whether to use windows CE/ xpEmbedded / 3rd party VS2005 barcode s

[Guest]

hiya,
I'm a .NET guy, who has the opportunity for a barcode scanning project.
I have read "Building a Windows XP Embedded Device" tutorial, by Mike Hall.

Can anyone suggest best route to go? I have to:
1) scan barcode labels
2) send the details to an underlying database.

As far as I know, if I:
1) use windows CE, then I can use the device as the scanner.
2) use xpEmbedded, then I'd have to buy a scanner device

Sorry for the vague post, I know there is a wealth of info, but it's all
fairly confusing.
Any article suggestions very much appreciated.

cheers folks,
yogi

 

[Gordon Smith \(eMVP\)]

hiya,
I'm a .NET guy, who has the opportunity for a barcode scanning
project.
I have read "Building a Windows XP Embedded Device" tutorial, by Mike
Hall.

Can anyone suggest best route to go? I have to:
1) scan barcode labels
2) send the details to an underlying database.

As far as I know, if I:
1) use windows CE, then I can use the device as the scanner.
2) use xpEmbedded, then I'd have to buy a scanner device

Sorry for the vague post, I know there is a wealth of info, but it's
all fairly confusing.
Any article suggestions very much appreciated.

cheers folks,
yogi

As you admitted, that is a somewhat vague post so the answer almost by
necessity will be vague as well.

The decision on which to use depends on a lot of other factors as well. In
gross generalities, the following is true:

XPe will cost more for runtime licenses but cost less in development
time/effort.
CE will cost less for runtime licenses but cost more in development
time/effort.
Therefore, there is a unit count threshold where you might want to choose CE
over XPe strictly on a price basis. You also have to consider the price of
the hardware. CE devices tend to be cheaper than XPe devices.

Either OS can have a fully functional solution for you. CE has the ability
to interace with barcode scanners and in fact, many premade devices serve
exactly that purpose (symbol, intermec, etc.). XPE has the ability to
interface with them as well. If you are using 3rd party applications that
already work on XP Pro, there would be ZERO porting effort to get that app
to work on XPE. The same is not true for CE. Other factors would include
form factor and thus potentially battery -vs- plugin? If you are going for
a battery operated device, CE is a more likely choice. If you will be
scanning at a fixed location (such as at a cashier with a POS terminal), XPE
can be a more likely choice.

It really all depends on what constraints you have (time, cost, learning
curve, 3rd party apps, etc.) and what you're trying to optimize (time to
market, device/license cost, etc.).

 

[Guest]

hiya Gordon,

thanks for the reply.
My requirements are fairly simple, and I want to keep costs down.I'll
probably have to produce a solution within a couple of weeks.
I'm currently looking at a USB Output barcode scanner / RS232 serial output
scanner.
I'm hoping that I can write some code that will obtain the data from the
scanned barcodes...

still a bit to learn though

many thanks