Windows Phone Interoperability site

The announcement of the Windows Phone Developer Tools Update is the opportunity for us to say a few words about the Windows Phone Interoperability site. We opened the site last December with the focus on helping developers who have been creating phone applications on various platforms ramp up quickly on the Windows Phone 7 platform. The site initially includes content designed for iPhone developers and we will add resources for Android developers.

The site has a wealth of information for the new and experienced developer, with more content arriving in the next weeks.

Resources are organized into chapters, where developers can find the following detailed guides for Windows Phone development:

• Chapter 1: Windows Phone 7 Platform introduced to iPhone application developers
  This chapter presents the architecture and main features of platforms, highlighting similarities and differences.
• Chapter2: User Interface Guidelines
  This chapter presents the Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 novel user interface called Metro. It helps developers decide how to rethink the user interface for an application originally developed for the iPhone.
• Chapter 3:  Developer and designer tools introduced to iPhone application developers
  This chapter shows the similarities and differences between the toolsets for the iPhone and Windows Phone 7, as well as the development life-cycle.
• Chapter 4: C# programming introduced to Objective-C programmers
  This chapter highlights similarities and differences between the programming languages.

The first 4 chapters are now available for download (DOCX or PDF).

The Windows Phone Interoperability site also includes several videos of developers explaining how they transitioned from other platforms to Windows Phone 7, and revealing their secrets for successfully designing and building applications.

Groundspeak testimonial: experience developing the Geocaching phone application for Windows Phone 7

• Geocaching story, multi-platform development and demo of the Geocaching applications on Windows Phone 7
• Design decisions (porting existing phone apps to WP7 or not), how to ramp up on the Metro user interface concepts, and how designers and developers worked as a team.

At Microsoft, we’re committed to ensuring phone developers have the necessary tools for building applications on the Windows Phone platform. The goal of the Windows Phone Interoperability site is to make it easy for developers with experience on other platforms to learn as quickly as possible. The site will also provide tools and guidance to help developers building applications for multiple platforms.

-- Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, Sr. Technical Evangelist , @openatmicrosoft