User Manual

Software Developer’s Guide Page 6-7
Software Development Programming Tips
To help programmers developing software for the Allegro CE, we
have included the following programming tips. We recommend that
you refer to Windows CE 3.0 or CE .NET (depending on which
operating system you are using) programming reference books to
assist you in your software development.
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▲ Allegro CE Identification
When installing your applications, you need to determine if certain
peripherals are available. There could be reasons you need to know
the following specific information about your Allegro CE device:
Platform name Allegro CE
Windows CE version and build number (go to Windows CE Version)
Internal storage device name C_Drive
PC card storage device name Storage Card
(English version)
To uniquely identify an Allegro CE device by serial number, refer to
the section Allegro Specific APIs.
Platform Name
The combination of Windows CE operating system and the hardware
that it runs on is called a platform. Common platform names are
Pocket PC, HPC, HPC Pro, etc. The Allegros platform name is Allegro
CE.
To discover the platform name in an application program, call
SystemParametersInfo(uiAction, uiParam, pvParam, 0) with uiAction
equal to SPI_GETPLATFORMTYPE. The uiParam parameter specifies
the length of the buffer in pvParam, which on successful return
contains the platform name in Unicode characters.
Windows CE Version
There are two numbers used to identify the operating system, the
version number and the build number. An Allegro running Windows
CE uses Windows CE version 3.00, Build 126 (sometimes expressed
as 3.00.0126). An Allegro running Windows CE .NET uses Windows
CE version 4.1, Build 908. To locate your version and build number
tap on Start| Settings| Control Panel and double-tap on the System
icon. The General tab displays the version and build of the Windows
CE operating system.