This book is a gift from the Windows Phone 7 team at Microsoft to the programming community, and I am proud to have been a part of it. Within the pages that follow, I show you the basics of writing applications for Windows Phone 7 using the C# programming language with the Silverlight and XNA 2D frameworks.
Yes, Programming Windows Phone 7 is truly a free download, but for those readers who still love paper—as I certainly do—this book will also be available (for sale) divided into two fully- indexed print editions: Microsoft Silverlight Programming for Windows Phone 7 and Microsoft XNA Framework Programming for Windows Phone 7.
With the money you’ve saved downloading this book, please buy other books. Despite the plethora of information available online, books are still the best way to learn about programming within a coherent and cohesive tutorial narrative. Every book sale brings a tear of joy toanauthor’s eye,so please help makethem weepoverflowing rivers. In particular, you mightwant to buy otherbooks tosupplement the material in this book. For example, I barely mention Web services in thisbook, andthat’s a serious deficiency becauseWeb services are likely to become increasingly important in Windows Phone 7 applications. My coverage of XNAis limitedto 2Dgraphicsand while I hopetoadd several 3D chapters inthe next edition of this book,I don’treally get intothe whole XboxLIVEcommunity aspect ofgame development. Nor do I discuss any programming tools beyond Visual Studio—not evenExpression Blend.
My publisher Microsoft Press has a couple additional Windows Phone 7 books comingsoon: Windows Phone 7 Silverlight Development Step by Step by Andy Wigley & Peter Foot offers amore tools-oriented approach. Although Michael Stroh’sWindows Phone 7 Plain & Simple is a guide tousing the phone rather than developing for it, I suspect it will give developers someinsights and ideas. Moreover, I alsohear that my old friend Doug Boling is working hard on a WindowsPhone 7 enterprise-programmingbook that is likely to be consideredhis masterpiece. Be sure to checkout that one.
