Windows CE dev in VS - decent books?

**voodooflux** · 2 January 2009, 00:47

For books then the Microsoft Mobile Development Handbook is probably worth a look - one of the authors (Peter Foot) was a major force behind the OpenNETCF framework that plugged a lot of the gaps in the original 1.x releases of the .NET Compact Framework.

If you're just after a PDA device rather than a mobile phone then the HP iPAQ range is worth considering - such devices can be picked up cheaply second hand from ebay.

**AtW** · 2 January 2009, 02:03

Windows mobile don't seem to have great success sales wise, mobile browsers seem to be better target.

Java (yuck) in theory is the most portable option.

**London75** · 2 January 2009, 08:34

I was just going to say, been learning Java in it's ME (Microedition) guise and it's remarkably easy to get things done quickly if you're familiar with a couple of programming languages already.

The great thing is it's likely to run on almost any handset these days so easily portable.

One feature that might be useful to you is that it is so easy to tap into things like internal GPS if the phone/handset has it. It took me about 12 lines of code to get a latitude/longitude fix in a Java app for a Nokia phone and that same app will work the same way for a Windows Mobile phone with a bluetooth GPS or a yankee phone with cell based positioning.

I used to hate the nerdiness of Java after being a fan of the ease of VB.NET programming for years but think it's ace now.

Loads of tutorials online too, don't know about books though.

**xoggoth** · 2 January 2009, 16:04

Cheers for answers, hadn't thought of Java. There seem to be a lot of windows mobile devices according to MS's page, are the sales realy that poor?

**voodooflux** · 2 January 2009, 22:38

Originally posted by xoggoth View Post

There seem to be a lot of windows mobile devices according to MS's page, are the sales realy that poor?

I wouldn't say so - they certainly seem common enough.

**AtW** · 3 January 2009, 03:03

Originally posted by xoggoth View Post

There seem to be a lot of windows mobile devices according to MS's page, are the sales realy that poor?

Java is present on most mobiles - there are some catches with extensions not present on all but if you use simple stuff you will get pretty compatible solution that should run on Windows Mobile too (don't think they cut out Java there) - I don't think MS ever achieved decent sales of Windows based units - this could be the case in some niches but overall installment base is not high and you are better off going Java route.

If you target kids then they will have mobiles but highly unlike those mobiles will run Microsoft CE - your app would be perfect for their mobiles as they can keep it on the go and check stuff in park etc, don't think anything better than Java ME: http://java.sun.com/javame/index.jsp

**NickFitz** · 3 January 2009, 03:55

Originally posted by AtW View Post

Java is present on most mobiles - there are some catches with extensions not present on all but if you use simple stuff you will get pretty compatible solution that should run on Windows Mobile too (don't think they cut out Java there) - I don't think MS ever achieved decent sales of Windows based units - this could be the case in some niches but overall installment base is not high and you are better off going Java route.

If you target kids then they will have mobiles but highly unlike those mobiles will run Microsoft CE - your app would be perfect for their mobiles as they can keep it on the go and check stuff in park etc, don't think anything better than Java ME: http://java.sun.com/javame/index.jsp

I'll resist the temptation to make jokes about targeting kids in the park, but I believe that no Windows CE device runs Java out of the box - MS removed it completely from their platforms for legal reasons (as in, they're not legally permitted to ship Java on anything).

However, given that the primary purpose of Windows CE was to seek to eradicate Java from the mobile appliance space, it would have been pretty dumb of them to include Java in their own products. They'd no sooner do that than include a Firefox binary on Vista distributions.

As usual, MS have managed to fragment the deployment space for handheld devices - not so much by adroit technological innovations and cunning marketing as by cutting off everybody's nose to spite everybody's face. Their PR people will tell us, as developers, that this is for our benefit. As always, they lie.

It's possibly worthy of note that, whenever one seeks to present a balanced view of any Microsoft product family, one has to use such phrases as "as usual" and "as always" in virtually every sentence

**Churchill** · 3 January 2009, 09:24

Xog, if you made a cut-down version of the app "Online", you could use it as an advertisement for the main product...

I suppose it depends on the size of the potential market against cost of hosting etc...

**voodooflux** · 3 January 2009, 12:04

Originally posted by AtW View Post

I don't think MS ever achieved decent sales of Windows based units

I dunno about that - HTC seem to be doing all right at the moment.

Windows CE dev in VS - decent books?