What it means to be in the default MOBILE install

by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2005/05/19 16:07 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2005/05/19/420145.aspx


Almost a week ago, I talked about What it means to be in the default install.

And about a week ago, Richie Rump talked about Windows Mobile 5.0 Unveiled.

And then also a week ago, I got an email from a developer who asked the following.

I’m figuring you might have an opinion on the likelihood of a patch being released to provide Uniscribe support to Windows Mobile 5.0 being released (also would that require flashing the whole ROM or something?). . . is it a done deal that it really, really wasn’t included in what will be Windows Mobile 5.0?

...tons of potential U.S. Government Arabic program contracts?  ...personally I want better Hebrew support on the Pocket PC, but the Arabic stuff seems more compelling. I do know of local businesses that deal with that sort of thing.)

Do you know of any nifty (existing or future potential) tricks to provide Uniscribe support on the Pocket PC short of rolling your own Windows Mobile and flashing their ROM?

You may see where I am going with this. In the words of Rob Reiner and Tom Hanks, "what do they call it when everything intersects? The Bermuda Triangle." :-)

From a historical perspective, I have done talks about international usage on devices (both for SQL Server, Windows CE Edition and for Embedded VB) -- and I have also worked with contractors who had to build devices with custom components for language.

I once (not too many years ago) even did an informational with Lori, then almost a Director who was interested in seeing me do the original port of Uniscribe to Windows CE. They had some trouble figuring out the logistics of when/how it would be done, and I ended up taking another job in her group, from someone who works for Lori. But luckily they found someone else who did the job and by all reports did an excellent job getting Uniscribe onto the device. :-)

But I do not honestly know what the plan is here. As far as I know, if you are building a CE platform, you include the smallest set you can get away with, and unless you are targetting languges that need complex script support, you may not include the locale, collation, font, or rendering support for any language/script you are not targetting. Which means you may have to build a platform to get this support.

I got my Platform Builder many years ago back when it was just the cost of shipping the many CDs (which may no longer be true).

But if someone has better news or knows more about this, they should feel free to post a comment here about their knowledge!


# Michael S. Kaplan on 19 May 2005 5:25 PM:

Ok, I forwarded a message to many of the mobile bloggers to see if any of them had more information on this topic -- we'll see what happens!

Alex Cohn on 29 Sep 2009 10:26 AM:

I wonder why there is no continuation for this issue. It is Windows Mobile 6.1 now, and still no way to have uniscribe on a smartphone! To some extent, this allows 3rd party companies like Paragon and Enron to come up with hooks and earn good money for their hard work. But now the application developers must comply with all available solutions, and they often miss some compatibility issues.

I understand that adding complex script support for all smartphones will simply cause many millions of users pay with their ROM for something they will never use. But maybe it is possible to build a MiddleEast version of Windows Mobile with Platform Builder?


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2007/10/25 SOL trying to change the CE UI?

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