Professional Windows® Embedded Compact 7

Chapter 15

.NET Compact Framework

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Understanding .NET Compact Framework 3.5
• Considering .NET Compact Framework 3.5 development

As a subset to the .NET Framework for the Windows desktop OS, .NET Compact Framework (CF) encapsulates the efficient rapid application development environment from .NET Framework to support Windows Embedded Compact 7 application development.

To support the small footprint of the Compact 7 OS and resource-constrained target device, .NET CF is optimized to include key features from the full .NET Framework into a much smaller package with some modified features and behavior to support embedded devices.

To fully cover .NET CF’s ins and outs could take a whole book, which is not within this book’s objectives. This chapter provides a compressed view of the .NET CF environment to help you better understand and start with managed code application development for a Compact 7 device, learning as you move along.

To develop a .NET CF application for Compact 7, you need to understand the environment. If you are already developing managed code applications for the desktop using .NET Framework, .NET CF is similar to what you already know, with some minor differences. If you are new to managed code development and expect to do quite a bit of work in this environment, this environment is developer-friendly and easy to work with.

The information in this chapter, along with the managed code application exercise in Chapter 18, “Managed Code Application ...