Tzah 2.0

Windows Mobile 6.5 is done and that’s a good opportunity to provide a quick jump-start to developers wishing to learn more about the OS.

Microsoft has a tendency to overload developers with abundant API of its various platforms and technologies. Windows Mobile is no different. Managed and native API, .Net, MFC, ATL, Win32… it’s all there for the confused developer. Luckily, Microsoft has recently published an article discussing APIs for Windows Mobile 6 and later, and how to select the best fit for your application needs. BTW, don’t be tempted to choose managed .Net API before fully understanding the functional requirements from your application and the devices it needs to run on. Win32 is better if you wish the application to run on as many devices as possible. 

A good place to learn Windows Mobile development is MSDN’s ramp up which is a community-based learning program, teaching various aspects in development for WM. Another excellent source for learning and help is blogs of mobile gurus. I recommend subscribing to the following blogs: Raffaele Limosaniblog, Alex Yakhnin, Christopher Fairbairn, Windows Mobile team blog, Reed and Steve blog, the Moth, and finally, Chris Craft (especially his 30 days of .Net series).

OK. You’ve done your reading and fill ready to start developing? hold on. Make sure you took into account globalization and localization issues. Simon Judge lists many of them.

Once done development, you need to QA your application. If your application aims for numerous devices in many countries, involving different networks, you should consider using DeviceAnywhere or maybe even Mob4Hire.

Finished the cycle? congratulation! Now you can go and publish your application on Windows Marketplace.

I just finished reading Alex Yakhnin’s post about generic control creation for WinForms. This is an excellent article  for those whishing to know how to use some of C# 3.0 neatest features like Lambda Expressions, Extension Methods and Object Initializers.

Alex demonstrate how, using these features, nerd developers like us can make their code more readable and as a result – maintainable. Basically, he used Extension methods to extends Control class functionality to create inherited controllers. One of the arguments used in the extension method is Func<Control, T> build.  This is a in fact a nice way to say that ‘build’ is a function that accepts an argument of  Control type, and has a return a value of type T.

Next, he uses Lambda expression to present the function in an elegant way. The expression is in fact, a constructor for the control we wish to build. As a final ingredient in this wonderful code soup, he used Object Initializers for the constructor.