Gumstix Programming

[EHaskins]

What does it cost to get a gumstix running Windows CE?

[fowlerm]

Originally Posted by EHaskins

What does it cost to get a gumstix running Windows CE?

I have used the Gumstix Connex 400xm - 400MHz XScale and 16MB of flash, which looks like it's going for $129 now. You also need a "tweener" board which gives you a serial port as well as access to the JTAG lines. You will need an ARM JTAG programmer - you can build one yourself or buy one like this .

As far as software goes, you will need Microsoft Platform Builder (there is a free 120-day trial) and Visual Studio 2005 (for .NET CF development).

That will get you to where you can flash the Drumstix bootloader onto the Gumstix and begin building CE OS images. As long as your OS image includes the .NET CF runtime you can connect to the Gumstix with VS2005 and download applications.

[yongkimleng]

I see.. so you're running of .NET framework? Wonder if there is any support for non .NET like VB/VC6 ...

[fowlerm]

Originally Posted by yongkimleng

I see.. so you're running of .NET framework? Wonder if there is any support for non .NET like VB/VC6 ...

There is support in both Platform Builder and Visual Studio 2005 for developing native code. VS2005 supports native code development in C++ and this support will be greatly enhanced with VS2005 SP1.

There was a legacy product called eMbedded VB that allowed for VB6-like development for PocketPC, but support for that was dropped with the introduction of PocketPC 2003 and VB.NET with the .NET CF.

[EHaskins]

Thanks for showing me Drumstix. I have one question, do you know if VS.net 2003 would work? I only have the express editions of 2005, and since I'm on a limited budget for this I don't want to go spend $500 on VS 2005.

[fowlerm]

Originally Posted by EHaskins

I have one question, do you know if VS.net 2003 would work?

VS2003 will work, but only for developing managed applications and you will only be able to target .NET CF 1. There is a VS2003 add-in called Windows CE Utilities that you need to install to be able to connect directly to the CE device for debugging.

If you need to develop native apps you can download eMbedded VC++, which is free.

Edit: I forgot - doesn't VS2005 Standard come in the FIRST KoP?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

I'm wondering why you would want to run CE when there is a perfectly good linux kernel that comes standard with these things.

I've decided to do all of my linux-for-robotics development in a scripting language. I haven't decided yet (Python, Perl, Ruby) because I simply haven't had the time to look into it. Robots typically follow a command structure which is constantly changing. It seems logical to use an easily changeable script to manage this, rather than cross compiling each time you want to change something.

As good as it this is, you will probably be able to get better efficiency from a compiled C program. Gumstix uses an intel chip so the standard GCC should be fine.

Keep us updated on your project.

[EHaskins]

I have used .NET a lot, and I don't even have a Linux machine! If I'm going to spend $200-$500 on a gumstix I want to know I can use it.

[fowlerm]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

I'm wondering why you would want to run CE when there is a perfectly good linux kernel that comes standard with these things.

The biggest reason is that it provides a powerful and stable OS (not to say that Linux isn't) that many developers would be more familiar with. CE shares many of the same SDK features as Win32, and the .NET CF makes it even easier to transition from desktop to embedded development.

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

It seems logical to use an easily changeable script to manage this, rather than cross compiling each time you want to change something.

This isn't really an issue since .NET can dynamically load assemblies. Also there are many scripting languages that will work with the .NET CF. As soon as the .NET CF includes the System.Reflection.Emit namespace I will be doing most of my robotics development using IronPython (Python for the .NET CLR).

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

As good as it this is, you will probably be able to get better efficiency from a compiled C program.

This is true, but there are many things that you can do to speed up your applications. The biggest issue is memory consumption (because of the JIT compiler), but with good coding this can be minimized. For a comparison of execution speed of the .NET CF 2 vs. native code on the PXA255 CPU this is a great article. Also, the .NET CF can invoke native methods from managed code, so you always have the option of mixing managed and native code to speed things up.