My Profile

Platform Builder: Windows CE 6.0 Development Certification

Bruce Eitman — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 04:14:51 GMT

Some of you have noticed that I have passed the Windows Embedded CE 6.0 Development exam and therefor am a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist. As a result, I have received requests for information about the exam. I cannot tell you any more details about the exam than Microsoft publicly publishes about the exam.

Why can't I tell you anything more? For two reasons; as a condition of taking he exam you will be required to sign an NDA, and well I can't tell you the other reason because that is covered by an NDA.

I don't want tell you any more details either, if I were to make it easy for you, then the test would become worthless.

What I can tell you is that the purpose of the test is to determine whether you, the test taker, have real knowledge and understanding of developing a Windows CE 6.0 OS using Platform Builder.

I can also tell you that I have talked with several engineers who have taken and passed the exam. The engineers who have worked with Windows CE for several years thought that the test was easy, and it should have been. The engineers who had only worked with Windows CE for about a year found it to be more difficult, and it should have been.

Microsoft has provided guidance at http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exams/70-571.mspx, including a CE 6.0 Exam Preparation Kit Download.

If you think that you have the experience to take and pass the exam, then do it, and I wish you luck.

Profile: Software Development Tools

Bruce Eitman — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:51:13 GMT

I am not all that fancy, as you will see, with the development tools that I use. I keep it simple, but use the tools that make me productive. The following are the tools that I use in order of importance for me:

Examine32 – a graphical tool that works like grep. This tool enhances grep by allowing me to click on the results and open files. I find that the results that I get are much better than the results from using Visual Studio or Windows Explorer to search for strings inside files. (www.examine32.com)
Google – I couldn’t get my job done without Google. The results just work for me, and I see other engineers using other search tools and not getting the results that they need to get answers they need.
WinVI32 – contrary to popular belief, I started programming on UNIX systems. I made the mistake of getting too familiar with VI, not even Emacs. I have found that I can be very productive using VI, and not using a mouse much when I edit. Of course it took a long time to get familiar with VI, so I don’t recommend others follow my lead.
Tera Term Pro – a terminal emulator that works better for scrolling back to see debug output than HyperTerm does. The downside is that it only supports COM1-4.
SourceGear Vault – Vault is a good version control tool for its price. We chose it because it has features like versioning of folders, not just files, and allows us to reuse code between projects by sharing one set of code within the tool. It also is a true client/server tool so it works very well for multi-site development. (www.sourcegear.com)
Platform Builder – I work on Windows CE 4.2, 5.0 and 6.0 regularly, but still do some maintenance on 3.0 about one or twice a year.
eMbedded Visual C++ - mainly I use this for maintaining older applications
Visual Studio – of course I use Visual Studio for Platform Builder 6.0, but I also do some application development in C++ and C#. Nobody will accuse me of being a master of application development though.
Microsoft Virtual Server and Virtual Machines – these come in handy for trying out new software and we use them for our release build machines.
MagicCab – a tool for extracting those CAB files that vendors supply. It makes it easier to extract and add to a Platform Builder project than extracting the CAB file on the device and copying the files to your PC. The downside is that couldn’t find where to get it anymore, although I could find the PocketPC version.

Windows CE Newsgroups

Bruce Eitman — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:11:56 GMT

I monitor some Windows CE newsgroups for a few reasons:

I learn a lot from others working on Windows CE, so many of you are running into the same issues that I run into. Sometimes your run into them before I do, other times I have already run into the issue.
I learn a lot from answering questions. You might be surprised to find that I don't already know the answer, so I do some investigation to get the answer. Sometimes I am wrong, or there is a better way, with my answer, and there is always someone to point that out.
I get satisfaction from helping others out by answering their questions

I monitor the following newsgroups in the msnews.microsoft.com server:

Microsoft.Public.WindowsCE.App.Development - includes discussions about developing applications for Windows CE. This is not my area of expertise, but I sometimes have the answer. I also sometimes find my customers asking questions here.
Microsoft.Public.WindowsCE.Embedded - this has a wide range of Windows CE questions which include application development as well as driver and bootloader discussions.
Microsoft.Public.WindowsCE.Embedded.VC - also not my expertise, but this focuses on using C/C++ using eMbedded VC++ and sometimes wanders into Visual Studio.
Microsoft.Public.WindowsCE.Platbuilder - This newsgroup fits me best as it discusses issues with Platform Builder and development of Windows CE OS images.
Microsoft.Public.WindowsCE.Targeted.Device - not a very busy newsgroup that discusses issues with specific devices (or at least that seems to be its intent.) Mostly, this group has posts that would be better in other newsgroups.

I use Outlook Express to view and answer posts in these groups. There are certainly other newsgroup browsers available as well as the online forums at Microsoft.com.

Microsoft, Me and a Camcorder

Bruce Eitman — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:54:11 GMT

Microsoft and I put together a video featuring me to be used at the launch event for Windows CE 6.0. In the end, it wasn't used but it is available from Microsoft. The Bruce Eitman Video doesn't contain any earth shattering information, but you can see who I am.

Using some clips from that video plus clips from several other Windows Embedded MVPs, Microsoft also put together a collage video. Meet some of our Embedded MVPs

At MEDC 2005, Mike Hall from Microsoft caught me off gaurd and asked me some questions for the series of Podcasts that he was creating that year. MEDC 2005 - Bruce Eitman is the kind of video that only my mother would enjoy (but even she might not enjoy it.)

Profile of Bruce Eitman

Bruce Eitman — Tue, 13 May 2008 04:55:33 GMT

Bruce is Director of the Windows CE Technology Group at EuroTech Inc. Bruce works out the Akron, OH office and travels frequently to the home office in Columbia, MD. EuroTech Inc. is a leader in embedded single board computers.

As Director of the Windows CE Technology Group, Bruce manages the Software Engineers who port Windows CE to Eurotech Inc's COTS single board computers and custom board designs. Bruce continues spend much of his day solving engineering problems when he isn't busy meeting with customers on conference calls and in person.

Bruce started working with Windows CE in 2000 when his wife bought him a Casio Cassiopeia running Palm PC, the predecessor to Pocket PC and then Windows Mobile. As a Software Engineer, he couldn't resist playing around with writing simple applications to run on the Casio.

Shortly after that in 2001, Bruce joined Accelent Systems a leader in Windows CE BSP development for ARM processors. There he learned how to develop Windows CE boot loaders, drivers and the OAL for Windows Mobile and Windows CE. He used this knowledge to train others in the US and Asia. Bruce also traveled with Microsoft presenting at Windows Embedded events in the US.

In 2002, Bruce received the Microsoft MVP award for his efforts within the Microsoft community. Bruce has published a few magazine articles, speaks at Microsoft events and answers questions in the Windows CE newsgroups. Bruce makes it a point to answer questions in the Windows CE newsgroups becuase it is an opportunity to continue to learn about what others are doing with Windows CE and give back to the community.

Bruce earned the Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist in the area of Platform Builder for Windows CE 6.0 in 2008.

Bruce enjoys spending time with his wife Christine, daughter Abby and son Liam.