Developer Resources

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Developer Resources

Platforms

Microsoft Visual Studio

Visual Studio is very easy to use an includes everything you need to develop all kinds of Windows applications, including applications for Windows Mobile. A very inexpensive trial version can be used to evaluate the full product and contains all of the functionality of the full version. A link can be found from the Visual Studio page linked below. Microsoft Visual Studio page on microsoft.com

Not all versions of Visual Studio can be used for Windows Mobile development. Contrary to popular misconception none of the Express versions of Visual Studio can be used for Windows Mobile development. For Visual Studio 2005 one must use Standard Edition or higher to develope for Windows Mobile (from Windows Mobile 2003 to Windows Mobile 6). For Visual Studio 2008 one must use Professional Edition or better to develop for Windows Mobile 5 or Windows Mobile 6.

While expensive Microsoft makes Visual Studio available to students for free through the Dream Spark program. Individuals wishing to acquire Visual Studio can sign up for the ISV Empowerment Program. Membership in the program cost approximatly 375 USD an include Visual Studio along with several other tools.

Embedded Visual C++

Embedded Visuall C++ is a free compiler available from Microsoft for developing on Windows CE and Windows Mobile devices.

Other Development Platforms

Microsoft's Visual Studio product is an excellent tool for developing Windows Mobile applications. Unfortunately, it's also very expensive. Fortunately, Visual Studio isn't the only way to develop applications for Windows Mobile. An article by Joel Ivory Johnson on CodeProject: Windows Mobile Development Without Visual Studio.

Languages

Visual Basic.Net

One of the two .Net languages available for creating managed programs for Windows Mobile. Visual Basic.Net (also abbreviated as VB.Net) is popular among beginners because of its English like semantics but results in more verbose code.

Visual C++

C++ is used for native development on Windows Mobile. C++ gives the developer more access to the low level functionality of the Windows Mobile device. However developers using C++ must be more careful about ensuring that resources are managed properly; in the managed development environments many aspects of resource management are handled automatically while in native environments resources are only freed when the developer frees them (failure to do so leads to memory leaks ant unnecessary out of memory errors).

Visual C#

One of the two .Net languages available for creating managed programs on Windows Mobile. C# has elements that are similar to the Java programming language. It is the more popular of the two .Net programming languages. Pronounced "C-sharp"

Books

Mobile Developer's Handbook

For Net developers the Mobile Developer's Handbook is the defacto book for mobile development. It covers aspects of mobile databases, optimizing code, networking, security, and introduces the graphical functionality available from within .Net including DirectX. The samples for this book are written in C#.

Programming Windows Embedded CE 6.0

One of the best native code references available. This book was written with Windows Embedded CE as the target platform. Since Windows Mobile is derived from Windows Embedded CE a majority of the information in this book is applicable to Windows Mobile development. The samples for this book are written in C++.

Developer Resources

From pocketnow.com

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