Tomer Gabel's annoying spot on the 'net RSS 2.0
# Sunday, March 11, 2007

With my project finally nearing completion, it's nigh time for Microsoft to release yet another update to the .NET Compact Framework 2.0. Service Pack 2 ought to bring it to about "beta 2" level.

Check out these gems:

  • NETCF deadlocks on exit if native callback delegate has been called on native thread (this is one of the few bugs in the CF I haven't encountered. Ironic, considering we make heavy use of native code in our project.)
  • Access violation marshaling a class with a string field (there is a dent in the nearby wall on account of this one.)
  • TypeLoadException using generics with NETCF 2.0 (TypeLoadExceptions in general are a lot of fun in the CF.)
  • Installing multiple locales of same MSI results in multiple instances of NetCF showing up in Add Remove Programs (we've had some complaints regarding this from our client. They'll be mighty pleased to hear this, I'm sure.)

Now don't get me wrong - I think the CF is an impressive platform, or at the very least could've been. I would venture to say that the people on the CF implementation team are probably skilled professionals just doing the best job they can. But I can't forgive Microsoft - as a company - for shipping a half-baked, half-assed product that even at version 2.0 and after two service packs is still riddled with bugs! It boggles the mind that for any but the most hard-core developers, a third-party extension to the .NET CF is practically a necessity because the class library itself is simply inadequate.

As an aside, I seriously doubt we'll chance regression bugs this close to the launch date, so we'll probably stick with SP1 (we've worked around the issues we've encountered anyway.)

Sunday, March 11, 2007 4:40:49 PM (Jerusalem Standard Time, UTC+02:00)  #    -
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