Migrating to Visual Studio 2008

I wanted to take a look at the XNA Game Studio 3.0 - and it turns out it requires Visual Studio 2008. Since all of my current code is based on 2005 projects I've been avoiding the upgrade - no it looks like its time to take the plunge.

There is good news, apparently you can run multiple versions of Visual Studio side beside:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms246609.aspx

And more good news - XNA also works with C# 2008 Express. It looks like Microsoft has made things easy this time around.

Visual Studio 2008 Express: http://www.microsoft.com/express/download/#webInstall
XNA Game Studio 3.0: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7D70D6ED-1EDD-4852-9883-9A33C0AD8FEE&displaylang=en

Happy Coding

Tabs and formatting in VS 2005

If you coded for any length of time you've come across code that was written with an editor that defines different tab spacing than what you use. The result is is usually a mess of unevenly spaced code.

A simple fix to this is to replace tabs with spaces.

So the first step is to set up your editor to enter several spaces instead of a tab character. 4 spaces is recommended.

In Visual 2005 (this is probably true or similar for other versions)

Select Tools from the menu

Options...

Under "Text Editor" expand the section for the type of coding you're currently doing and open "Tabs". You'll want to change the setting to "Insert spaces" to "Keep tabs" and make sure the "Tab size:" value is set to 4 (or your preferred setting).

The second step is to replace your existing tabs with spaces. This is easier than it sounds - any good editor will allow you to select one tab although it will look like you're selecting a section of nothing. Copy the "tab", open search and replace (Ctrl-H on VS 2005) and paste into the "Find what:" section. Then enter 4 spaces into the "Replace with:" section and start replacing.

You may have some minor alignment errors you'll need to fix after the search and replace but this should help keep things tidier in the long run.

How to run Pocket PC software on a PC using Emulators (without Visual Studio)

Here's a quick answer on how to run Pocket PC games on a Desktop PC.

Its not a simple process but I thought this was a useful post.

Taken from answers.yahoo.com
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/answer;_ylt=ApkZyyC_FOaoOLCzJbE_yWkazKIX;_ylv=3

You can run Pocket PC software using an emulator on a Windows PC but its not a simple process. You'll need to download the Standalone Device Emulator (link below)Then you'll need to sync the emulator using through ActiveSync (for Windows XP) or the Windows Mobile Device Center on Vista. If you're using Vista read the blog post linked below.Finally - you'll need to use the Device Emulator Manager which "should" be installed with the stand alone emulator. Using the Manager you first have to "Connect" to an emulator of your choice (right click on the emulator) and then once its loaded "Cradle".From there you can install any games or programs onto the emulator.