[Gdal-dev] Windows CE port of GDAL - work started

[Mateusz Łoskot]

Hi,

I'd like to announce that I started to port GDAL/OGR to Windows CE.
Company I work for - Taxus SI Ltd. (www.taxussi.com.pl) - has decided to 
move our mapping libraries for Windows and Windows CE to use GDAL/OGR.
We started to work on port of GDAL/OGR to be able to 
compile it with eMbedded Visual C++ (evc4) and use it on Windows CE-based
operating systems.
Mainly, I'm involved in this porting project. 
There is also my colleague - Krzysztof - from my company 
but he will do part-time work on this port, management mainly.

The Roadmap of my work

1.   First, my aim is to compile CPL port library using evc4 compiler and do some tests on Windows CE based devices.
2.   Port OGR part of GDAL to Windows CE with at least Shapelib as data format.
2.1. Write some test application - Shapefile viewer - based on OGR for Windows CE.
3.   Port other useful vector formats of OGR.
4.   Port GDAL with raster formats to Windows CE.

Note: 
Point 3 and 4 are planned to future work.
Vector support is now most important for me, 
because company I work for needs it in short time (October-November).

As I talk to Frank Warmerdam, next week, or two I will send him my code of OGR port to Windows CE.
Then we do some review and correct my code (online).
After Frank will like my port he move it to the official CVS repositiory.
...and Windows CE port of GDAL/ORG will live together with official version.
That should be helpful to track new changes to GDAL/OGR and add it to the Windows CE port.

My and my company I work for idea is to publish all changes we will release.
Then everyone who is interested in using and/or contributing to the Windows CE port
is strongly welcome.
So, we are doing first step alone, after that it will by available for everyone.

State of the work

Yesterday, I managed to compile CPL from MITAB project using evc4 without any errors, only a few warnings.
OGR in MITAB is cutted-down version, so I decided to start with this one as potentially simplier to work with.
Today, I'm merging my CPL-from-MITAB changes to official CPL version, included in GDAL.
Next week, I'm on a 3-days bussines trip (starting from Wednesday) so, 
I have only Monday and Tuesday to work on OGR port.
But I believe that till the end of September I will release Windows CE port and send it to Frank for review.

I'm curious if anyone is interested in GDAL/OGR port for Windows CE.

My casual thoughts

On my huge TODO list I have also to try to compile GDAL/OGR with
Intel(R) C++ Compiler for Windows* CE. I have only evaluation version of this compiler
so if someone has a license and could help me to test my port, please give me a note.

I think I will follow Frank Warmerdam's roadmap and suggestions, as he is a project leader.
My company I work for has no plans to develop our own GDAL/OGR version separated from official source tree.


All suggestions and ideas are welcome!

Best regards

-- 
Mateusz Łoskot
mateusz at loskot dot net