ApiArm

These procedure is only a test so the instructions
herein represents the result of an experiment  even if it works
 To follow an to use it is totally at your own risk . 
The Trademarks NSBasic CE and MGCEWin32 pertain to the respective owners

The tool in question is one of the best tool that i know to use with the NSBasic CE to allow the user to call API under WinCE. The author released it freeware, without requesting any royalties for personal and for commercial use also, but on delivery time the only unit powered by an ARM Cpu was the HP820, an HPC, therefore into the MGCEWin32 package Mark Gamber (The Author) put only an HPCpro version of his .dll for the ARM. After reading somewhere that programs for HP820 worked as well on new HP720 PC2000 version i thought that it might be possible to use that dll with the PPC palm size also.(iPaq unit particularly). The target was tha same. To obtain the result performing common action and without modify the orginal code. To justify this experiment please note that NSB staff was unable to contact the author to obtain an official upgrade so i tried to bypass the problem as you can read here. To verify that the hpc Arm version contained into MGCEWin32.exe istallation program run also fine on an Arm ppc unit you must start the usual installation with a click on the file. This will extract all the cab files contained therein in a subfolder of the Active Sync folder. In this folder will be loaded all Cab files for all the supported Cpu. If you launch the program without any CE unit connected you get the following prompt.

anyway the CAB File you need has been extracted into the folder C:\Programmi\Microsoft ActiveSync\ MGCEWin32HPCPRO_ARM. Use Winzip (for example) and estract all the files contained into the above mentioned cab.

One file only contains the .dll file you need but this one and the others (that are only text instructions files) still have the original Cab internal name. Extract them to a temp folder you like a start to rename them as planned by the Author i.e as follows: Mgcewi~1.001 Rename MGCEWin321.Txt ( 16K ) Path \My Documents with link Mgcewi~2.002 Rename MGCEWin322.Txt ( 13K ) Path \My Documents with link APIEvent.003 Rename APIEvent.Txt ( 375 byte ) Path \My Documents 0APIMisc.004 Rename APIMisc.Txt ( 3K ) Path \My Documents Apista~1.005 Rename APIStatus.Txt ( 3K ) Path \My Documents APIShell.006 Rename APIShell.Txt ( 945 byte ) Path \My Documents Registry.007 Rename Registry.Txt ( 2 K ) Path \My Documents 000Timer.008 Rename Timer.Txt ( 607 byte ) Path \My Documents 000Tray.009 Rename Tray.Txt ( 919 byte ) Path \My Documents 0RASTest.010 Rename Ras.Txt ( 3 K ) Path \My Documents 00smimg1.011 Rename smimg1.bmp ( 246 byte ) optional icon for link 00smimg2.012 Rename smimg2.bmp ( 246 byte ) optional icon for link Mgcewi~1.013 Rename MGCEWin32.dll ( 132 K ) Path \Windows Connect your CE ARM Unit (iPaq for example). You will get an error when Install Manager will try to load the files extracted previously.

Ignore it, Abort installation and manually copy the renamed files in its own directories. The last step to execute is to register the .dll Class. You may do this also manually or install and use a program that could register the .dll for you. At this point the original aborted installation is completed. I omitted to use the link to the instructions because also with authomatic installaton i prefer to delete them and move the instructions files on the storage card to save space. You have now installed on your ARM PPC unit the original .dll developed by Mark Gamber for HPCpro that work (did you have any doubt ?) with ARM palm PPC also. DISCLAIMER

Anyone that will use these procedures, program or library will do this at his own risk without any responsability of mine for whatever reason or damage caused by the use of them. Thinking about the legal problem i consider that: API LIBRARY: As said the original package has been delivered for free use without any royalties claim and with the usual prohibition to deliver part of the package as standalone program or modify the code or the installation program. What we do:We use and start the original file.When installation stop as it finds Arm not supported we complete manually the hanged installation renaming, the original files, still with the internal Cab name, with their original names thence we copy them in their original paths. In this way we use the original Mark Gamber files without any change and without using a separate procedure to have it available. Conclusion: The lock that prevent the user to apply this .dll to an Arm powered PPC is not due to a choice of the author but simply to the fact that there were not such available unit at the developing time of the tools. So this workaround should not infringe the Author licence but only add a new possibility to use to good work he did in accordance with the original terms of the licence. (I think that if an authomatic procedure hangs it should be allowed to complete it manually) In accodance with the above you will not find here the available dll but you should use the original package, to check its full functionality, as established by the author. LAST HOUR NEW NSBasic CE staff posted on the his NewsGroup a zipped file including all M.Gamber Dlls and the relative Text files. As they were the first authorized by the author to deliver his work i have to think that, in addition to the above conclusion, should not be legal problem to use the files bypassing the unwanted problem caused by the original installer. MARK i have been glad to do this experiment but if you can update your program it will be better.

If you wish to see further workaround to increase the features of your NSBasic language see here