Q: should it work?

Pedro Alves pedro_alves@portugalmail.pt
Sun Apr 2 10:38:00 GMT 2006


Danny Backx wrote:
> Shaun,
>
> Thanks a lot for your quick answer.
>
> I must admit I didn't look good enough at the voxware site to figure out
> that the tar files are still there, even though the install directory
> pointed to by the gnuwince.html page is missing.
>
> A quick resume of what I found and experienced this far :
> - I started using Shauns stuff from the debian ftp server a while ago
>   (I'm not using Debian so I recompiled it.)
> - Even though Shaun says this cannot be used to build apps that provide
>   a windows user interface, I've been able to do so (but not every
>   windowing API appears to work).
> - To do that, I've implemented some workarounds that I'd like to get rid
>   of. Also maybe some of the limitations can be lifted by further work.
>   I was thinking about doing that, but am inclined to start off with a
>   more up to date source distribution, to at least have a chance on the
>   GCC/binutils folks pick up the patches.
>
> By the way I have a standard PocketPC (a Mio 168) and a PC with
> Mandriva, and I'd like to develop GUI apps for the PocketPC. As an
> experiment I'm porting Xinvest (http://xinvest.sunsite.dk).
>
> What I am missing :
> - Documentation so I know what I'm doing (to be honest, I've been doing
>   some trial and error, there has to be a better way).
>   I'd like to find out more about the processor (how do you program
>   it in assembler, what's the ABI, ..). Also I don't have much info
>   on how WinCE really works on this hardware.
> - Explanation about the limitations I'm experiencing. I realise that
>   the answer I may get is "we don't know".
> - A bit of help in getting the new software releases operational, but
>   maybe the first thing to do there is figure out which part is broken.
>   (Shaun suggests it is gas, but I've blindly upgraded all three
>   softwares - gcc, binutils, newlib - so the first thing I should do is
>   assess which one is causing the problem.)
> - For this last bit : should I theoretically be able to pick up the
>   wince stuff from either Shaun's debian distribution or the voxware
>   stuff, or are there more up to date versions of that ?
>
> Suggestions ?
>
> 	Danny
>
> On Fri, 2006-03-31 at 12:56 -0700, Shaun Jackman wrote:
> > Hello Danny,
> > 
> > gas (binutils) > 2.13.2.1 has a known issue assembling DLLs for wince.
> > They assemble without errors but won't run. I should say the existance
> > of an issue is known, but the nature of the issue is a bit of a
> > mystery.
> > 
> > The last version of the rest of binutils (not gas) I tried was 2.15.
> > There's no reason updating to a recent version shouldn't work, but I
> > haven't tried it. The last version of GCC I tried was 3.4.2. The same
> > goes for it.
> > 
> > The upstream newlib sources do not contain newlib/libc/sys/wince,
> > which is only available as a patch either from me (through Debian in
> > the package pocketpc-gcc) or from Craig Vanderborgh (through Voxware
> > in the package GNUWINCE).
> > 
> > I haven't worked on the Pocket PC (WinCE) platform in some time, but
> > Craig actively works on it, and Eric House will hopefully be taking
> > over the Debian package from me.
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Shaun
> > 
> > On 3/31/06, Danny Backx <danny.backx@scarlet.be> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I've been playing with Shaun's work on the gcc/newlib/binutils combo to
> > > cross-compile stuff for my PocketPC.
> > >
> > > That worked rather well, but I wanted to move on to newer tools before
> > > putting much effort in improving the current stuff.
> > >
> > > So I "upgraded" to gcc 4.1, newlib 1.14, and binutils 2.16 .
> > >
> > > And now I can't recompile and run even the most simple program.
> > >
> > > Are there obvious pitfalls or should it "just work" ?
> > >
> > >         Danny
> > 
>
>   

Hi Danny!

A few months ago I started doing the same thing. I forward ported all 
the patches I could find to gcc/binutils/newlib/gdb into the newest 
head/trunk versions
of those projects. My goal was to get Qt4 working for Pocket PC. I have 
successfully ported it, although I never made public announcement, in any
Qt or kde channel ;) I first wanted to port the sql module. So I say 
GUIs are quite possible ;)

Eventually I created a webpage for my effort so others could use it too. 
Check out: http://cegcc.berlios.de/
I was never able to get a recent snapshot of binutils working correctly, 
although I tried. Most of the problems were related to getting the
relocs done right.
I am now using the version from cvs20050202 + patches, gcc4.1.1trunk, 
and newlib-cvs.
As for newlib, most of the work is based on Craig's (from Voxware) work. 
I am now in contact with him, and plan on merging my changes
with his version (Hi Craig ;) ).

I am just now preparing for cegcc-0.0.2 release. I should upload it 
tomorrow.

It would be great if we could join every effort in getting gnu tools 
working for wince.

Cheers,
Pedro Alves



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