How To: Develop Mobile Apps for Windows Phone 7 Devices (Complete Programming Guide)

Microsoft's new mobile operating system is officially out on the market, and programmers are hard at work developing new mobile apps for Windows Phone 7 devices.  But there's a lot going on in this new platform, which means there's a whole lot to be learned, and the only man in the world with a Windows tattoo is here to help— Charles Petzold.

Everyone who's programmed for Microsoft Windows knows of Charles Petzold.  He's a technical author for Windows applications and also a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional who's written numerous books on programming since his first one in 1988, Programming Windows.  Now he wants to teach everyone about the newest mobile OS with his book, Programming Windows Phone 7.

The best thing about his new book— it's FREE!  You can buy an actual book, but Petzold is offering it on his website in PDF form for absolutely nothing, so you can start developing apps immediately for smartphones like the Samsung Focus, Dell Venue Pro, HTC HD7, HTC 7 Pro and other HTC phones (Trophy, Mozart, Surround).

If you're interested in writing software for Windows Phone 7, this is one manual you can't live without.  It's jam-packed full of information, a massive 997 pages of knowledge, about touchscreens, bitmaps, application architecture, Silverlight, vector graphics, animations, XNA and MORE!

Download Programming Windows Phone 7 by Charles Petzold NOW in PDF!

Here's what Charles has to say, directly from the introduction to his book:

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 to an author's eye, so please help make them weep overflowing rivers.

In particular, you might want to buy other books to supplement the material in this book. For example, I barely mention Web services in this book, and that's a serious deficiency because Web services are likely to become increasingly important in Windows Phone 7 applications. My coverage of XNA is limited to 2D graphics and while I hope to add several 3D chapters in the next edition of this book, I don't really get into the whole Xbox LIVE community aspect of game development. Nor do I discuss any programming tools beyond Visual Studio—not even Expression Blend.

Also, check out Petzold's newest blog entry about the process of getting a Windows Phone 7 app into the Windows Phone Marketplace.

To start learning now, visually, check out some of the Windows Phone 7 programming guides on WonderHowTo, like the one featured below.

        * Click the above link for the remaining parts for the shuffleboard game in Silverlight.