Smartphone Developer Forum - Compact Framework for SmartPhone annoyances

Author

Compact Framework for SmartPhone annoyances

Douglas Harber

2005-01-30, 8:58 pm

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the .NET Compact Framework borders
on useless, especially for the SmartPhone. I can't believe the number of
things they left out of the framework that have turned out to be incredibly
inconvenient to not have, some of which make me write what seems to be far
more code to compensate for than was saved by omitting them.

Even with OpenNETCF, there are things I have yet to figure out how to do at
all that I achieved with 5 lines of code in eVC++. I've been really
resisting going back to Petzold-era windows programming (since the
SmartPhone doesn't support MFC or ATL, not that I'd really prefer to use
them anymore either). But this is just getting ridiculous. I've spent days
trying to figure out how to do simple little things from .NETCF/OpenNETCF
and I just don't have the time to waste anymore.

Sorry about the griping but I'm at a snapping point and had to vent
somewhere.

Doug Harber

P.S. If anyone has some elegant C# code for creating/using spinners, I'd
love to see how you did it.

Peter Foot [MVP]

2005-01-31, 9:04 am

The ComboBox control will behave like the spinner control on Smartphone.

Peter

--
Peter Foot
Windows Embedded MVP
www.inthehand.com | www.opennetcf.org

"Douglas Harber" <remove-douglas_harber@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:eFBCHdyBFHA.2608@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the .NET Compact Framework
> borders on useless, especially for the SmartPhone. I can't believe the
> number of things they left out of the framework that have turned out to be
> incredibly inconvenient to not have, some of which make me write what
> seems to be far more code to compensate for than was saved by omitting
> them.
>
> Even with OpenNETCF, there are things I have yet to figure out how to do
> at all that I achieved with 5 lines of code in eVC++. I've been really
> resisting going back to Petzold-era windows programming (since the
> SmartPhone doesn't support MFC or ATL, not that I'd really prefer to use
> them anymore either). But this is just getting ridiculous. I've spent days
> trying to figure out how to do simple little things from .NETCF/OpenNETCF
> and I just don't have the time to waste anymore.
>
> Sorry about the griping but I'm at a snapping point and had to vent
> somewhere.
>
> Doug Harber
>
> P.S. If anyone has some elegant C# code for creating/using spinners, I'd
> love to see how you did it.
>

Douglas Harber

2005-01-31, 4:01 pm

True, but that's not really the functionality I'm looking for...unless the
ComboBox does something I'm not aware of.

Basically, I'm trying to replace the mysteriously removed NumericUpDown
control. A handful of lines of code in C++ accomplishes that with an edit
control and spin control. I have been unable to get this to work in C#, even
using straight up PInvoke to create the controls the normal way. (I might be
close to getting that to work but it's dozens, if not hundreds, of lines of
code.)

Don't get me wrong, I love .NET and C#, even if it does make some exotic
things more difficult. But in the case of the Compact Framework, especially
for the SmartPhone, it really seems like they went out of their way to be
penny-wise, pound-foolish.

Doug Harber

"Peter Foot [MVP]" <feedback@nospam-inthehand.com> wrote in message
news:Om4II22BFHA.1404@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> The ComboBox control will behave like the spinner control on Smartphone.
>
> Peter
>
> --
> Peter Foot
> Windows Embedded MVP
> www.inthehand.com | www.opennetcf.org
>
> "Douglas Harber" <remove-douglas_harber@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:eFBCHdyBFHA.2608@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>
>

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