Becoming a Developer

[JackB03]

I'm interested in making a couple of apps. And I missed the Phone Camp event Microsoft had here in Dallas, Tx. Does anyone know of any sites to teach beginners how to make windows apps? Certain software to use?

Jack

 

[FriendOrDafoe]

App Hub - windows phone and xbox live indie games development
Register to become a dev. Costs $99.00 or free for students.
You can then download the developer tool kit.

You will need Visual Studio. (Studnets Can Grab this for free from microsoft dreamspark otherwise you will have to buy it) Im not sure if it comes with the dev tool kit. it may.

As far as teaching beginners? There are LOTS of sites that help.

Try this one.
App Hub - windows phone development quickstarts

or search for Windows Phone APP Development Tutorials / C# tutorials.

 

[thed]

You actually don't have to register on AppHub to start developing. You can develop using the emulator and then if/when you're ready to test on a phone and release to the Marketplace you can register and pay then. The SDK is free to all and includes Visual Studio 2010 Express (also free).

A quick "Getting Started" guide on MSDN:
Getting Started with Windows Phone Development

SDK download link:
Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - WP SDK 7.1

 

[JackB03]

Thank yall for the tips!

 

[MikeFayer]

There's millions of ways to start, and they're all probably equally good. Just don't allow yourself to think (no matter what MS claims about ease of development) that you can make anything of value quickly.

You'll probably be able to get something up and running quickly. But to create something intuitive, compelling, well designed, robust, and performant - that takes tons and tons of experience.

In the end, there's really only one way. Think of something you want to make, something that sounds hard. Get cracking. When you realize your work so far sucks, throw it all away and start over. Do it again, and then again. If you haven't given up after a year, then you'll have a shot of putting something up on the marketplace that's worthwhile. =)

 

[aer127]

Once you familiarize yourself with .NET, C#, and Silverlight, you can take a look at Charles Petzold's "Programming Windows Phone 7". There is a free PDF download from his site. The book contains details on developing Silverlight and XNA apps. Here's the link:

"Programming Windows Phone 7" by Charles Petzold

 

[kenstone]

Build something really stupid knowing that it's going to be stupid. But doing that stupid thing will build skills that you'll rely on when you want to build something cool. In fact, I have an app in the Marketplace that is my "stupid" app. People download it an use it. But it's really dumb. However, I use that app as my lab and try out new techniques on it that I can reuse on my cool apps.

Just keep trying. C# and Windows Phone is crazy fun. And yes, get Visual Studio Express for free.

 

[RogueCode]

Build something really stupid knowing that it's going to be stupid. But doing that stupid thing will build skills that you'll rely on when you want to build something cool. In fact, I have an app in the Marketplace that is my "stupid" app. People download it an use it. But it's really dumb. However, I use that app as my lab and try out new techniques on it that I can reuse on my cool apps.

Just keep trying. C# and Windows Phone is crazy fun. And yes, get Visual Studio Express for free.

If you don't mind - what is the stupid app called?

 

[kenstone]

If you don't mind - what is the stupid app called?

My stupid app is called "Awesome Button". Just don't tell anyone I told you that.

 

[pseudoware]

Good luck w/your efforts. It doesn't get more stupid than the app in my sig. I'm having trouble getting it in the marketplace, not sure what the hang up is.

Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express

 

[Red Lemur]

I'm interested in making a couple of apps. And I missed the Phone Camp event Microsoft had here in Dallas, Tx. Does anyone know of any sites to teach beginners how to make windows apps? Certain software to use?

Jack

I?d recommend just trying to write a really simple app first ? just something that has a bit of text, maybe some pictures, on screen and lets you tap some things. If you haven?t chosen between using Visual Basic or C# as the language to learn yet I would choose C# as it?s more popular, and also used more in industry.

This seems to be a good link for beginners as it has lots of videos ? don?t know whether it?s the right level for you though but give it a go. It?s not the latest version of wp7, but the techniques haven?t changed much ? just a few new things added.
Windows Phone 7 Development for Absolute Beginners | Channel 9

I found this that?s an example of a complete ?first? application for wp7 mango
Developing a Windows Phone Application from Start to Finish

This is a fantastic link once you?ve written your first simple app as it has an example of how to do everything on windows phone (tiles, photos, play music, etc. etc.?)
Code Samples

There?s lots of tutorials out on the web if you search. You also need to know this link if you don?t already as it?s the kind of front page for wp7 development:
App Hub - windows phone and xbox live indie games development

Here?s lot of videos for using the software expression blend. You don?t need to learn expression blend at first as visual studio does everything ? but if you do you can make your apps looks beautiful really easily, and it make some parts of wp7 development (the ?XAML?) a lot easier to write than using Visual Studio.
Learn Microsoft Expression Blend: videos, tutorials, whitepapers

Hope that helps,

Ian