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I'm a severely underemployed classic VC++ & .NET Winforms C# developer looking to get back into the game. It seems the game these days is smartphone apps. As can be seen by my experience, I have always been a Microsoftie as it used to get me corporate clients through job shops. However, for quite some time, aside from the occasional local client small job I get through word of mouth from my friends and acquaintances, I have been unable to find work. I mean NOTHING!  Now that I have gone through Chapter 7 bankruptcy, I am ready to become a productive member of society again.
So it looks like smartphone development is a big structural change in the market, and what I like most about it is that it allows me to be an entrepreneur developer, where I build and app, and hopefully some folks like it and pay me (and after having some experience self developing, I may be able to get some juicy corporate work again.  ) As for as my development experience, aside from the C++, C# & .NET, I know basic HTML (like 1.0?  ), a little SQL, a little ASP.NET 2.0, and virtually no Javascript or DOM. It seems that if I want to do web-enabled stuff, at the bare minimum, I need to learn HTML 5, and probably the latest Javascript & DOM (perhaps there is some subset of these that are applicable for mobile apps?)
After this, I have no idea where to proceed. I suppose the first major decision is like the one I made years ago, when I decided to go to the "dark side" and become a Microsoftie, in which I need to decide exactly which platform to develop - iPhone, Android, Windows 7, etc. I know for iPhone, I would need to learn Objective-C, and would presume that Windows 7 uses C# and .NET to some extent. I would really rather stay away from Microsoft, as it seems that they always like to change the development stack every few years  , and I don't like the tight control that Apple has always had, so I guess it is Android for me.
Next is what type of IDE and API would I need to get to start developing? I suppose I would need to get an actual smartphone to do final checkout of any app, with a carrier for the internet. I currently use TracFone when I'm in the USA, so I don't know what would be available for me - and I spend a lot of time abroad in Eastern Europe, and I'd rather not deal with using a service there, so I would probably only release a product once I have tested it in the USA. I would really rather only do apps that don't deal with the internet (perhaps a limited market, I know), so that would not be a problem.
Finally, how do I research all the apps that are out there, so that I could figure out which type of app has not been released yet? As a classic video gamer (i.e., Pac-man, Galaga, Vanguard, R-Type etc.), ironically, I think have a decent handle on what makes a good simple, resource limited game (i.e., as opposed to the elaborate games that have taken over), which is all that can be done on the smartphone platform.
Well, that's it. I hope to get lots of ideas on how to proceed.
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swampwiz wrote: so I guess it is Android for me.
Well the next step[^] should be fairly easy.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman
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I think you can learn JavaScript if you have done C++ etc..It should not be hard for you, Titanium IDE from Appcelerator would be a good tool to start developing iPhone and Android apps. It works better with iPhone.
The tool has a Titanium API that uses JavaScript, HTML etc to develop native applications for mobile or desktop.
I am not sure if this helps but it is a good way to start I guess.
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Probably with your background windows phone is a better option to start out with.
Silverlight would be easy for you to get into.
Each platform has it's advantages and disadvantages. Google's lack of control and 'free' view makes it hard to sell apps; and I know of no one making a living from google app sales. 85% of app sales happen on the Apple platform. But, with Google you'll be making some money with 'ad views'. Unfortunately, windows phone market share has been shrinking. Less than 4% right now, but less competition for app sales. Then you have Microsoft opening their windows store next year... could be some money there.
I think your platform strategy should revolve around your overall career goals. If you are looking for a job, .net + windows phone may be doable. There is a demand for both iPhone and android developers for actual paying gigs as well.
If you are going to try to make a living with apps, iPhone is still tops. I don't see that yet with Android. Although, maybe amazon will help with making the store experience more appealing for android users. I have read that windows phone is making money for some though. On apple's platform, this is the order of top earners: mac apps make the most, followed by iPad apps, then iPhone apps.
Cheers,
Shawn Arney
iOS Professional Developer & Trainer
Learn iPhone Apps at: www.LearnApps.Org
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Interesting Professional feed back, thax for sharing. my 5!
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The job market for .NET developers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area is great right now, including for VC++ and C# Winforms. There are more jobs for developers than there are qualified interviewees at the moment; you might consider moving if you can.
If you want to pick a winner in the smartphone area, pick Android. Microsoft is not the same without Gates, and Apple won't be the same without Jobs; Google still has people who will do what it takes to dominate the market.
And if you want to make a winning smartphone app, the easiest thing to do is clone a game already successful in some other area; nearly all top-selling apps (of any kind) are ports or clones of games that were successful before they were put onto smartphones. Go to kongregate.com or armorgames.com, find a popular flash game that is easy to clone, and make a version for the smart phone (which is exactly what the angry birds designers did, btw).
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Objective - C could be challenge for starters but XCode is a very useful IDE and once you get the point Obj - C is fairly easy as well.
I agree with copying successful apps to make money in short time. You can check Angry Chicks App as an example. Its a joke but very successful.
If you want to develop 2D games for IOS and Android at the same time, I strongly recommend Corona SDK, coding is in LUA language, which is very easy to learn. SDK is perfect and physics engine rocks. http://www.anscamobile.com/corona/[^]
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I suggest you Android, download a SDK, install it on eclipse then you can begin your adventure.
Looking some way for flash applications is always usefull beacause it is platform independant : I suggest you Flex you'd be confortable with since you are a dot net developper.
To spped up your development process you should get code snippets from available tutorial and simple and make puzzle programming  .
Good luck.
EL GAABEB.
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hi
i am developing a vs2008 smart device application.
in this project there is a form array which contains form objects.
index of this array (forms) will be selected by the operator at run time.
when the operator selects one form , it is focused by the form.Focus() Method.
but this method returns false and form can not focus !
why?
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I think the problem is that the form isn't visible.
Try to use this to set focus on form:
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
private extern static IntPtr SetFocus(IntPtr hwnd);
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See here[^] for some notes about correct use of the Focus() method.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman
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Hello. I'm building a winCE library in eVC4SP4. The library contains a class that does not call any Win32 or MFC functions. However, when I link this lib to the winCE app that I'm building, it compiles fine, but I get a Win32 error 126 (module not found) when I try to run it in the device emulator. If I remove the class instantiation from the app, the program runs fine in the emulator. So I know that the problem is with my library, but I don't know what is wrong with it.
I did have to add __declspec(dllexport) to the class definition in the library. Without it, all of the class member functions were discarded by the linker. Seems kind of strange to me that I needed to do this (I built this library originally in winXP and I didn't need to add __declspec(dllexport) to use the library in an XP app). Why/how is the dll exporting different in CE?
I've also tried building the library linked with MFC, but that didn't help (I thought that maybe the "module not found" error was because the emulator is looking for a mfc dll).
Can someone help me out here? I don't know what else to do to debug the error 126 from the emulator?
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Hi,
I am new to mobile development. On my PC that runs Windows 7 64 bit, what should I install, ActiveSync or Mobile Device Center (MDC)? I tried MDC 32 bit and 64 bit, but both failed. With MDC 32 bit, the setup reports wrong processor. With MDC 64 bit, the setup doesn't do anything at all.
BTW, I don't have admin's right. Do I need that to install ActiveSync or MDC?
What am I missing? Thanks for any advices!
Best,
Jun
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Any suggestions?
Let me know if my question is not clear.
Best,
Jun
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Hi Jun,
normally u should use the MDC (currently v6.1: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=3182[^])... im working with that on different win7 machines - never failed installing on those. but im admin on all of them... so no clue, if not beeing admin is a problem...
best regards,
david
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ok so I knew it involved CSS and was using a javascript framework. I came across the following link though that puts into a bit more of prospective.
http://johnbhall.com/iphone-4s/[^]
as if the facebook, twitter and message boards weren't enough - blogged
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i need to develope an android mobile app for blind people
depending on converting letters to the : morse code : in terms of dashes & dots represented by sound , i need code for this
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We do not provide code to order. A little research will surely find some sample code to produce simple sounds. A little more research would show you how to build a table or list that maps characters to morse code values.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman
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u mean that i may use a database that maps the characters to morse code ????
can it be avaliable in android platform ???? thanks
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gif2020 wrote: u mean that i may use a database
Well, I think a database might be overkill in such a small application. What's wrong with simple list types? This all depends somewhat on the language you are using but most languages have some type of List or generic class that would do this.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman
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could u please give me an example , thanks
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gif2020 wrote: could u please give me an example
Example of what? If you really have no idea of the subject you are trying to work on then maybe you should consider a different project. I'm sure that with a little Googling you can find lots of tutorials on Android programming to get you started.
Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff
I'm sitting here giving you a standing ovation - Len Goodman
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what we aren't supposed to do their course work for them?? 
as if the facebook, twitter and message boards weren't enough - blogged
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I am researching this product to determine whether it would be suitable for enterprise product development. Please share with me your experience with this IDE.
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