uclinux or windows ce?

Hallo Mario,




Take a linux kernel, compile Xfree and use Java. That works fine.

Regards, Kurt

In comp.os.linux.embedded the answer is obvoiusly one : linux

On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 15:36:12 GMT, "Robben Mario"



The platform you're going to run on is also an issue.  uclinux can run
on much leaner platforms than Windows CE.

Your application seems very, very simple.  Why do you want to use a
heavy (in embedded terms) OS at all?

Really.  Wince isn't an embedded operating system at all!  As late as 1990,
there wasn't any hardware under a few hundred thousand dollars with enough
horsepower to wade through wince's bloat.  Maybe a cray ymp couldn't provide
adequate performance, but not much less.  

Any "operating system" that barely runs on a 100 mips machine isn't qualified
to be called an embedded operating system by any stretch of the imagination.

There are _several_ for Linux :-)
BTW do you mean GUI build of the kernel or of the application?

for kernel (2.6)
 - Alternate configuration commands are:
        "make menuconfig"  Text based color menus, radiolists & dialogs.
        "make xconfig"     X windows (Qt) based configuration tool.
        "make gconfig"     X windows (Gtk) based configuration tool.
        "make oldconfig"   Default all questions based on the contents of
                           your existing ./.config file.

for applications
        Qt Designer
        kylix (Borland)
        ...



Linux has several graphical application development
environments too :-)

        kdeveloper (not only KDE applications!)
        eclipse    (primary Java, C, C++, even for Windows)
        kylix
        emacs :->
        ...



But you had not investigated the available tools much...

There are even more since you accept to pay for your IDE

        CodeWarrior
        Most distributions contains IDEs for embedded Linux development.

/RogerL

On Sat, 24 Jan 2004 15:36:12 GMT, "Robben Mario"


You'll want to consider cost and cost of support.  As far as I know,
and I could be wrong, you need to buy a minimum number of wince
licenses, so your startup costs can be quite high.  I'm not up-to-date
with their licensing, but it's something you'll want to look into.

Wince is primarily supported by proprietry third party companies, and
that will cost you money as well.  You can also buy third party
support for Linux, but there is also a large Linux community were the
free exchange of help is the norm.  The Linux model is to share
information, the Microsoft model is to find ways to make money from
it.

I believe that Linux is becoming the defacto standard for embedded
operating systems.  That's a good reason to go with it.

Dan  

The major advantage of Embedded Linux: It is fully compliant with it's
dektop "brother". You will find it easy to adapt it for your special
hardware requirements if it they not already supported. As with WindowsCE
you will have to be involved in licensing issues with Microsoft (which you
will also have with commercial EmbeddedLinux distributions) and finding
solutions for porting problems can be an expensive support issue.
Standard Linux software can be easily brought to the target device without
hazzle and adaptions so the number of usable libraries is huge.

WindowsCE, afaik, does not come with a GUI per default.
If you are looking for a sophisticated Linux based GUI you might want to
take a glance at Opie (http://opie.handhelds.org ) which should provide you
with everything you need for your specific purpose.
As far as development environments are concerned, it is very convenient to
be able to use a standard C++ IDE (like kdevelop), build and test the apps
on your desktop and then cross compile the software for the target platform
with a common gcc. If you are familiar with UNIX/Linux development you will
find it comprehensive.

Oliver

Why are you limiting your choice to those two?
You can look at other stuff like Green Hill Integrity as well.
If you can afford WinCE; you can probably afford a dual buffer LCD
controller
which using simple bitblt operations should do the job without bloated OS