Windows Mobile Development, alternatives to visual studio?

Question

Hello everyone,

I am looking to start writing apps for my Windows Mobile 6.1 professional device (Sprint Mogul/HTC Titan).

I use the copy of Visual Studio 2003 that I bought in college for all of my current contracting work, (all of my day job work is done on a company laptop). From what I can tell from MSDN in order to develop using windows Mobile 5 or 6 SDK I need to have at least Visual Studio 2005 Standard and I really don't feel like shelling out that much cash just to be able to develop for my phone.

Are there any free tools available to develop for Windows mobile? Or is there an affordable way to get VS that I am overlooking?

Answer 1

CASL from Caslsoft is a nice language for mobile development.

I have used it for one project on Windows CE, but it should work on Windows Mobile as well. It was easy to get started.

(You can use the free version to do the initial development)

Answer 2

Can't you use Visual Studio Express Editions for Mobile Development

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=94DE806B-E1A1-4282-ABC5-1F7347782553&displaylang=en

Answer 3

I looked into more affordable ways to do back in the VS 2003 days, but couldn't find anything. My guess is that you still need VS to do it.

@MartinHN You CAN NOT use version older than 2005 or less then Pro for Windows Mobile 5/6 device development.

Answer 4

You can also use the free IDE SharpDevelop. They target .NET Compact Framework too...

Answer 5

For Native (C++) Device Development you will need:

eMbedded Visual C++ 3.0 (CE 3.0)
eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 (CE 4.x-5.0)
or
Visual Studio 2005 Standard or higher (CE 4.x-6.0)
or
Visual Studio 2008 Professional or higher (CE 4.2-)

For Managed Device Development you will need:

Visual Studio 2003 Professional or higher (CE 4.2, CF 1.0)
or
Visual Studio 2005 Standard or higher (CE 4.2- CF 1.0 or 2.0)
or
Visual Studio 2008 Professional or higher (CE 4.2- CF 2.0 or CF 3.5)

None of the Express editions come with the compilers and libraries required for device development. You can, in theory anyway, use the .NET SDK and the device SDK downloads to patch together the ability to compile managed code written in something like even Notepad, but without the IDE and debugging support, it's really not worth doing.

Note that EHaskins above is incorrect with regard to Studio 2005. The Standard SKU is enough - it does not have to be Pro.

Answer 6

You should also have a look at NS Basic/CE. It's been around since 1998. They have continuously enhanced it, and it is well supported. Very much like Visual Basic, it has a screen designer, full programming language and lots more.

http://www.nsbasic.com/ce

Answer 7

Even if you had Visual Studio 2005 you would be limited to the 2.0 Framework. You will need to use Visual Studio 2008 Professional or better to use the 3.5 Framework. But you also have an alternative.

I wrote an article on Windows Mobile Development without Visual Studio. The minimum you need is the .Net Compact Framework SDK. It comes with a command line compiler that can generate .Net assemblies that will run on a Windows Mobile phone. Naturally you will not want to use the command line for your compiling. So the instructions I wrote are centered around the (free) ShartpDevelop.Net editor. You can find the instructions on CodeProject.com. Here is the URL.

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/mobile/WiMoSansVS.aspx

Answer 8

Not working with Visual Studio 2010, must be 2005-2008