Net60 - Opening Symbian devices to .NET development

Net 60 is the .NET Compact Framework implementation by Red Five Labs that enables mobile .NET applications to run on the Symbian OS platform. Using .NET to develop applications eases development and increases productivity. Application developers can now also target a vast pool of Symbian devices. Using managed programming languages such as C# and VB.NET within the award winning Microsoft Visual Studio suite of IDEs further aids rapid application development.

 
Runtimes or managed code environments are increasingly being used by developers to create software. The architecture of the software stack below illustrates the layer of abstraction which the .NET Compact Framework (CF) provides to developers.

 Simplified Architecture

 

 

BENEFITS OF USING .NET

 

RAPID DEVELOPMENT

 

REUSE EXISTING CODE

 

ACCESS NATIVE APIs

Applications are developed at a higher level of abstraction. Less time is spent on low-level, complex tasks such as memory management.

 

Existing components or common code (engines or libraries) can be included in new CF applications preventing the need to invest in rewriting code.

 

.NET supports Platform Invoke which enables managed code to call into native Symbian APIs providing all the benefits of low level access to the OS.

Features of Net60

 

Red Five Labs' implementation of the .NET Compact Framework, Net60, is binary compatible with Microsoft's .NET Compact Framework 2.0 support.

Comparison Table

 

Why do developers use .NET technology?

A trend in software development methodologies is that developers are increasingly moving to managed runtime environments as this relieves them from performing complex tasks such as releasing memory and managing other operating system resources. This allows unprecedented levels of productivity as this complexity is hidden. Coupled with development tools like Microsoft's Visual Studio, the overall result is a highly effective development environment.

 

 

Net60 Components of the .NET Compact Framework

ArchitectureNet60 Runtime
The runtime is responsible for loading, JIT compiling and executing managed code. Also known as the CLI execution engine, it has been written from the ground up to target Symbian OS; taking full advantage of the Symbian C++ paradigms for resource constrained mobile devices.

Net60 Class Libraries
These are the part of the framework that developers use to build applications. They are a collection of APIs which provide high levels of functionality that are packaged in a series of DLL files.  They are used in managed code by referencing the various namespaces.

The list of class libraries and namespaces implemented is:

Base Class Libraries

  • System.*
  • System.Collections.*
  • System.ComponentModel.*
  • System.Diagnostics.*
  • System.Globalization.*
  • System.IO.*
  • System.Net.*
  • System.Security.*
  • System.Text.*
  • System.Threading.*
  • System.Reflection.*
  • System.Resources.*

User Interface Libraries

  • System.Windows.*
  • System.Drawing.*

Web Services & XML

  • System.Web.Services
  • System.XML.*

Data

  • System.Data

Download Data Sheet

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Net60 Product Summary

  • Binary compatible with .NET Compact Framework 2.0
  • Supporting S60, 3rd edition and above
  • Symbian OS 9.1 and above
  • Support for Visual Studio 2005 & 2008

Enterprise Customers

  • Easily extend .NET line-of-business applications
  • Target a stable platform
  • Target large pool of S60 devices
  • Lowers barrier to entry
Developers
  • Become more productive writing better quality code.
  • Target numerous different smartphones devices easily.
  • Improve your value proposition to the market.
Other programmatic features:
  • Full support of structured exception handling (try, catch, finally)
  • Memory is managed by a Garbage Collector  – no need to use Symbian ‘L’ functions, traps, leaves and the CleanupStack.
  • Full access to low level Symbian OS APIs with P/Invoke.
  • Managed access to Symbian APIs such as telephony, SMS, GPS, vibration, camera etc.
  • SQL database support
  • Webservices and XML