"I come from a T-SQL background, so when I first laid my eyes on SQL Server 2005, I was shocked--and then, I was scared! I didn't have a CLR or XML background and suddenly had an urgent need to learn it. SQL Server 2005 is too big of a release to learn from the books online. Fortunately, now there is a book for developers who need to go from SQL Server 2000 to SQL Server 2005 and to do it as painlessly as possible. Basically, it's one-stop shopping for serious developers who have to get up to speed quickly. I'll keep this one on my desk--not on my bookshelf. Well done, Bob and Dan!"

I've been working with Windows CE for almost as long as it's been in existence. A Windows programmer for many years, I'm amazed by the number of different, typically quite small, systems to which I can apply my Windows programming experience. These Windows CE systems run the gamut from PC-like mini-laptops to embedded devices buried deep in some large piece of industrial equipment. The use of the Win32 API in Windows CE enables tens of thousands of Windows programmers to write applications for an entirely new class of systems. The subtle differences, however, make writing Windows CE code somewhat different from writing for the desktop versions of Windows. It's those differences that I'll address in this book.

This book shows you how to write programs that run under Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, and Windows NT 5.0. These programs are written in the C programming language and use the native Windows application programming interfaces (APIs). As I'll discuss later in this chapter, this is not the only way to write programs that run under Windows. However, it is important to understand the Windows APIs regardless of what you eventually use to write your code.