Win CE 5.0

[SteveInBeloit]

Can I run VS 2005 VB .NET apps on handheld devices that run WIN CE 5.0?

[Shaggy Hiker]

Not the full VB.NET, you need to use the VB.NET CF (Compat Framework). It is a slightly stripped down version of the full set. Of course, the UI is so different that most of the design will change anyways.

[SteveInBeloit]

Ok, but I can still develop the CF apps with VS 2005?

[Shaggy Hiker]

Absolutely.

[szlamany]

Slightly stripped down?

Ok - I guess you can say that

Many, many methods are removed in the CF - you need to code around them manually. The VS Help file indicates with a "mobile" icon what methods are available to the CF.

[Shaggy Hiker]

The more I work with it, the less stripped down it appears, though you do have to be creative in how you think about controls. Behind the scenes, I have yet to find something I couldn't live without...

..hmmm....that's not right, it's not that I didn't find things I wasn't looking for...I found things I was looking for....no...that's not it either.....oh to Hack with it, I got it done.

The key to controls in the CF, in my opinion, is that much of the functionality from the full version has been removed, so you have to be a bit creative in layering controls on controls to get the features you want. For example, if you want a button with a different color, you could subclass Control, or you could simply use a panel with a label on it instead. The panel would respond to click events and you can paint the backcolor, while you can paint the forecolor of the label (but not the backcolor of the lable, nor does the lable respond to click events as it does in the full version).

You can make remarkably complex controls in this fashion. One of my controls has three layers of simple controls stacked onto it in some places, and only two in other places.

[SteveInBeloit]

Thanks for the responses guys. I am not totally in the dark, I have written a handful of CF apps in VS 2003 to run on WIN CE 4.2 .NET. But the new devices my customers are ordering will have WIN CE 5.0. I am just trying to cover my bases that when they show up and I am asked to develop on them, I don't get a shocker that you can't do that with WIN CE 5.0.
Sounds like I should be fine.
Steve