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Microsoft .NET Compact Framework

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continuous connectivity, lack in rich user interface and failure to utilize client ­
side resources effectively.
Mobile devices can be broadly divided into two categories:
1) Mobile Devices that have certain client-side resources like PDAs,
Smartphones and Handheld PCs. They can run stand-alone application with
rich user interface.
2) Mobile Devices that lack even these client-side resources such as mobile
phones. They can not run stand alone applications having rich and more
interactive user interface.
In order to encompass all possible devices from above categories Microsoft has
developed two distinct technologies namely:
- Microsoft .NET Compact Framework (.NET CF)
- Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit (MMIT)
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Microsoft .NET Compact Framework
.NET compact framework is a sub set of entire .NET framework and is
targeted at mobile devices having some client side resources. It provides
support for managed code and XML Web services. Currently, .NET
Compact Framework is in Beta 1 and is available on devices running the
Windows CE or Windows CE .NET operating systems. However,
Microsoft has promised support for other platforms in the future. As of
now the framework supports Visual Basic.NET and C# as development
languages out of the box. Support for other languages is planned in near
future.
Microsoft is creating a set of extensions for Visual Studio .NET called
Smart Device Extensions that will allow Visual Studio .NET developers to
program for .NET Compact Framework. This means that developers
familiar with Visual Studio.NET can start developing for mobile devices
almost instantly.
More information about .NET Compact Framework can be obtained at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/device/compact.asp
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Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit
Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit (MMIT) is designed to develop server
side applications for mobile devices such as cell phones, PDAs, and
pagers. It is different than .NET compact Framework in that it is a server
side technology. It is ideal for devices that can not run stand alone
applications.
MMIT mainly uses ASP.NET as a technology for delivering markup to a
wide variety of mobile devices. As we know that each mobile device has