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Building Solutions with the Microsoft .NET Compact Framework: Architecture and Best Practices for Mobile Development Review by Daniel Moth
Great book for technical managers, not for developers
This is a well written book with a nice overall structure and easy-to-follow language. Each discussion starts with an executive summary and ends with references to other resources for further reading, thus making it a very straightforward read. I will not enumerate the subjects covered, since you can do that by looking at the contents table.
Although the title tells us this is a .NETcf book, you should pay attention to the subtitle, as the topics of architecture and general advice on mobile development are also covered at considerable length. This may or may not please you, depending on your role. For example, the chapter on security includes general theoretical principles on the topic but omits examples of using the Cryptography API. We notice this in other parts of the book, and in fact the first chapter is a pure retrospection into the history of mobile devices as supported by Microsoft. Add to my previous comments that the book is only 350 pages long and the fact that there are no complete/end-to-end code examples, and you can see why it is not aimed at programmers. To be fair, the authors don't hide this and they state in their preface that the target audiences are technical managers and architects.
Like anything that goes to print, there are some errors including: the recommendation of using ResEditor (it simply does not work with the CF); the suggestion that C# is 100% compatible between desktop and compact frameworks (what about `volatile'?); and the claim that the class loader ignores the build & revision number (or that for private assemblies the version number is not consulted), which is not true. Overall, though, the content is correct and for technical managers this is probably the best book on the subject (but certainly not for developers). Finally, a small note that there is no mention of SmartPhone 2003 since the writing must have been completed prior to its launch (or indeed prior to CE 4.2).