Change target Platform

[Chuck Hecht]

Hello,
What is the down side of using the the "Change Target Platform" form the
right click on the project in the Solution explorer?
I need to be able to support Pocket pc 2003, wm5 and wm6. I have all 3 sdks
installed and they appear in the "Change To" pull down of the Change Target
Platform dialog box. If I understand correctly when I build the project
(both the app and deployment) VS2008 will determine what runtime or sdk
files are needed, correct?
chuck

 

[Christopher Fairbairn]

Hi,

What is the down side of using the the "Change Target Platform" form the
right click on the project in the Solution explorer?

The main thing this menu option does is disable various controls within the
forms designer toolbox etc to ensure you don't use controls/features not
available on your currently selected platform (for example Buttons are not
supported on smartphone).

It also obviously filters the list of available emulators/devices to deploy
to in order to ensure you are testing on something that represents the
behaviour and capabilities of your target platform.

When you create a project you specify the version of the .NET Compact
Framework you want to target (i.e. v1.0, v2.0 or v3.5). No matter what
"target platform" you have selected within the Visual Studio "Change Target
Platform" feature the resultant *.exe and *.cab files should work on all
platforms supported by the given version of the .NET Compact Framework,
provided you don't use a feature only available on a subset of those
platforms.

This is where the Change Target platform feature can be semi handy. For
example if you target a Pocket PC device and then change target platforms to
a Smartphone device you will notice the form designer places a small icon
against any buttons within your forms to highlight the fact that they are
not supported on smartphone devices.

If you want to use features (such as buttons) which are not univerally
supported, you can use more advanced development techniques. Probably a good
place to start is to search Daniel Moth's blog for his series of posts on
cross platform development techniques.

Hope this helps,
Christopher Fairbairn