Notes on Tablet PC's and Software Development for Tablet PC's

Using the Tablet PC:

Tablet PC capabilities are included in Windows XP Service Pack 2 and beyond.

The laptops we will use are convertible: they can be folded (carefully!) into tablet form (hiding the keyboard) or used in standard laptop form.

The pen can be used in the same way as a mouse - you can:

• move the cursor by moving the pen - note that the pen does not have to touch the screen, but merely hover near it.
• select an item by tapping it lightly.
• double-click by double-tapping.
• right-click by depressing the button on the pen.

Additionally, applications that are Ink-enabled permit special actions to be performed, most notably use of the pen to input handwriting and drawing. For instance, the Windows Journal application presents the user with a virtual pad of paper, on which writing may be done. Ink is entered and saved as objects, not converted directly to bitmaps. This allows Ink objects to be moved and manipulated, used for handwriting recognition, etc. Ink objects have many properties, which include not only their physical shape, but timing data that describe when they were input.

You can learn more about the use of Tablet PC's and their software at the Tablet PC website: http://www.tabletpc.com

Software Development for the Tablet PC:

In order to encourage development and use of Tablet PC's, Microsoft has made available a nice toolkit for developers. To use it, you need to use Visual Studio .NET. This is a more recent release of the Microsoft development environment than Visual Studio 6.0. It is also helpful, but not necessary, to do your development on a Tablet PC. If you develop your code on a non-Tablet, you will need to transport your application to a Tablet PC to run it.

Some of the main features of Visual Studio .NET that were not available in earlier versions are:

• availability of Graphics User Interface (GUI) tools for languages other than Visual Basic
• presence of a new language, C# .

The language C# is highly recommended by Microsoft as a development platform. It is similar to C++ and Java, and comes with the Managed API (Application Programmer Interface). Visual Basic .NET also uses the Managed API, whereas Visual C++ and Visual Basic use the COM API, which is less recommended for development because it is harder (messier) to use. We will use Visual Studio .NET and C# for Tablet PC development in this course.

You can download demos and view extensive online help at the Tablet PC Developer website: http://www.tabletpcdeveloper.com