Developing software for cell phones powered by Microsoft
All about developing software for MS Smartphone 2002 and Pocket PC Phone Edition.
Good news is that tools that you need to develop software for cell phoens powered by MS Smartphone 2002 and Pocket PC Phone Edition are available for free!!!
... where you can find "eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 - 2002 Edition" - a complete desktop development environment for creating applications and system components for Windows Powered devices, including Pocket PC and Smartphone. Now click on a link "eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 - 2002 Edition" to find a "Download" link from where you can download the evt2002web_min.exe file (approximately 210 MB):
eMbedded Visual Tools 3.0 include:
Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ 3.0
Microsoft eMbedded Visual Basic 3.0
Software Development Kit (SDK) for Pocket PC 2002 (included Pocket PC Phone Edition)
Software Development Kit (SDK) for Smartphone 2002
After clicking on evt2002web_min.exe it will decompress the installation files to 2 directories named "DISK1" and "DISK2". Go to directory "DISK1" where you can find among others these two files:
To install the tools you have to click the green one with a text "Setup.exe". Donīt make a mistake to click the blue one! During installation you have to enter the licence key, that is shown on a web page with download.
Please note, that development of software for MS Smartphone is possible ONLY with eMbedded Visual C++! So, if you want to develop only for MS Smartphone, and nothing for Pocket PC phones, then you can uncheck "eMbedded Visual Basic 3.0" because you cannot use it to write software for MS Smartphone.
Similarly you can uncheck "SDK for Pocket PC" in this dialog:
... if you want to develop only for MS Smartphone.
Now, after installation and after starting of eMbedded Visual C++ you can click in menu on "File/New" to create initial (placeholder-like) project either for MS Smartphone or for Pocket PC phone:
After selecting smartphone, you can select a kind of application to make:
Now you can change, extend and compile the application:
... and you can start the newly developed application directly from eMbedded Visual C++ in the smartphone hardware, or in a simulator:
Apart from eMbedded Visual Tools that include Visual C++ (for MS Smartphone and for Pocket PC phone) and Basic (only for Pocket PC) you can also develop software with Visual Studio .NET in languages like C# (pronounce it "see sharp"):
... and you can run such software in so called ".NET Compact Framework" that is a .NET virtual machine that is running so called "managed code" (something similar in idea to Java Virtual Machine but better because you can use C#, Basic, Java and many other languages as a source code, not just one like it is in Java). Unfortunately .NET Compact Framework (.NET CF) is now available only for Pocket PC phones and not for MS Smartphone so the only way to develop software for MS Smartphone is above mentioned eMbedded Visual C++! However it is certain that in some point in time in future, the .NET CF will be available also for MS Smartphone and then you will be able to use .NET technologoies in all cell phones powered by Microsoft software.
Please visit this page in future to see current state of matters related to "software development for Microsoft powered cell phones" - it will be updated as soon as new development in this area will happen.
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