We expect to learn a lot more about Microsoft's plan to entice developers to Windows Phone 7 at the MIX 2010 developers conference. Until then (March 15-17), aspiring WP7 devs have to rely upon rumor and innuendo to feed their curiosity. So here you go: three purportedly official Microsoft docs from January that provide a glimpse into Microsoft's Windows Phone OS 7.0 Application Platform. First up, the docs claim that WPOS 7.0 is built around Silverlight, XNA (
like the Zune HD), and the .NET Compact Framework -- a mostly clean break from WinMo's past as far as developers are concerned. Native apps are restricted to OEMs and mobile operators in order to extend the experience and functionality specific to a phone or network. Even then, they'll be limited to a set of managed APIs that Microsoft will audit during the app submission and provisioning process. Sound familiar?
As you'd expect, the OS supports preemptive multitasking -- not that Microsoft will necessarily allow its devs (OEMs, mobile operators, and independent software vendors) to send their apps to the background. The primary development tools include Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010 and Express Blend used in combination with a Windows Phone emulator. Check the docs in the gallery for the full read and be sure to hit up
XDA-Developers if you want to commiserate with your like-minded peers.
posted February 18th 2010 5:56AM
@m4gast0n:That's kind of like saying "I'm going to get on a plane, and I don't care if it goes north, south, east or west, so long as there's great service!":
Actually, it's not REALLY like that, because part of a great flying experience is actually getting to your destination.
Me say: Go Microsoft!!!!
It occurs to me that the easiest way to handle multitasking is simply to give users control over it. Make it something users can enable and disable on a per-app basis, but put in some roadblocks to enabling it (to stop the newbs from enabling it for every single app they install.)
Simple and straightforward.
I just love anything shown on Engadget that has the word 'CONFIDENTIAL' plastered across the back.
im no software developer - bu i have some friends who tell me that writing code and stuff for MS in .net is very expensive becuase the software tools are very expensive. does this mean that dev's will have to purchase expensive MS software to make apps and stuff? or does this mean that it will be easy/inexpensive for a dev to jump into writing apps for this phone?
also, as far as multitasking goes - something similar to the way it is implemented on the hero would be nice in my mind - as long as we have the option to close programs completely when we want to so that we can choose what we do and dont want running. (the way it is on hero, you hit the home button for like 3 sec. and then the main screen fades while a small box with your currently running apps comes up. you can choose what you want to jump into from there, but you cant choose to close certain apps down which is a huge ball buster in my opinion.)
it seems to me that as long as MS makes it easy/cheap to get into making apps for WP7 and makes a good process for allowing the devs to access the hardware they want and need to make apps run well on the phones, then great success will be possible.
@Nick Brown
Probably not. Knowing microsoft, there will be support for Windows Phone 7 development in their Express(aka Free) line of software. I'm sure if you have to use anything in their Expression studio however it may cost you some money for that product.
But their XNA program with C# Express is free to use, and I'm sure they wouldn't shoot themselves in the foot by making you have to use the full Visual Studio(which does cost quite a bit)
@Nick Brown Microsoft's Dreamspark and Bizspark projects give small devs and students all Microsoft development tools, including the entire .NET environment, for free.
@chaoscentral
I am not privvy to what the product group is planning with Mobile 7 development, but I do work Developer and Platform Evangelism at MS. So while I can't comment on what might happen in the future, I can comment that historically you have never been able to do development for Windows Embedded (including mobile) in Visual Studio Express. You needed to have Visual Studio Professional or higher. As I said, this may change going forward, and like you guys I'll be looking to announcements around MIX to find out what the direction is.
My guess, and this is purely a speculation on my part, is that it will be VS Professional or higher again. I could even see a requirement for VS Premium (a new sku being introduced with the release of Visual Studio 2010 in April) being a base requirement because that level of MSDN accompanying that license includes Windows Embedded test/dev rights as well.
Oh, and as was pointed out earlier, it's not Express Blend, but Expression Blend. Expression is the toolset available for rich user experience design and development. You can find out more about this product set at www.microsoft.com/expression if you are so inclined.
With lot of development experience in .Net and Silverlight, I must say that I am impressed with this MS move. Silverlight is awesome for UI/Client side programming. Love the concept of Isolated Local Storage.
Now, iPhone guys, name one(or two) apps you love. Let me start my WPOS7.0 app port!
If it doesn't have a very intuitive method of using the OS's multitasking abilities, like WebOS, count me out
@Peteman100
What do you know about the home start page "Tiles"?
@TechAndOnlyTech
Only what Engadget has told me. I'm not privy to any insider information....
I don't think the multitasking argument is as simple as "it should have it" or "it shouldn't have it".
All of these operating systems should have it, but it should be optional like notifications. You should be able to change your multitasking options to allow certain programs to run in the background and others not to.
By default it should probably be turned off, that way joe sixpack won't complain about battery life when he doesn't know or care about multitasking. The rest of us can then enable it for applications we want running in the background.
If multitasking was optional, it would still be good to have a timer setting for the OS to kill the program if not used for a certain amount of time. There is nothing more annoying than finding your phone dead because you forgot to close all of the programs you popped in and out of.
@Tim Quernemoen Exactly, I know from the Zune HD with the wireless, if you don't use anything requiring it for a certain amount of time, it will turn it of to conserve power, so I would guess that there would be something like this with WP7
Since this is built "around Silverlight", what are the chances that this might one day stream Netflix over wifi? Netflix have already stated that mobile streaming will be their next pursuit, and from what I've read, this seem like the logical place to start.
@MaulerX I was thinking the same thing. I'm assuming it would be in both MS and Netflix's best interest.
I'm so looking forward to this. Hopefully it will bring the heat to Apple.
So if I understand this correctly, multitasking support will be allowed as long as the benefits clearly outweigh the resource-hogginess, and if they don't the app can still run in a suspended state so there's no "oh I got a call...what happened to my game!"
I can dig it.
On a similar note, the sideloading issue. All I will say to that is as long as MS is fair, transparent, and generally not douchey about their approval process, it won't be that much of an issue. A closed ecosystem is one thing, but Apple's closed ecosystem is something completely different, and that's why people have to jailbreak.
The RIA tool is called Expression Blend. Not Express Blend. And it's very cool.
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/
Is there any DirectX or OpenGL implant in the Series 7? It could make developers flock over from the Xbox. Just imagine how many people would want Halo 3 on their phone.
@Steve Jobs Clone
imagine how crappy it will be to play halo on a small a$$ screen. Some games would be fun, but halo or call of duty would not.
Hopefully there's no need for symantec antivirus & antimalware for wp7s...
"Explore the software that powers the Windows Phone 7 Series" ...
"Free development tools and support for all Mix 10 attendees"
http://live.visitmix.com/
(I am a Microsoft employee, so this is intended to be both informative and a shameless plug).