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Microsoft accused of falling behind in phone OS design

The new XDA closes applications you aren't using. Many early reviewers have complained about it: but did you know the reason? Arne Hess does: it's the way the Windows Mobile operating system works.

Several comments have been posted in newsgroups about the XDA II or "Himalaya" PDA - the latest phone edition of the Pocket PC - complaining that it has trouble with larger applications.

According to Hess's site, PPCW the truth is that the underlying OS, Windows CE, has inherent limitations in the number of processes it can handle. "The real problem is: the Windows CE platform isn't able to handle more then 32 processes simultaneously!" reports Hess.

The problem is that "processes" and "programs" aren't the same thing; and after a soft reset, the XDA II may not be running that many programs - but it may still be near its limit on processes. Each program may use several processes.

"By default it's running the typical Pocket PC apps plus the Pocket PC Phone Edition applications plus some HTC and O2 customized stuff like Bluetooth, IA Caller ID, IA Camera and for the O2 version O2 Active UI. This means that on an XDA II something around 26 tasks are already running in the background - right away after a soft reset," explains Hess.

Hess blames developers. "Developers should expect their apps to be closed in the background and plan on it. ODMs should move their camera, caller ID and Bluetooth stuff into Services and away from Apps," he explains. "This is one of the reasons that CE 4.x has the Services Manager."

The services manager is an application that loads DLLs that can perform background tasks "so you can write a service instead of a complete task that requires a separate process slot," he warns.

He warns that other devices using the Windows CE platform are likely to have similar problems, until the developer community re-adjusts the way programs are written for it. But he doesn't reveal what the limitations of the Services Manager are.