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InfoQ Homepage News A Tool for Porting iPhone Apps to Windows Phone 7

A Tool for Porting iPhone Apps to Windows Phone 7

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Microsoft has released an API mapping tool, guidance and testimonial videos that eases the work of porting iPhone/iOS applications to Windows Phone 7 (WP 7).

The Microsoft Windows Phone Interoperability team has created an online tool for finding the corresponding Windows Phone 7 API calls for some of the iOS API calls. The tool does not automatically process an application’s code source and converts the code to its WP 7 equivalent, but it guides the iPhone programmer to find out which class or method is the equivalent of an iOS one. Also, the tool, targeted at iOS 4.2, does not cover all iOS API categories - Audio / Video, Data Management, Graphics / Animation, Network / Internet, Performance, Security and User Interface –, currently offering porting guidance for Network / Internet, User Interface and Data Management APIs with the promise that more APIs will be covered in the future. The tool provides links to Windows Phone 7 online MSDN documentation for each API class/method it suggests.

Microsoft has also written a 90-page “Windows Phone 7 Guide for iPhone Application Developers” (PDF), introducing iOS developers to the world of Windows Phone 7 development, presenting side by side the basic tools needed, the WP 7 architecture, the programming stack, the language to be used and the user interface.

The mapping tool and the WP 7 guide are accompanied by a number of developer stories, videos with people who have gone through the process of porting iPhone apps to WP 7, sharing their experience and some of the lessons learned along the way.

This package targeted at iOS developers willing to have their applications on Windows Phone 7 is certainly not the dream tool for porting applications, but it is opening the world of WP 7, providing some help in speeding up the entire conversion process.

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