TamsPPC - the PocketPC Blog

Microsoft’s MSDN is a very useful resource - if you can find the information you need in plethora of information. Microsoft has documented the .NET compact framework pretty well - but you need to find it. Here’s how to:

Step 1: visit MSDN
Visit the MSDN library at msdn.microsoft.com

Step 2: visit the category
In the TOC on the left, click the following:
.NET Development -> .NET framework Technologies -> .NET Compact Framework

As of this writing, the following link takes me right to the correct category:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/f44bbwa1.aspx

I am in a pretty bad mood about this…please forgive me the slightly aggressive slant

I am a programmer who takes pride in designing his UI’s himself - and indeed, many of my Palm OS applications have won awards for simple and well-done interfacing. For me, popping up a dialog over another form is a standard issue - it looks like this on a Palm:

The code for doing this is approx 1 line long; and all you need to do is set the form dimensions and popup styles in Resource XML.

Creating such a dialog is next to impossible on the PocketPC in vb.net - for some strange reason, this absolutely operating system insists on making each and every form “full-screen” - even if you set the dimensions differently(even explicitly in code). All this while a MessageBox floats around the screen merrily…

However, I am not alone with this problem. Looking around in the CF newsgroup brought along the following gem of a thread:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.dotnet.framework.compactframework&tid=57f3a71b-7166-4b7b-98d6-003453f86c7c&p=1

Essentially, it all comes down to setting FormBorderStyle to none. You then have a form that doesn’t get resized automatically and can be popped up with Form.ShowDialog - but it doesn’t have a frame or title area.

Fabien Decret has a writeup on the “gory details” and also covers creating a simple border around the form - visit his blog here:
http://fabdecret.blogspot.com/2007/05/non-full-screen-window.html

How do you create a popup window in .net CF? If you have an idea, please email it to me at Tamog AT gmx DOT at!