The company also says this latest release of Visual CE adds flexibility for both developers and mobile users, and provides an expanded set of development tools that are all within a "no programming required" environment.
"We've seen an explosion in creativity in the types of applications for which handhelds are being used, from monitoring medical services in third world countries to tracking homing pigeons," said Sy Danberg, President of Syware. "As a result, our emphasis has been on adding an even more flexible array of functions to Visual CE. Support for more peripheral devices, additional messaging and alarm functionality, all are part of our dictate to provide the most powerful yet easy to use application development environment for the mobile world."
The company says with Visual CE 8, expanded support for variables provides a new level of flexibility for developers. Controls such as edit controls, radio buttons, command buttons, and jump buttons can now be connected to variables (the new release supports up to 100 variables per application). This allows developers to create actions based on data not stored in the database, such as jumping to a new function based on data entered by a user. Variables can also be used in filter conditions, allowing developers to define a filter based on a value entered by the user.
According to the company, Visual CE 8 provides expanded functionality for bar code scanning, supporting Socket Communications' new line of In-Hand Scan Cards and Symbol's PPT 2700 Pocket PC with integrated bar code scanner. "One-click" software triggers can be used to start bar code scans instead of the traditional, two-handed, manual process.
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