To develop for the SP 2002, you will need the Microsoft eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 and the SmartPhone 2002 SDK. Both can be had at
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobi...r/default.mspx.
The only officially supported language is C++, although there has been some hacks that make it possible to target the SP with eMbedded VB (
http://www.omnisoft.com/articles/spevb/default.asp ).
SmartPhone 2002 does not support the .Net Compact Framework, although SmartPhone 2003 does - and it has the Framework in ROM (I can't wait).
Grab the SP 2002 SDK and look through the docs. There's lots of samples in there, and the overall documentation is fairly good. Also check out:
SmartPhone Developer Network -
http://www.smartphonedn.com/
PocketPC Developer Network -
http://www.pocketpcdn.com/sections/mail.html (Some of this is applicable to the SP)
SmartDevices Community -
http://smartdevices.microsoftdev.com
Microsoft "Official" CE Development Site -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobi...s/default.mspx
MSDN Mobility -
http://msdn.microsoft.com/mobility/
Dev resources -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobi...s/default.mspx
For newsgroups, visit
news://microsoft.public.smartphone.developer
Good luck!