I was wondering if there are any plans to eventually add support for mobile devices/ .NET Compact Framework?
Lance
As of right now, we are migrating towards the use of UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PCs). The UMPCs support a full OS, but are extremely portable and have a lot more power. Aside from that, you can develop on the full .NET framework.
We currently have a Mobile PC application for our medical software. It has been part of our medical system for around 5 years and has been one of the most frsutrating experiences we have ever encountered! Microsoft and the PDA distributors, like Dell, seem to have major breakdowns in communication and Dell will discontinue a model and then overnight all of our users begin to experience "system meltdown." This puts us in emergency mode getting that model of PDA in, finding and fixing the issue, and getting an update to the user. This has happened counteless times over the five years. Dell has issued a statement indicating that they may be getting out of the PDA business altogether.
All of that being said, we currently do not have plans to extend the framework to the Compact Framework. Obviously if the momentum of the industry begins to go back the other way we will revisit this issue. But for now we plan on staying away from the compact framework.
Sorry
I think that any movement towards mobile development, regardless of towards a particular architecture (.NET Compact) or otherwise is a good thing.
Your comment about moving towards the more powerful platform in UMPC is probably a better choice anyways. The .NET Compact Framework is a tad on the limiting side; especially in regards to controls.
Thanks again for the reply Trent.
Glad to help. You are right about the limitations. You have to spend a ton of time re-writing things because of the classes, properties, and methods that get "cut-out" of the compact framework. I will let you know how things progress in the UMPC department though. Talk to you soon.