Yes, it’s true. The king of Windows programming books, Charles Petzold, has a new project in the works. He’s writing a book about Windows Phone 7 Series development. Here is an excerpt.
Sometimes it becomes apparent that previous approaches to a problem haven’t quite worked the way you anticipated. Perhaps you just need to clear away the smoky residue of the past, take a deep breath, and try again with a new attitude and fresh ideas. In golf, it’s known as a “mulligan”; in schoolyard sports, it’s called a “do-over”; and in the computer industry, we say it’s a “reboot.”
A reboot is what Microsoft has initiated with its new approach to the mobile phone market. On February 15, 2010, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Series and promised a product introduction in time for year-end holiday shopping. With its clean look, striking fonts, and new organizational paradigms, Windows Phone 7 Series not only represents a break with the Windows Mobile past but also differentiates itself from other smartphones currently in the market.
For programmers, the news from Barcelona was certainly intriguing but hardly illuminating. Exactly how do we write programs for this new Windows Phone 7 Series?
How do we write Windows Phone applications?
The answer to this question was revealed at Mix10 on March 15th, 2010. You’ll use either Silverlight or XNA to create your wp7 masterpieces. I find this to be extremely exciting, I’ll can leverage my current skills to create applications for my next phone.
More about the book
There is a draft copy of Charles’ book available at http://bit.ly/aQem53 (PDF).
So Charles, tell us what you really think about the Windows Phone .
I’m no market analyst. I’m just a programmer. Don’t ask me if I think the Windows Phone 7 Series will be a commercial success. Market forces are a complete mystery to me. I don’t know form factors. I can’t judge if the phone is the right size, or well proportioned, or anything else. The visuals look good to me, but I don’t trust my instincts about visual design. I don’t know if the phone is slick enough for the cool kids and mainstream enough for everyone else.
But as a programmer I can tell you this: coding for Windows Phone 7 Series is a total blast!
The Windows Phone 7 Series has been characterized as representing a severe break with the past. If you compare it with past versions of Windows Mobile, that is certainly true. But the support of Silverlight, XNA, and C# are not breaks with the past, but a balance of continuity and innovation. As young as they are, Silverlight and XNA have already proven themselves as powerful and popular platforms. Many skilled programmers are already working with either one framework or the other—probably not so many with both just yet—and they have expressed their enthusiasm with a wealth of online information and communities. C# has
become the favorite language of many programmers (myself included), and developers can use C# to share libraries between their Silverlight and XNA programs as well as those written for other .NET environments.Adapting one’s experience of these frameworks to the small, fixed-size screens of this multitouch input phone is both challenging and fun. I’ve been coding for Microsoft-based operating systems for over 25 years—and often writing about my experiences—and I’ve had a great time coding for the phone even though I have not yet actually held one in my hands. I have a strong sense that I won’t be alone and that Windows Phone 7 Series will be a break-out product because we programmers will create an extensive array of applications and games that
will make it sing. So enough of the preliminaries: let’s get coding.
I’m liking the book and it’s only an early draft . You’ll want to get yourself a copy of Petzold’s book when it’s available, settle into a comfortable chair, and learn from the master.
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[...] Charles Petzold working on a Windows Phone 7 book (Walt Ritscher) [...]
Microsoft is no stranger to having partners galore within the phone business, however its lineup of producers for the upcoming, surprisingly promising Windows Telephone 7 launch is not any much less impressive. After loads of rumoring, Microsoft has confirmed that Dell and HTC will probably be making Home windows Phone 7 telephones, in addition to ASUS, LG, and Samsung who had already been confirmed. All of those companies should have their stamp on hardware by the tip of the yr, with the launch of the OS still vaguely slated for the “holidays” We have now little question that every one 5 manufacturers can construct some compelling, sexy hardware, but we’re notably enthused to see Dell actually stepping into the sport after the impressive Streak and that drool worthy leak a short while back. learn extra at http://www.wp7forum.com fans group.