The Mobile Developer

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Hi again. This is the my first blog entry after moving from the C# UE team, to the MED UA team – also known as the Mobile and Embedded Developer User Assistance team. My new role currently has me acting as an advocate for anyone developing for the Pocket PC and Smartphone, be in it C++, Visual Basic or Visual C#.

 

In other words, if you are busy coding away in that special zen-like state which we love so much, and then come to a grinding halt because you can’t find the information you need, let me know – and I’ll work to get it into the next release of the documentation. I’m taking a look at the docs from my own perspective as a developer, and I have some strong opinions on making them as useful as possible. I’m hoping my opinions will align with yours!

 

Anyway, a lot of what is going on at the moment around me is very exciting, but sadly also very NDA which means, unfortunately, that I can’t tell you about the new features that will be coming to the Smart Device platform in the very near future.

 

What I do know from looking at the figures is that most developers are using C++ and therefore are coding in a Native environment. I have to say, even with my own natural skeptism for Managed code on a Smart Device, after seeing what is coming, I think you might be surprised at the giant leaps the Managed side has made since Visual Studio 2005. For a lot of applications, using C# or Visual Basic might be a quicker and more reliable way of working. But we’ll be coming back to that topic in future blogs, believe me.

 

Anyway, one thing you could help me with right now is to let me know (roughly) what kind of application you are, or will be, creating for Smart Devices. I’ve made a start of a list, and the more application types I can distinguish, the more I can make sure we tailor the documentation to suit your needs.

 

Feel free to drop me a line directly, or just post a reply with any new application category, cheers!

 

Smart Device Applications 

  • Games programming (2D, non-real time puzzle games)
  • Games programming (2D and 3D action games)
  • User Interface Enhancements (Today/Home screen plug-ins for example).
  • Client Applications (talking to databases, collecting information in the field)
  • Location Aware applications (using GPS data)
  • Messaging Applications (building custom email or SMS clients)