Should you posess incredible coding skill in the iOS realm and be interested in the Windows Phone platform, we have some good news for you for the gap between the two operating systems. Over on the Windows Team blog, they've announced the launch of of their new WP7 API mapping tool. So, what exactly does this bring to the table for developers? Find out after the break.
Well, using the exact words on the blog, think of this tool as a “translation dictionary” for iOS familiarised developers who wish to approach WP7. It will prove to be a useful tool to make the first learning steps much easier and will allow developers to pick out their iOS API calls and look up equivalent classes, methods and notification events in WP7. This will be accompanied by C# sample codes and API documentation for both platforms.
With the samples of code present, developers will be able to “migrate short blogs of iOS code to the equivalent C# code.” All the API documentations on WP7 are imported from Silverlight, C# and XNA sources over at MSDN.
iOS APIs can broadly be classified into the following categories: Audio / Video, Data Management, Graphics / Animation, Network / Internet, Performance, Security and User InterfaceFor current mapping, we started with 3 popular categories (Network / Internet, User Interface and Data Management) and mapped them to Windows Phone 7 API. Don’t expect a mapping for all of the APIs, simply because the platforms are built upon different architectures and user interfaces. For this first round we focused on identifying the one-to-one mapping when it exists. In the following versions we’ll expand the scope and anytime the concepts are similar enough, we’ll do our best to provide the appropriate guidance.
This is fantastic news for developers and one can only speculate that this’ll bring more apps to the Marketplace. If you do decide to test out the API mapping tool, be sure to leave as much feedback as you can at the dedicated forum. Included in the package (download link in the first paragragh) are the following:
- API mapping tool
- 90+ pages "Windows Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Application Developers" white paper
- Series of developer stories where iOS developers create videos of their experience
- Compilation of key resources
Check out the video at the top of this article for an interview with Whurley, Chief Technology Officer from Chaotic Moon. Interesting view from iOS to WP7.
Source: Windows Team Blog
