Windows Phone 7 Development and degradation in developers' eyes)

This article is a visual article written by Wu Xueyou, founder of the devdiv mobile development community, at the launch of Windows Phone 7. Comparison between Windows Phone 7 and windows
Mobile6.5 to Windows Phone 7 and comparison of mainstream operating systems, a detailed description of the advantages and disadvantages of Windows Phone 7, progress and regression.

From the CTP (Community technical preview, Community Technology preview version) in December to the CTP refresh in December, then the beta version in December, and the official version of Windows Phone
The SDK for 7 is finally available. Next I will talk about Windows Phone 7 from the developer's perspective:

First, compare it with Windows mobile6.5.

One of the changes: Changes in programming languages

Unlike windows mobile6.5, the managed code becomes Windows Phone
7. The only programming language. There are two ways to write managed code: one is to write Silverlight programs for general mobile apps, and the other is to write xNa programs, it is more suitable for game development.

The Silverlight program here is different from the traditional Silverlight, although it is derived from Silverlight
3, but removed some features that are not applicable to mobile devices, and added some Silverlight
4 features or code for mobile devices. In addition, traditional Silverlight programs are executed in browsers, but Windows Phone
Silverlight on 7 runs independently from the browser.

Most Chinese developers may be unfamiliar with xNa programs. XNa is a development tool that Microsoft used to develop games on Xbox and Zune applications. However, since Xbox and Zune have not officially entered China, Chinese developers are not very concerned about this. XNa development environment is a set
Studio, called xNa game studio.

Upgrade change 2: increasing restrictions on third-party applications

Another major change in Windows Phone 7 is the increase in restrictions on third-party application development, including:

Because third-party software for Windows Phone 7 cannot be executed in the background, only one task can be performed. Traditional applications, such as text messages and telephones, cannot be monitored in the background;

Developers cannot use C ++ as the programming language. Currently, C # is the only supported development language on the Windows Phone 7 series platform;

Currently, VB development is not supported. There is no mechanism to call system APIs.

Comparison with mainstream operating systems

In addition to App Store, the iPhone is now a learning target for everyone: multi-touch, gesture, Capacitive screen, beautiful interface ...... And so on. And Symbian, Android,
Compared with the iPhone, We can't simply say that it is better than that platform, it is worse than that platform, so we can compare the progress and degradation of Windows Phone 7:

Step 1: Simpler Development

Development is more difficult than Android, iPhone, or even simpler. Microsoft has excellent visual
Studio is an IDE, mobile phone platform simulator, and a telephone and text message simulation tool.

Visual
Studio can be the best integrated development tool. Compared with eclipse used by Android, studio has obvious advantages. Eclipse often fails to be compiled and needs to be repeated.
New, unresponsive, and other phenomena; at the same time, the android simulator occupies a large amount of resources; Android Development Kit and eclipse need to work together to perform complex configuration work, while windows
You can install the SDK directly by phone without any configuration.

In addition, Windows Mobile/Windows Phone applications can only be developed on Windows operating systems; Android applications, windows,
Linux and Mac OS can all be used.

IPhone development tools are simple and practical, but they do not support tools such as analog phones and text messages.

Comparatively speaking, Symbian development is much more complicated. Symbian is currently the only simulator with non-arm commands,
Because of the differences with the mobile phone environment, many problems cannot be reproduced on the simulator, especially for the underlying developers. In addition, symbian has not yet solved the problem of Linux development. The telephone and text message simulation tools are complex in configuration, and few have succeeded in configuration.

Step 2: thoroughly change menus and enhance Touch Experience

Android/iPhone is designed for touch screens, and later has inherent advantages.

Windows Phone
7. In order to better support the touch screen, the menu was thoroughly reformed, basically abandoning the traditional menu form of Windows. The screen was allocated a specific area as the menu, and the space occupied by the menu increased, it is more suitable for mobile touch; this has reached the android/iPhone level, coupled with capacitive screen, multi-point touch, compared with Windows
Mobile 6.5 is a huge improvement and its biggest highlight.

However, the menu of Symbian 3 remains at the level of traditional Windows menus. Because the gap between menu items is too small, it is easy to make a wrong menu. This is Symbian
3. It is considered to be one of the important reasons behind other platforms.

Regressing: at present, multi-task is not supported

Currently, Symbian/Android supports multiple tasks. Android further performs some special processing on multiple tasks. When system resources are insufficient, the Program executed in the background is preferentially closed to ensure that key tasks (such as calls) are performed) stable execution.

Windows Phone 7 no longer supports multitasking and background tasks, which is the same as the iPhone 3gs and the previous mechanism. To some extent, this is a step backwards.

The iPhone 4 supports only some multitasking tasks. The program can be placed in the background, but is suspended in the background. The program cannot perform any operations, but it does not need to exit the storage state.

Developers: Most people are on the sidelines

Some developers disagree with Windows Phone 7. Some people praise Windows Phone for its great progress, while others are quite vocal about Microsoft's progress.
The iPhone of phone 7 does not agree, but most people are in the wait-and-see status.
Windows Phone is unknown.
7. the developer's attitude depends largely on the strategy of a third-party software company. The strategy of a software company depends on
Phone7's degree of recognition is now a test of Microsoft's public relations.

In short, from the developer's point of view, Windows Phone progress is obvious, Capacitive screen, multi-touch, gesture support, more gorgeous interface, programming threshold has become lower. However, Windows
There are many things that phone regresses. Single tasks do not support background programs, and C/C ++ programming interfaces. This reduces the number of things that developers can do. However, for a single task, from Microsoft's perspective, it seems that they think that mobile phone stability and fast response