C# – How to write for all phones/mobile devices simultaneously

blackberryciphonemobilemultiplatform

We create non-game programs that run on mobile devices; iPhones, Windows Mobile, Android, Palm WebOS and the like. Our main program is written in C# for Windows Mobile and we've been asked to port it to iPhone. We are not looking forward to:

The learning curve to pick up
Objective-C, XCode, and Cocoa Touch.
The pain of maintaining two
sets of code to keep the product in
sync on two different platforms.

We've decided that as a strategy we want to create all new products on as many mobile platforms as possible simultaneously, a formidable task.

We know we'll have to bend on these, but we'd prefer to:

Avoid forcing our users to be
connected to the web to use a product.
Not have a bunch of different sets
of source code.
Support as many mobile platforms as
we can.

My question is this; What is your suggestion for the best strategy to develop for the 2 – 5 most popular mobile platforms?

EDIT: Based on the comments, I wanted to clarify that we have a product that we well-received on both PalmOS and Winmobile. It works exactly the same on both platforms, making it easy for a user to switch handhelds and still use it.

Now we're on the verge of creating many new business apps and want to expand that to other hardware/OSes. What are your suggestions to deploy on many new platforms with the minimum of pain?

Best Answer

Consider implementing your applications via the web. This violates your preference for "avoiding your users to be connected to the web", but consider the web for the following reasons:

If your C# applications were written the right way, you could expose a web front-end to these applications by reusing your existing libraries.
Web 2.0 is supported by nearly all modern mobile platforms.
Your developers could continue writing in the language they're used to (C#).
There are many advantages to writing web apps vs platform-specific apps.

Related Solutions

C# – How to sort a dictionary by value

Use LINQ:

Dictionary<string, int> myDict = new Dictionary<string, int>();
myDict.Add("one", 1);
myDict.Add("four", 4);
myDict.Add("two", 2);
myDict.Add("three", 3);

var sortedDict = from entry in myDict orderby entry.Value ascending select entry;

This would also allow for great flexibility in that you can select the top 10, 20 10%, etc. Or if you are using your word frequency index for type-ahead, you could also include StartsWith clause as well.

Ios – How to develop for iPhone using a Windows development machine

It's certainly possible to develop on a Windows machine, in fact, my first application was exclusively developed on the old Dell Precision I had at the time :)

There are three routes;

Install OSx86 (aka iATKOS / Kalyway) on a second partition/disk and dual boot.
Run Mac OS X Server under VMWare (Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) onwards, read the update below).
Use Delphi XE4 and the macincloud service. This is a commercial toolset, but the component and lib support is growing.

The first route requires modifying (or using a pre-modified) image of Leopard that can be installed on a regular PC. This is not as hard as you would think, although your success/effort ratio will depend upon how closely the hardware in your PC matches that in Mac hardware - e.g. if you're running a Core 2 Duo on an Intel Motherboard, with an NVidia graphics card you are laughing. If you're running an AMD machine or something without SSE3 it gets a little more involved.

If you purchase (or already own) a version of Leopard then this is a gray area since the Leopard EULA states you may only run it on an "Apple Labeled" machine. As many point out if you stick an Apple sticker on your PC you're probably covered.

The second option is more costly. The EULA for the workstation version of Leopard prevents it from being run under emulation and as a result, there's no support in VMWare for this. Leopard server, however, CAN be run under emulation and can be used for desktop purposes. Leopard server and VMWare are expensive, however.

If you're interested in option 1) I would suggest starting at Insanelymac and reading the OSx86 sections.

I do think you should consider whether the time you will invest is going to be worth the money you will save though. It was for me because I enjoy tinkering with this type of stuff and I started during the early iPhone betas, months before their App Store became available.

Alternatively, you could pick up a low-spec Mac Mini from eBay. You don't need much horsepower to run the SDK and you can always sell it on later if you decide to stop development or buy a better Mac.

Update: You cannot create a Mac OS X Client virtual machine for OS X 10.6 and earlier. Apple does not allow these Client OSes to be virtualized. With Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) onwards, Apple has changed its licensing agreement in regards to virtualization. Source: VMWare KnowledgeBase

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – How to sort a dictionary by value

Ios – How to develop for iPhone using a Windows development machine

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