Developer: Microsoft Makes Coding From Android to WP7 Easier
June 10, 2011 No CommentsIn April we covered a story that Microsoft was making a really smart move in trying to convert IOS developers by creating the necessary tools to make it simpler to develop on WP7. Fast forward a few months and they have now made the same tools for Android devs.
This tools a very thorough and consist of an Android to Windows Phone API mapping tool and a 90+ pages Windows Phone 7 Guide for Android Application Developers white paper.
Windows Phone API mapping tool: now includes Android
We’ve added Android to the Windows Phone API mapping tool to help developers find their way around the Windows Phone platform. Think of the API mapping tool as being like a translation dictionary. For example, let’s say that you’re planning a vacation to France. Since you don’t speak the language, you’ll bring a pocket travel dictionary. Having this tool will surely help you get an idea about what you are ordering from a restaurant menu, but you’ll have no idea what the actual recipe is — nor will you be able to have a conversion in French with the server! But it’s a great learning tool to make the first steps.
[smartads]
They even hired a person to help you directly with any issues – They call him ‘The App Guy”
Getting help when porting your applications?
Mapping is tedious on-going work. Don’t expect a mapping for all of the APIs, simply because the platforms are built upon different architectures and user interfaces. We’re working on expanding the coverage of the API Mapping tool for both iOS and Android, but there will be some situations where you might be stuck, not knowing what way to port your feature over from iOS or Android to Windows Phone. We’re willing to help!
We have hired the “App Guy” who crawls developer forums aggregating discussions from different locations to answer questions related to porting iOS and Android applications to Windows Phone, but hey, that’s just one guy for now, anybody can help out. Tell us if we’ve missed something and tag your questions/answers so that we can find them (see guidance) and show them off.
You can find the Phone Guy here
Windows Phone 7 Guide for Android Application Developers
- Chapter 1: Introducing Windows Phone 7 Platform to Android Application Developers
- Chapter2: User Interface Guidelines
- Chapter3: The Developer and Designer Tools
- Chapter 4: C#programming
- Chapter 5: A Comparison of Application Life Cycles in Windows Phone7 and Android
- Chapter6: Storing Data and Preferences
- Chapter 7: XML Parsing in Windows Phone 7 and Android
You can find the Guide here
You can find the API Tool here
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