Re: [HS] HS and WP7

> If your mobile apps yield the exact same user  experience on the desktop with 
> 0 modification and 0 effort to make them work on  the desktop, and that one 
>user 
>
> experience is perfect for both handheld and  desktop, then that's convenient 
>indeed.

Same experience?  No, not precisely.  Functionality, yes, just in a smaller form 
factor.  They are simple apps, designed to help salesmen not have to be 
connected to the main DB when they are on the road.  For ease of use, they use 
the same app on their desktop or laptop when they are in the office.

> Are the dialog boxes on the  desktop 240 pixels wide by 320 pixels tall?  

Not much in the way of dialog boxes at all.  Mostly confirmation stuff.  Data 
entry has dedicated forms.  All the forms are sensitive to the size and 
resolution of the display, so they will adjust to the size of the screen.  This 
lets it be used on multiple platforms, including the stupid "slate" things they 
bought a few years back.  It even runs on Mono, which makes the one Mac guy 
happy.

> Does the desktop version  require mouse swiping gestures?  

Nope.

> Does the desktop version have a menu with  only two popups?  

I'd have to check the detailed code.  It might, but I don't remember needing 
more than two.

> Does the desktop version respond to mouse  right-clicks?  

Yes.

> There are no compile-time modifications via #if  directives?

There used to be, before we figured out the whole configuration thing.  There's 
an access layer, including encryption, for the local DB on the portable devices, 
whereas the desktop versions connect directly to the main SQL Server based DB.  
Which one is used by the individual copy of the app is a configuration item, so 
while technically it's platform specific, it's run time configuration, not 
compile time.  And technically, there's no bar to using SQLite on the desktop, 
if somebody were damnfool enough to configure it that way.  It would just have 
the same "remote operation" behavior as the handheld version.  And in fact, it 
*is* possible to use the hand held version in the same way as the desk top one, 
if there is an authorized network connection.  It's a matter of configuration in 
both cases.

> Just some examples of how in my experience there are  differences, 
> and there is definitely work involved.  
> But  that is very different than saying "build for this flavor, and then for 0 

> hours  of additional work these other flavors work perfectly and give the 
> experience  users expect", which is how I took your original statement.

There's absolutely work involved.  If I gave the impression that it was entirely 
free, I apologize.  Much of it is indeed "free" in the sense that the Framework 
is doing the work of deciding which form to display, how to operate the menus, 
input processing, etc.  For some sufficiently small and simple set of 
functionality, though larger than some might expect, the program will indeed 
work on both platforms without additional work, but as you point out, that would 
in all likelihood not be a very satisfying experience for user.  For instance, 
there was a bit of work involved in making the forms intelligently sensitive to 
form factor, but it wasn't onerous, and once implemented, it became the basis 
for every form in the system.

Of course, if the newer version of .NET wants me to implement everything using 
WPF, well, that might be a bigger issue or it might be a smaller one.  Like I 
said, I haven't looked at it hard enough to form an opinion.

> This is a  hobby.  Adding more work has to be funded with more time.  
> More time  is not available.  I don't even know if I have time available 
> to rewrite HS  for WP7, much less throw in desktop support as  well.

It was a question, Chris, not a demand.  :)  I know you may be used to seeing 
demands, but I was just being curious.  I'll try to make that clearer next 
time.  I'll take what I can get, and if I can't get a particular piece of 
something for nothing, well, that's pretty much the way the world works, ain't 
it?

Brad