Programming Windows Phone 7 LOB Applications – Part I

Abstract
In these post series, I’ll demonstrate how to develop LOB applications for the Windows Phone 7. This series will provide an easy start for iPhone, Android and .NET Programmers.

Introduction
Windows Phone is almost here, and it’s a great timing to learn how to develop applications which target the Windows Phone 7 device.

From my point of view, there are at least three reasons for doing so:

1. Microsoft introduces a market place, so it’s a good opportunity for making easy money :)

2. Develop LOB Applications for Windows Phone, which is part of my job.

3. Just for Fun!

Where to Start
If you’re a .NET Programmer, you’ve already made half of the way. All you have to do is to learn Silverlight and/or XNA for gaming.

If you’re an iPhone programmer and you know Cocoa Touch and Objective C, you’ve to learn: Silverlight, C# and/or XNA for gaming.

If you’re an Android programmer and you know Java or C++, you’ve to learn: Silverlight, C# and/or XNA for gaming.

Whatever kind of programmer you’re, both C# and Silverlight are easy to learn. Just for clarification, C# is a programming language (comparing to Objective C, C++ and Java), where Silverlight is the framework for developing UI and client logic (comparing to Cocoa Touch and Java).

Windows Phone SDK
Before we start, we have to install the free Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta from here.

The Windows Phone Developer Tools Beta includes the following
- Visual Studio 2010 Express for Windows Phone Beta (Development Environment such as Xcode and Eclipse)
- Windows Phone Emulator Beta (Emulator if you don’t have a real device)
- Silverlight for Windows Phone Beta (UI and client logic framework)
- Microsoft Expression Blend for Windows Phone Beta (Great UI design environment)
- XNA Game Studio 4.0 Beta (Platform for game programming)

Note that Visual Studio 2010 Express won’t be installed if you already have Visual Studio 2010.

Windows Phone SDK
After installing the development environment, you can easily create a new Windows Phone project from both Visual Studio and Blend for Windows Phone. So feel free to launch Visual Studio or Blend for Windows Phone from the start menu, then click File –> New Project.

Read more: Essential WPF

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