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 is binary compatible with Microsoft's .NET Compact Framework 1.0.

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.

 

 

Product Components of the .NET Compact Framework

ArchitectureRed Five Labs 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.

Red Five Labs 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

  • Supporting S60, 3rd edition
  • Symbian OS 9.1
  • Binary compatible with .NET Compact Framework 1.0
  • On-device beta coming soon.

Enterprise Customers

  • Easily extend .NET line-of-business applications
  • Target a stable platform
  • S60 devices are attractive to end user customers

Independent Software Vendors

  • Target large pool of S60 devices
  • Royalty free licensing model
  • Lowers barrier to entry

Phone Manufacturers

  • Attract potentially millions more developers.
  • Attract niche enterprise customers with .NET business needs.
  • Deliver richer user experiences with more mobile applications.

Network Operators

  • Provide new services to existing S60 subscriber base.
  • Grow network data revenue.
  • Differentiate product offering.
  • Stimulate continuous product innovation.

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.