Windows Phone 7 is a managed code platform, we\u2019ve been told at Mix10 in Las Vegas. Development is via Silverlight or XNA; there is no native API.<\/p>\n
Of course there is<\/strong> a native API; the question is more about what code is allowed to access it. Still, in the press briefing the spokesman was clear that native code development will not be supported.<\/p>\n What about projects like Adobe\u2019s Flash runtime, which both Microsoft and Adobe have said is planned, or at least (in Microsoft\u2019s case), not blocked \u2013 although we already know that Flash will not be available in the first release.<\/p>\n All my spokesman would say is that nothing has been announced about that. <\/p>\n My suspicion is that in reality certain privileged vendors will be able to, in effect, extend the operating system with native code libraries. Adobe could be one of those; so too could a company like Rhomobile<\/a>, which has a cross-compiler for a variety of mobile platforms. So I doubt that Microsoft has yet given us the full story here.<\/p>\n Update<\/strong>: The latest on this is that Microsoft\u2019s Charlie Kindel says that Adobe will have special native access for Flash, but that no other vendor will have that privilege. This still does not make sense to me. Let\u2019s suppose that Windows Phone 7 is a big success. What justification could Microsoft have for supporting the Flash runtime but not the Java runtime, for example? I suspect that Microsoft is chasing the Flash checkbox to one-up Apple; but if Adobe gets native access, others will no doubt follow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Windows Phone 7 is a managed code platform, we\u2019ve been told at Mix10 in Las Vegas. Development is via Silverlight or XNA; there is no native API. Of course there is a native API; the question is more about what code is allowed to access it. Still, in the press briefing the spokesman was clear … Continue reading No native code development on Windows Phone 7 says Microsoft \u2013 so what about Flash?<\/span>