet Rocks podcast that Metro style apps written in C++ are native. Nevertheless I understand that Metro style apps run on all three CPU architectures Metro is available for. How is this accomplished? Do Metro style apps come with different binaries and only one is chosen/downloaded? Or is it like on Mac OS X where one binary can contain code for different CPUs?
Code that uses only system or OS services from WinRT can be used
within an app and distributed through the Windows Store for both WOA
and x86/64.
from this MSDN blog page
If you go watch this BUILD video things should start to clear up -- http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/TOOL-930C (A .NET developer's view of Windows 8 app development)
Basically there is a CLR (.NET 4.5) running. I didn't say a full CLR. WinRT from a .NET perspective is just a .NET Profile (sort of a way that they can layout the API differently exposing or hiding things). The new WinRT APIs use a new version of [gulp] COM, but it is optimized for use with .NET. I'm not 100% sure on the C++ angle. I suspect with C++, you have a few options. Compile for each platform (arm and x86) or compile to IL. Not sure if this helps you at all (I hope so).

How to work with 3rd party 32-bit framework in 64-bit Cocoa Application?

I have a 64-bit-only application that I am developing in Objective-C on Cocoa. It includes various plugins that are also 64-bit. One of these plugins needs to use a 3rd party Framework that is only built for 32-bit i386. It is a C-based framework. It is not possible for the 3rd party to produce a 64-bit version at this time.
I do not want to change my entire application and plugin suite to be 32-bit just to accommodate this one 32-bit framework, but I also do not have any alternatives since it provides access to a proprietary piece of hardware and is the only means my application (via the plugin) will have to operate the device.
What are my options for making this all work?
Clearly my plugin needs to be 64-bit, otherwise the main application will not load it. However, In that case I cannot link against the 32-bit external Framework. I have read that I may need a 32-bit helper application that the plugins communicates with, but have no idea if that is a good or recommended approach.
Are there any other ways to do this? If not, can someone point me to any documentation or tutorials on making this work?
An option would be to create a standalone 32-bit application that uses the framework and controls the device. Then have a 64-bit plugin to your app that launches the standalone app and communicates with it through some IPC mechanism.

Write an windows app for USB Drive

I want to write an application in .Net that has to be shipped with USB drive by the manufacturer. Rightnow application targetted to run only in windows. But will have to support other opeating system in future. Is that app needs to be shipped as portable application? What is required in order to run a .net app as portable app in USB drive? If .Net is not a good option, what are other platform that helps to implement this?
Do deploy .net applications without .net you have to use tools like Xenocode: http://www.xenocode.com
To run it on others platforms, have a look at the Mono Project: http://www.mono-project.com