eMbedded Visual Tools Goes .NET and Stays Free

[Andy Sjostrom]

It seems as if the Visual Studio .NET team at Microsoft will get some competition from an unexpected party. The eMbedded Visual Tools team, which is responsible for the free mobile application development tools and languages, has put together a new version of their product. The new product is called eMbedded Visual Tools .NET and makes it possible to target the .NET Compact Framework in much the same way as the full Visual Studio .NET can. The new product will be available before summer, according to the press release that goes live later today. Very cool!

[Venturello]

Very, very cool indeed. This will keep the entry fee for new pocket pc developers very low - with a free alternative available, not a very expensive (or not, if you are a pro) product like Studio. What I hope is that it does not include crippled components like eVB was - IMO, totally useless. (could develop stuff using it very fast, but the outcome not the best... and very limited in what you could do with it)

Nice of MS to do this - can't wait to check it out.

[AhuhX]

I read a rumour on the MSDN boards if you order the free CD online that they will be giving away a 15% pre-order discount voucher on the new iPaq 2200 model with it! Apparently you need a next gen device to run the tools hence the discount offer. I quote the MS developer on the board...

"...MS fully appreciates the efforts of it's relatively small developer base to counter Palm's huge installed base of applications. As a thank you to our valued Pocket PC developers who have taken so much of their valuable time to develop free applications and have helped grow our user base, we will be offering a next-gen device at a hugley discounted rate to enable the development of next generation .Net applications... the development of the new Wireless Web Service (WWS) enabled applications will require a next generation wireless device running PPC 2003. It won't work on PPC 2002... the first device to be offered will be the iPaq 2200 at 15% discount followed by a new device from Toshiba."

Even better news is that he said the offer will probably extend to international customers also!!! About Time MS! :D

I can't wait to order my copy!!!

[Jafar]

Now I know that the .NET Compact Framework will not support HPC's anymore. Any idea of the embedded tools will? I don't understand why Microsoft has decided to shaft the HPC product line, but I guess there's a lot of things microsoft does that I don't understand. One last thing. What is up with the "Palm Rulez" crap on the top left?

Jafar

[Pony99CA]

With the other April Fool's jokes here, I'm thinking this could be one, too. :-) I can't believe the Visual Studio group would allow this.

Steve

[Kevin Daly]

With the other April Fool's jokes here, I'm thinking this could be one, too. :-) I can't believe the Visual Studio group would allow this.

Steve

I agree...I notice there's no link :)

[FredMurphy]

I was wondering if it was an April Fool too. :? Not impossible though - just a bit unlikely.

How come nobody had done a Photoshop mock-up of a "new" PDA - that's the sort of quality I've come to expect from Pocket PC Thoughts. :D

Faked an Ananova news article for my website saying Google had just bought us for £16m and all 3000 of our registered members were getting a £500 'Thank you' from us. :twisted: Oooh - I'm just SO cruel!

[Venturello]

Please please please let this not be an April's fools!!! Pleeeeeeeeaseeeeeeee this is CRUEL!!!!!

(when this was posted, there was no Palm Rulez title, right?)

[antoni]

Well, one day or another developing .NET applications will have a cost. I'm sure Microsoft has it all planned.

[Shadowcat]

The Palm Rulez! is funny. This .NET article is most definately part of the April Fools jokes :devilboy:.

If only it were true.....:soapbox:
Microsoft, are you listening? Yeah right :roll:.

[mscdex]

Too bad this is an April Fool's Joke. It would have been truly great news for us developers... :roll:

[Scott R]

With MS management being so stingy with their money for the PPC team that the next version of the OS is long overdue and rumored to be woefully short on improvements, do you really think they'd fund a team to build a free development IDE when all they really need to do is bundle the .NET CF with the standalone .NET products (which sell for about $99 each)?

Scott

[PPCRules]

Too bad this is an April Fool's Joke. It would have been truly great news for us developers... :roll:
Maybe this is discussed every year, but does Sweden even have 'April Fool's Day' (at any rate, they wouldn't have a 'Fourth of July').

What I hope is that it does not include crippled components like eVB was - IMO, totally useless. (could develop stuff using it very fast, but the outcome not the best... and very limited in what you could do with it)

I doubt it would include something like that, but I wish it would. I think everyone should be able to develop PPC apps, and eVB did that. No cost barrier and no steep learning curve barrier. It was something Palm could never offer.

So what's the problem with including a component you don't want to use. Just don't use it. Yeah, it may divert development resources and delay release, but once the tool is produced, I think it benefits the entire PPC community. (To quote someone famous: "Developers, Developers, Developers, ...")

[Jhokur2k]

They would still have a 4th of July.. just not the same meaning.

[CR]

oh, that was just wrong...

[Will T Smith]

With the other April Fool's jokes here, I'm thinking this could be one, too. :-) I can't believe the Visual Studio group would allow this.

Steve

I too believe that this is probably an April Fool's joke. However, I'm not too certain that this is an impossibility.

The Professional versions of Visual Studio .net provide a myriad of tools that are designed for RAD development on an enterprise scale. There's a VERY big focus on breaking down barriers between the web and traditional applications. There's also a big focus on data integration with .net across XML, OLE DB sources and SQL Server sources.

Studio professional provides a but-load of tools (I'm working with it right now for MCAD C# certification). The idea of providing a simplified version that does nothing more than allow the development of simple PocketPC/Smartphone .net applications doesn't seem strange at all. Enterprise level developers (especially wireless providers) would find little advantage in using a free, stripped down version, since the RAD connectivity tools likely would not be present.

Beyond that we've all pointed out the foolishness of trying to push .net against Java WITHOUT the availability of FREE tools, a dev kit at minimum. I fully expect to see a free .net/cf version after the roll out of Studio .net 2003. Whey no announcment now ... well they're not selling it, why would they promote it :-)