The .NET Compact Framework

The .NET Compact Framework (CF), a version of the .NET Framework tuned for compact devices and included with Visual Studio .NET 2003, means that IT planners and ISVs now have a consistent set of tools and APIs that span Microsoft’s desktop, server, and compact device platforms. Compact devices, however, have significant differences in storage capacity and capabilities, and the CF does not aim to be a “write once, run anywhere” solution.

Tuning .NET for Smart Devices

In building the CF, Microsoft set out to dramatically reduce the size of the .NET Framework while at the same time maintaining as many APIs as possible so that developers would be able to transfer their knowledge of the .NET Framework to the CF. However, given the huge disparity in capabilities between conventional PCs and compact devices (such as screen size, processor speed, available memory), solutions built with one device cannot run unmodified on another. Microsoft’s primary goal was to minimize the learning curve that developers face when building applications for compact devices.