What's .Net got for the mobile developer?

Microsoft recently announced the release of a scaled-down version of the .Net runtime meant for mobile devices. What will you find in the .Net Compact Framework?

This .Net Compact Framework opens up an entirely new world of devices for .Net developers, but is the environment at all like its big brother? Obviously, in shrinking a 23-MB runtime library into less than 1.5 MB for a mobile device, Microsoft had to discard something. So what did they leave, and do the changes preclude any compatibility between the two frameworks? Let's answer the last question first and then take a look at the primary ways the Compact Framework differs from its full-scale sibling.

The question of portability

In creating the Compact Framework, said Microsoft's Ed Kaim, the aim was twofold. Beyond the obvious goal of coming up with a .Net runtime that was smaller and less resource-hungry than the full version, Microsoft wanted to centralise development for all platforms in Visual Studio .Net. "We wanted to make it possible for a typical Visual Studio .Net developer to do everything they needed from inside the IDE, [and] keep the development experience the same for all platforms," Kaim said.

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