The latest update to Windows Embedded Compact 2013 was a bit of a surprise as besides the usual cumulative bug fixes and tweaks it adds development support with Visual Studio 2015. Since the days of Windows Mobile 6 and even CE 7 it has been common to use an old version of Visual Studio to get things done but here the tools have jumped to the latest Visual Studio version.
Besides the usual Console and Windows Forms project types we’ve tested XAML In The Hand too and you can build managed code XAML based applications. You can debug over Ethernet, edit your XAML with intellisense, use NuGet packages etc all as you would with “big” Windows development.
One of the new features added in Compact 2013 was Behaviors and while you can use them already in XAML In The Hand projects from your XAML we’re investigating whether it might be useful to add code support for these too depending on demand.
The Compact 2013 installation is in two parts – Application Builder is the plugin for Visual Studio:-
http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=38819
The latest Compact 2013 Platform update is here:-
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42027
More details on XAML In The Hand can be found here:-
https://inthehand.com/components/xamlruntime/
In The Hand Ltd 