Native CE Development tools Further FAQ.

LeighSword and Amit(MS Program Manager for CE) 's conversion:
Q:Are there plans for incorporating previous versions of CE development (read: 3.0) into evC 4.0? We have customers who sometimes ask why there are 2 versions they have to use for different versions of CE.

A:No there are no such plans. We are trying to unify development IDE to make them all VS 2005 (In fact Native development for devices will move to VS 2005 as well), however will not be able to go back all the way to eVC 3.0.

Q:Ok. In the new VS 2005, what versions of CE will people be able to develop on? What will they be able to import in and update, and what types of support will Microsoft give?

A:It will be CE 5.0 and higher.
However you will be able to also do PPC and Smartphone 2003.
(And future versions of the same)

Q:So for versions of CE 4.2 and below, you will still have to use VS.NET (2003). And there will be no support in VC++ 2005 for CE4.2?

A:Yes that is correct. We are working on making sure Migration is avalable for VS 2003 as well as EVC 4.0 Projects into Whidbey.

Q:I understand. So what about companies who spent millions of dollars to develop Windows 4.2? Will Microsoft still support those customers?

A:We are fully commited to our platform.
A couple of issues are currently being flushed out and very soon we will publish the detailed plans on the supported and unsupported platforms for VS2005 and NET CFV2.0.