modify project without re-build whole winCE image

Hi,

What I am doing now?
-- steps : 1 .select template for "set top box"
2 . Add new "project" to it
3. add "files " to project
4. build OS image
5. download on CEPC and Run.

Problem : when I want to modify "project" , I have to build whole OS image
again. And taking too much time.

** If I build project separately and down load OS image on CEPC , than it
wont work for me.

Can some one suggest me how to modify project without rebuild OS image??

Thanks & Regrds,
Jadav Bheda

Henrik
Tue Jan 03 01:46:37 CST 2006

Build the project and then run "Make Run-time Image" under the "Build
OS" menu.

The build output from your project will end up in your platform
project's output directory. "Make Run-time image" will recreate the
OS-image ("nk.bin") with the updated files.

However, you can go even further. If you have the debug connection set
up properly so that you have access to the release directory from the
device (mapped as "Release" under the root directory on the device)you
can cut down development roundtrip times even more:

Start by excluding the project from the image by deselecting it on the
"Image Settings" tab in the Platform Settings. Since the updated files
still end up in the Release directory (wich is accessible from the
device through the debug connection) you could just rebuild the project
and immediately debug it without even restarting the OS-image.

Henrik Viklund

Steve
Tue Jan 03 10:52:08 CST 2006

>Start by excluding the project from the image by deselecting it on the
You don't really need to do that and it can lead to confusion later if you
forget to put the module back into the image. Instead, from the PB main
menu, select "Target | Release Directory Modules..." and add your module
name to that list. The kernel will use the debug connection to check that
list and always load the module from the \Release directory. That way you
can do edit compile debug cycles without ever disconnecting the debug
connection or resetting the device AND you don't need to change the settings
for the workspace again to incorporate the image. I've seen people forget to
restore the module back and it all works fine in debug builds but then when
the release build happens stuff mysteriously fails to work because the
module isn't in the image anymore. Using the Release directory modules
prevents that problem.

--
Steve Maillet
EmbeddedFusion
www.EmbeddedFusion.com
smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com

Henrik
Tue Jan 03 12:25:53 CST 2006

Steve, you are correct (as usual ;-). Reading the post again I realize
that I jumped conclusions *blush*. Thanks for clarifying. I had just
finished setting up a project this way. I usually set up a small helper
project when developing device drivers. The helper project is used to
manually load and unload the driver, patch the registry etc. Excluding
it from the image makes it easier to evolve it along with the driver,
and it will not end up in the release image. The driver is set up the
way you describe.

Henrik Viklund

Steve
Tue Jan 03 12:56:32 CST 2006

> I usually set up a small helper project when developing device drivers.
> The helper project is used to
> manually load and unload the driver, patch the registry etc. Excluding
> it from the image makes it easier to evolve it along with the driver,
> and it will not end up in the release image.

That's a good general practice worthy of mention on it's own. For any driver
not loaded from a PnP bus this saves a lot of time. I'm planning on creating
a generalized loader so that each driver doesn't need it's own. I'm hoping
to include that as part of upcoming presentations on driver best practices.

--
Steve Maillet
EmbeddedFusion
www.EmbeddedFusion.com
smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com

Henrik
Tue Jan 03 13:34:06 CST 2006

I've actually in the process of genralizing the util I'm using (it's
just a small matter of immaterial rights to sort out, so I may need to
do a complete rewrite. Hope you do not beat me to it;-). It took me
quite some time to figure out these techniques by myself, and
concidering how much time you can save, i just can't understand how I
could ever have worked without them. Still, I meet developers "almost
every day" that do there development totally unaware of any of the
techniques we've discussed here.

Henrik Viklund

Steve
Tue Jan 03 15:59:42 CST 2006

>Still, I meet developers "almost
>every day" that do there development totally unaware of any of the
>techniques we've discussed here.
Yep, "someday" I'll write a book on this stuff. Maybe now that the OS
releases have slowed down a tad there's actually a chance of completing it
before it goes obsolete!


--
Steve Maillet
EmbeddedFusion
www.EmbeddedFusion.com
smaillet at EmbeddedFusion dot com