New to XP Embedded - configuration questions

[Guest]

Hi, I've been tasked with researching and building the OS image for some
real-time computers. I'm totally new to XP Embedded (and OS development in
general) and have some questions about what I'm looking at:

1) In Target Designer there is a Component Help Reference that shows a
description and other information about OS components. In the Dependencies
section, some descriptions just say "More Information" -- and when you click
"More Information" you get a list of, say, 10 components. Surely, the
component whose description this is part of is not actually dependent on
EVERY ONE of those 10 components?? Is there some other meaning for this
"More Information" approach?

2) While building a configuration in Target Designer... is there a good
resource somewhere where I can translate a) what I specifically need the
target machine to do, into b) the specific components I should include in the
configuration?

2a) For example, I was told that the target machine should have TCP/IP,
Direct-X, FTP, no desktop, etc. But even though the components are grouped
by funcationality, I still find multiple related components for each of
these, and I don't know which to include. Do I need to get more detailed
information from the client, and if so, what?

Thanks in advance to any help you XPe experts can give me.

 

[Heidi Linda]

Hi, I've been tasked with researching and building the OS image for some
real-time computers. I'm totally new to XP Embedded (and OS development in
general) and have some questions about what I'm looking at:

Well here's your first issue: XPe is not a real-time OS. I belive that
someone out there has done something to make it so, but it's not
something I've needed to look into.

1) In Target Designer there is a Component Help Reference that shows a
description and other information about OS components. In the Dependencies
section, some descriptions just say "More Information" -- and when you click
"More Information" you get a list of, say, 10 components. Surely, the
component whose description this is part of is not actually dependent on
EVERY ONE of those 10 components?? Is there some other meaning for this
"More Information" approach?

Many components depend on many others. Some are Macro components that
contain nothing themselves, but pull in a selection of others that are
all required for a particular task.

2) While building a configuration in Target Designer... is there a good
resource somewhere where I can translate a) what I specifically need the
target machine to do, into b) the specific components I should include in the
configuration?

In my experience... it's largely down to experience. There are a couple
of books out on XPe, though, and you can always ask here and use google
groups to look through old posts to find out which components are likely
missing when it doesn't do a particular thing. Another thing that can
give you a lot of useful information is Dependency Walker. You can run
it against any application and see what files it requires, and then
search in Target Designer for which components include those files.

2a) For example, I was told that the target machine should have TCP/IP,
Direct-X, FTP, no desktop, etc. But even though the components are grouped
by funcationality, I still find multiple related components for each of
these, and I don't know which to include. Do I need to get more detailed
information from the client, and if so, what?

All information is useful - if there's any particular applications they
need, see if they can provide them to you, so you can make sure that
they work. Also, make sure that you're informed of any possible hardware
changes. *glowers in the general direction of our suppliers*

 

[Guest]

Well here's your first issue: XPe is not a real-time OS.

I was referring to the use of the target computers: they will run heavy
equipment in real-time, monitoring various procedures (cement mixing, asphalt
spreading, etc.) and making changes accordingly. The clients have an
in-house app that will do all that; it will simply be running on a box with
XPe as the OS. Does that change your comment?

Another thing that can
give you a lot of useful information is Dependency Walker. You can run
it against any application and see what files it requires, and then
search in Target Designer for which components include those files.

In all my poking around XPe I haven’t read about that. I should probably
run that against the client’s app (after they’re through upgrading it).
Where is Dependency Walker? I am using an eval copy of the XPe dev kit,
version 2.00.0807.0…

All information is useful - if there's any particular applications they
need, see if they can provide them to you, so you can make sure that
they work. Also, make sure that you're informed of any possible hardware
changes. *glowers in the general direction of our suppliers*

They only need their in-house app. Even email will be handled through their
app.
As for hardware changes, the boxes will all be the same… for now. Over
time, of course, that could change. What’s the best way, if any, to
accommodate such future changes?

Galisteo8
----------------------------------------------------------

 

[Heidi Linda]

I was referring to the use of the target computers: they will run heavy
equipment in real-time, monitoring various procedures (cement mixing, asphalt
spreading, etc.) and making changes accordingly. The clients have an
in-house app that will do all that; it will simply be running on a box with
XPe as the OS. Does that change your comment?

Sounds like. If it works on XPPro, it should work on XPe just fine.

In all my poking around XPe I haven’t read about that. I should probably
run that against the client’s app (after they’re through upgrading it).
Where is Dependency Walker? I am using an eval copy of the XPe dev kit,
version 2.00.0807.0…

Dependency walker can be found at http://www.dependencywalker.com/
There's also a number of useful tools at http://www.sysinternals.com/

They only need their in-house app. Even email will be handled through their
app.
As for hardware changes, the boxes will all be the same… for now. Over
time, of course, that could change. What’s the best way, if any, to
accommodate such future changes?

Device Update Agent can make a lot of changes, but if too much changes,
you'll need to create a new image.

 

[Guest]

If [the app] works on XPPro, it should work on XPe just fine.

Currently, the app is run on DOS machines. They want to start running it on
XPe. The app is, I think, being upgraded or re-coded in anticipation of this
change.

Device Update Agent can make a lot of changes, but if too much changes,

you'll need to create a new image.

So… Device Update Agent would be run on the target system itself before
installing the OS image?