Being a polyglot developer: tools & guidance to help iPhone developers learn Windows Phone 7

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To be honest, I used to be a developer coding for a living, and now I’d say I’m a savvy hobbyist. I’m surrounded at work by brilliant developers, and even if I write very little code, I’m still very passionate about it. So, assuming you are like me a happy coder, the joy of developing software all comes down to a few things:  

  • Building something cool that users will enjoy
  • Getting rewards from users and recognition from peers
  • Learning how to solve new challenges and build novel features.

Even if you have a solid expertise on a particular platform/language, I think it is essential to be a “polyglot” developer. In other words, you might have a native or preferred language, but opening your mind to others can be very stimulating and will bring considerable value to your abilities and your resume.

Jumping from one platform or language to another can introduce breaking changes in your habits, but ultimately I believe change is very healthy for any individual and as a side effect it will expand your opportunities.

If you are a .NET developer, learning Windows Phone development is not really “change.” Instead, it is more of a continuum, where you just add new features to what you already know. If you are an iPhone developer, new to Windows Phone (and .NET), yes this is different. But don’t worry. The learning curve is not as steep as you would imagine.

So you may ask: “how can I leverage my iPhone development expertise to build Windows Phone 7 applications?”

imageI’d just tell you: there’s no magic wand that will do the work for you, but we have put together a great package to help you get started. It’s available at http://windowsphone.interoperabilitybridges.com/, and I’ve just posted the announcement on the Windows Phone Developer blog:
Leveraging your iPhone development expertise to build Windows Phone 7 applications

Feel free to pass along to your friends Smile

Jean-Christophe Cimetiere, Sr. Technical Evangelist – Interoperability
@jccim - blogs.msdn.com/interoperability