This should be a time of sitting by the Christmas tree, daydreaming during dark days, planning for Christmas presents and so on. Instead, this year will be totally different, at least for me. The upcoming weeks are completely focused around Webcasts. The upcoming week I will present four Webcasts in a row. They are targeted to US ISV’s. It sounds almost funny. A Dutch Compact Framework MVP talking to high potential ISV’s in the USA about developing software for Windows Mobile devices. Of course I want demo lots of code, so the last week was a week of writing sample code, testing code and learning some new things while doing so. I will not give away too much of the new things I came across, but one of them is too cool not to mention. To be honest, Jim Wilson gave me the idea. I ran into some limitations using the brand new SqlCeResultSet class. This class works immediately on a SQL Mobile database without the need to have an in-memory DataSet to be able to walk back and forth in tables of the database. One of its limitations are that there is no way to filter data (by running a query to limit the amount of data presented to the user). Jim had the brilliant idea to make use of the fact that we now have partial classes to extend a SqlCeResultSet with my own queries. This cool technique alone justifies a Webcast by itself, comparing performance of DataSets and SqlCeResultSets and extending the SqlCeResultSet to get almost the same functionality as a DataSet. This would also have been a perfect topic for a whitepaper or at least a blog entry. All of those will follow in future, but because of the pressure of upcoming Webcasts there is simply no time to write about this cool stuff. One way to learn about this creative use of partial classes is tuning in to the upcoming Webcasts (even if you are no US ISV). They will run at 3 PM Pacific Time. Even though I am living in Europe I am thinking about changing my internal clock to PST, especially because 3 PM PST will be midnight here in Holland. Hopefully my neighbors are not bothered too much with me talking out loud at that time of night. In between I am very busy preparing a 13 part Webcast series that will discuss the creation of a Line-Of-Business application. In the months January through March we will explain in detail how to create a LOB application, containing a SQL Mobile database, dealing with SMS messages, using WM 5.0 API’s, incorporating existing COM Objects, accessing Web Services, and lots more. But also things like how to create a splash screen, how to make use of the State and Notification Broker in Windows Mobile 5.0 devices and how to target multiple platforms while maintaining one single code base. As a good developer I am running behind schedule right now, trying as much as possible to catch up to meet some tight deadlines. All in all this means no time for Christmas shopping and for some relaxing time under the Christmas tree. At least this is a good excuse for not coming up with those cool presents. I hope my family will forgive me. Even though I am looking forward to presenting a whole bunch of Webcasts in the upcoming weeks I am looking forward even more to Christmas next year. I will make sure to have some time off then. Hopefully the new Xbox 360 and a whole bunch of WM 5.0 devices are widely available then. That solves the problem of buying cool Christmas presents in 2006.

Maarten Struys