MIX10 News

[gep13]

Hey,

I was just watching some of this:

http://channel9.msdn.com/live/

And they mentioned that the tools for developing on Windows Phone 7 Series are now available for download, and work directly in Visual Studio 2010. If you don’t have Visual Studio installed, it will install and Express Edition for you, otherwise, it will install an addin to Visual Studio. You can download them here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2338b5d1-79d8-46af-b828-380b0f854203&displaylang=en

Haven’t had a chance to play with it yet, but I will.

Has anybody played with it yet?

Gary

[petevick]

Downloaded, installed but not yet 'played'.

Reports from colleagues are in the most favourable, but it's a new ball game now!

[gep13]

Hey,

I am looking forward to giving this a try, will have to wait until I get home to install on my own machine.

Gary

[dilettante]

Is there any point?

Windows Phone 7 Development (http://mobilephonedevelopment.com/archives/1002) is a very high-level view of what was announced, but things like this concern me:

Developers must submit application packages for certification. This is the only way to make an application available to consumers.

It isn't really clear that you can deploy to your own phone, let alone deploy in-house applications to a "fleet" of phones. And SilverLight/XNA? These don't look like useful tools for anyone but game authors.

I supose one could conclude Microsoft has chosen to hand the business and technical market to BlackBerry and maybe Android... assuming the latter doesn't soon move to a similar iPhone-like closed consumer ecosystem.

I'm tremendously disappointed, and would rank this up there with the VB6 debacle. But it is too soon to know what might eventually hit the streets.

[gep13]

Hey,

I think we have to wait and see the final release before making any rash decisions, but I certainly don't think that this development platform is solely for game authors.

Gary

[RobDog888]

Havent looked into it but wasnt mobile 7 dev only in C#?

[gep13]

Hmm, interesting, I haven't heard that anywhere.

[RobDog888]

Here you go, C# only "for now".
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=5565

Plus it answers the "game only" question asked earlier

[gep13]

That is quite disheartening :(

[RobDog888]

Good news. I think its ok for me to post this but VB will be supported.
ETA: "they are working on it"

:)

[dilettante]

Thanks for that link RobDog888.

The fact that a free Express tool for Phone 7 is available (at least in the CTP) sounds positive for hobbyists, whether C#, VB.Net, or both.

An area of confusion remaining for me is application deployment to physical Phone 7 devices. So far my impression is that MS wants to tightly control what can get onto them. Perhaps ActiveSync deployment still works while docked?

Any idea whether the filesystem is even exposed to users via Explorer? Can they even move a CAB onto the device and install it?


XAML probably means different things to different people. To me it suggests trivial applets akin to desktop Sidebar Gadgets (Twitter monitor, yet another clock, Soltaire game). Probably not business related programs like a roofing estimator or a synced sales catalog or order-entry system.

Funny how the press (and Microsoft?) divides the world into 2 markets: consumer and enterprise. What about small business, trades, and technical? Those are strong markets for ISVs today on Windows Mobile. I guess we're back to living in the cracks like cockroaches.

[RobDog888]

Dont feel left out because even us MVPs arent getting much, if any, inside or pre-public release information about Molbile 7. Who knows what the reason but hopefully it will live up to our expectations and needs for developing on the mobile platform.

I will be sure to post up anything more that I can get.

[dilettante]

We'll just stay tuned I guess. The real impact won't be clear for at least 9 months I suppose.

Are any of the MIX10 webcasts/videos worth wading through? That seems to be one of the few information feeds aside from attendee reporting. The ones I tried were painfully low on information density and had me grinding my teeth as they kept demoing the same trivial UI features over and over.

But then MIX10 is for presentation layer folks I guess.

[gep13]

Hey,

Yeah, definitely keep us posted Rob.

I have watched a couple of the videos from Mix, and some of them are quite good:

http://live.visitmix.com/videos/

It's just finding the time to get to watch them!!

Gary

[RobDog888]

Time is always an issue. :( Software Devvelopment is like having two jobs. One for doing the actual work at work and then the other for learing and expanding your knowledgebase.

[petevick]

Time is always an issue. :( Software Devvelopment is like having two jobs. One for doing the actual work at work and then the other for learing and expanding your knowledgebase.

+1

Running to stand still :)

[dilettante]

I just wish that management embraced this as part of the cost of doing business as well.

I've been in the field for several decades. What I have noticed is that the pace of change has increased with time, yet appreciation of the fact seems to shrink at a similar pace.

We have bean counters who expect 100% of our time to be allocated to work on pre-approved projects, bug fixes, enhancements, and so on. There is no time allocated for study and experimentation, and formal training opportunities on company time are vanishingly rare, let alone company-paid training. Except where free tools can be obtained it is very hard to update those either unless tied to a specific project.

Programmers are almost entirely on their own when it comes to learning and expanding skills. This is probably roughest on those with families and children. It is no wonder that morale and loyalty are at such historically low levels.

[RobDog888]

Agree 100%

Its quite sad really. Well maybe it will separate those who are just in this field for the money from those who are in it for the love of programming.

[petevick]

I've been in the field for several decades. What I have noticed is that the pace of change has increased with time, yet appreciation of the fact seems to shrink at a similar pace.


Agree entirely. Some of the companies I do work for just expect you to know it, even though it is brand new. I sometimes feel I am just getting to old to keep learning new things - but I still enjoy what I am doing - most of the time.

[gep13]

Hey,

Yip, can't agree with the above more. At the minute, I am quite lucky in the sense that my company is on the bleeding edge of using some of the emerging technologies (not specifically in the mobile arena, that is more of a hobby), but the fact is, there are so much technology coming out just now, and not just from Microsoft, that it is really hard to keep up!!

Gary

[RobDog888]

Just posted a few hours ago by Lynn Langit MS DE.
http://blogs.msdn.com/socaldevgal/archive/2010/03/18/windows-phone-7-development-let-s-go.aspx

We just had Lynn present tonight at our .Net usergroup on SQL Azure! She rocks! :)

[honeybee]

Won't all those real-time updating tiles consume precious airtime? If that's the only way the Windows 7 is going to work, users will be forced to pay for this realtime update usage.

Also with the supposed control over app distribution and multi-tasking, it seems Microsoft is going more Apple way than the Google way.

.

[gep13]

Hey,

I agree that it would appear that things are looking a little bit more "Apple" like in terms of the way authoring and deployment of applications are handled.

It is one of those things that we are just going to have to wait and see what happens, i.e. wait for the dust to settle. I was recently at a conference where Scott Guthrie was presenting, and I was asking him about this. I got the impression that he wasn't able to give too much away, but he did mention that there are other plans on the way in terms of distribution of applications.

Gary