This book provides an excellent overview of
the .NET Compact Framework for
developers focusing on Visual Basic that are new to mobile development (C#
version is also available). In over 1300 pages, Paul Yao and David Durant cover
many .NET Compact Framework topics and concepts in reasonable depth making it a
great starting point for .NET developers that are considering developing
software for mobile devices.
For those developers that are brand new to .NET,
this book would not be the best place to start learning .NET development. Even
though the authors try to explain the basic concepts behind all the areas they
cover, the book bounces back and forth between the basic and advanced topics, so
a solid background in .NET development before you get started would be very
valuable to make sure that you get the most out of all the content presented here.
What I particularly like about this book is that the authors do a really good
job of explaining the ins and outs of .NET Compact Framework and the book has a
great balance of in-depth explanations, sample code and best practices provided
in an easy-to-read, well-put-together format.
This is very important when you
consider the size of this book and the investment in time required to get through
all of the content. I found this book a pleasure to read and well worth my time. It
is obvious that the authors have extensive teaching experience and practical,
hands-on experience in this area as they masterfully guide the reader through
many chapters and provide them not only with different real-life development
approaches but also the reasons and context behind each decision.
The book begins by briefly explaining the foundation of .NET Compact
Framework architecture, provides a brief history and overview of Windows CE and
.NET, and shows how they come together in .NET Compact Framework. The next
chapter then starts introducing the reader to the components of a .NET
application by creating a simple application in Visual Studio 2003 and
explaining the development environment, including elements that are common to
all Compact Framework programs like forms, controls, namespaces, classes and
events.
After the initial introduction, the authors then dive into a broad range
of different topics and provide a good coverage of all aspects of .NET Compact
Framework development including building user interfaces, device data management
and creation of graphical output.
In addition to material in the book, all sample code is available for
download from their web site for both VB and C#, including some useful tools
that they have created. All in all, this book provides a very good end-to-end
introduction to .NET Compact Framework for anybody that is interested in mobile
development.