Great times to be Pocket PC developer

[Andy Sjostrom]

<a href="http://www.microsoftmobilitypress.com/site/home/main100.asp?SiteArea=100a">http://www.microsoftmobilitypress.com/site/home/main100.asp?SiteArea=100a</a><br /><br />I bring you too, highly regarded Developers, some smiling news today! As you know, Microsoft hosts its first Mobile Developer Conference in London today and tomorrow. I believe about one thousand developers will attend. What an inspirational crowd it must be!<br /><br />I am so glad to hear that Microsoft is announcing the availability of the beta .NET Compact Framework today! With the Smart Device Extensions this is all we need to go .NET today: "The .NET Compact Framework is Microsoft's mobile application platform technology that harnesses the power of XML Web services on mobile devices. The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework brings this vision to the most capable devices, including the Pocket PC 2000, Pocket PC 2002 and other devices based on Windows(r) CE .NET. As a subset of the .NET Framework, the .NET Compact Framework shares the same programming model and application development tools, enabling .NET developers to transfer their existing skills to build mobile applications, which is expected to accelerate adoption of mobile solutions."<br /><br />That's it for me today! I've had a great day! Lots of cheerful news, and it's so much fun to share it all with you!<br /><br /><b>UPDATE:</b> This is how you download the bits! Go to Microsoft's <a href="http://www.BetaPlace.com/">BetaPlace</a> and login with user name "SDEBeta" and password ".NetCF".

[/dev/niall]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't this beta been available for a while?

Do I have to have Visual Studio .NET, or will they supply a free development environment?

[BigCanoe]

The alpha version has been available, this is Beta 1, and from what I understand, about 10x better performaning.

I think you need to supply your own copy of VS.NET, I think there is a free trial?

[cyngon]

Am I missing something?

I can't figure out where I'm supposed to download the thing.

Great news though, I can't wait for the final version to come out.

Cheers,
Bryan

[/dev/niall]

Thanks Canoe... we have an MSDN subscription at work, but since my job here is developing on Unix I'd feel guilty grabbing VS.NET ;). I suppose I should bite the bullet and go out and buy it.

[Perry Reed]

I can't figure out where I'm supposed to download the thing.



You're not the only one! I can't figure out from where to download it either.

[rcobourn]

Well, you have to sign up for the beta so you can't get it immediately, but here is the link to apply: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/device/smartdev.asp

[BigCanoe]

Yup, fill out the survey, and I guess they send you the information in a few days on how to download the beta.

[Scott R]

Any updates as to when the final release is expected?

This lack of a release-quality RAD development tool for the PPC has got to be the biggest (and least talked about) news item out there, IMO. All of these enterprise customers who purchased PPCs with the idea of developing in-house apps can't be too pleased right now. eVB was (and is) beta quality and sorely lacking in features. Now, the new and improved development tools are beta quality too.

Andy, let us know what the overall quality is like on this beta. I'm also curious as to app compile sizes and speed comparisons with eVB. Thanks,

Scott

[jpzr]

UPDATE: This is how you download the bits! Go to Microsoft's BetaPlace (http://www.BetaPlace.com/) and login with user name "SDEBeta" and password ".NetCF".


Andy could you post somewhere screenshots from .NET CF ?

[JayLagorio]

I'm also curious as to app compile sizes and speed comparisons with eVB.
The speed is excellent! With the exception of a slight delay when first opening a .NET program and closing it, it runs very nicely.

Yes, you will need to buy a version of a VS.NET tool to use this software, there are no free environments. The good thing (or maybe not so good) is that instead of having to shell out huge money for a full version with multiple languages, you can purchase languages seperately for about $100 each, so instead of getting many things you don't need, you can get just VB.NET or C#.NET if that's all you want. The Compact Framework seems to work with those configurations.

[jpzr]

I'm also curious as to app compile sizes and speed comparisons with eVB.
$100 each, so instead of getting many things you don't need, you can get just VB.NET or C#.NET if that's all you want. The Compact Framework seems to work with those configurations.


to develop applications for .NET CF is it therefore enough to buy
Visual C# .NET for 110 USD
instead of
Visual Studiow .NET for over 1000 USD
?

[JayLagorio]

Yes, if that's the only language you'll be using. You can also get two and combine them, so you can buy C# and VB for about $200 US, instead of having to take the package deal.