New tools from Microsoft to be announced in Orlando

[Andy Sjostrom]

<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/09/16/020916hnmobilenet.xml?s=IDGNS">http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/09/16/020916hnmobilenet.xml?s=IDGNS</a><br /><br />The releases of .NET Compact Framework Beta 2, SQL Server CE 2.0 and next version of Visual Studio .NET Beta that we already have reported about will be announced at the <a href="http://www.vslive.com/">VSLive developer conference in Orlando, Florida</a> which begins Monday. This InfoWorld article does a good job explaining what's going on! (Source: Chris Forsberg)<br /><br />"The .Net Compact Framework, which is a subset of the developer software for PCs and servers, is expected to extend that consistency to mobile application development, according to Rasmussen. ... SQL Server CE 2.0, which now has built-in support for the .Net Compact Framework, will be available for free, Microsoft said. The company hopes that giving the software away will help spur sales of the enterprise version of SQL Server, which can be used in conjunction with the CE version. ... SQL Server CE 2.0 can store data in the relational format, then extract that data and deliver it as an XML document for use with Web-based applications. ... "To the extent that they can make mobile and wireless development a seamless part of Visual Studio, they make it very, very easy for their installed base to migrate to a mobile environment. That's a huge leg up over competitors," Wilson said."

[BrianCooksey]

The system requirements (http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ce/productinfo/sysreq.asp) list CE 4.1 as a requirement for the CE device.

Any indication that there will be future support for PPC 2002? or will we have to wait for the next upgrade?

[Robert Levy]

The system requirements (http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ce/productinfo/sysreq.asp) list CE 4.1 as a requirement for the CE device.

Any indication that there will be future support for PPC 2002? or will we have to wait for the next upgrade?

I haven't had a chance to look at the final version yet, but the beta was compatible with Pocket PC, Pocket PC 2002, and CE.NET

[ThomasC22]

A good sign but I still think MS is taking WAY too long to release a final version of the .NET compact framework. I know it takes time and I'm not looking for buggy software either but with Java making such inroads I find myself wondering about how sucessful .NET will manage to be on the mobile device.

[BrianCooksey]

I forgot the obvious alternative that the documentaiton might be incorrect. :wink:

[Robert Levy]

A good sign but I still think MS is taking WAY too long to release a final version of the .NET compact framework. I know it takes time and I'm not looking for buggy software either but with Java making such inroads I find myself wondering about how sucessful .NET will manage to be on the mobile device.

Spend 5 minutes with the .NETcf beta, and you'll be amazed - this is a HUGE undertaking from Microsoft. I think it is quite understandable that they are taking so long and that this is WELL worth the wait. The good news is that the beta has been (mostly) stable enough to start working with.

Take a look at some of the articles on devbuzz.com for more info ;)

[/dev/niall]

The system requirements (http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ce/productinfo/sysreq.asp) list CE 4.1 as a requirement for the CE device.

Any indication that there will be future support for PPC 2002? or will we have to wait for the next upgrade?

Perhaps that's the requirement for managed apps?

[Ravenswing]

While I agree that the .NETcf is a huge undertaking, and Microsoft have done a good job of making it stable in beta (actually, I wouldn't expect any less), I'm less happy about it from a functional standpoint.

I always thought that the CLR and the Framework were designed to produce a write one, run anywhere mechanism; effectively Microsoft's Java replacement. Unfortunately, the Compact Framework really is compacted, as in bits are missing. The old APIs used to leave out functions that were duplicates of other functions with some parameters defaulted, or functions that were not usable on WinCE, but the CF has methods missing because (presumably) the code was too big. What that means is that, if you want to write for mobile and desktop devices, you have to take into account the mobile device when writing all the code, and write your own versions of the missing methods. Frankly, I think that's false economy, but there you go.

Oh, CE.NET should (eventually) come with the CLR and CF built in, but you can install and use a version of them on PPC2k2, which gives you managed code support.

[Scott R]

Spend 5 minutes with the .NETcf beta, and you'll be amazed - this is a HUGE undertaking from Microsoft. I think it is quite understandable that they are taking so long and that this is WELL worth the wait. The good news is that the beta has been (mostly) stable enough to start working with.
I disagree. This has taken them far too long. I look forward to playing with VB.NET and CF, but this is ridiculous. At the launch of PPC 2000, MS dangled the carrot of eVB. I am convinced that a large percentage of corporate sales were due to advocates within the organizations who believed that they could use eVB for RAD development. Well, it pretty much stunk. It was of beta quality, unsupported, and never improved/fixed. Furthermore, it lacked basic RAD functionality (i.e. - no menu builder, no built-in events for tap-and-hold, etc.). Around the time of PPC 2002, it became known that eVB would not be developed further and VB.NET/CF was the future. OK, so what about the present? This has to be a major embarrassment for them and I have to wonder how many corporations are patient enough to wait and/or purchase new PPC 2002 devices with the plan of using VB.NET/CF. I envision tons of iPaqs sitting around in corporations collecting dust because they were never able to use eVB as they envisioned. And, I don't know about your company, but the Fortune 500 companies I've worked for don't even like to touch MS software until it's been out a year or so and the first Service Pack has been released. Considering that this is still in Beta, that could be a long ways off.

Scott