Lessons learned getting CSLA 4 to build and run in WP7.

• Obviously WP7 is based on SL3, so SL4 specific code won’t work (which caused most of my initial build issues).
• Human error plays a big role – I created several new projects for WP7, and even though they shared existing code files (via file linking), I forgot to set things like the assembly names and default namespaces – obviously that caused issues with serialization between client and server. Never underestimate the ability of the human to overlook simple things…
• Don’t underestimate the impact of the tiny screen. While WP7 can run code from a full-screen app (the same business objects, etc), it is amazing how the need to fit into a tiny screen can impact the way you build your application!
• VS10 doesn’t support signing assemblies, but you can do it by manually editing the csproj file.
• VS10 doesn’t support resource files, but you can manually add a resx to the main project, then drag it into the Properties folder, then set the file’s properties (custom tool, etc) so it works correctly.
• WP7 appears to throw different exceptions from .NET/SL for various things. There are a number of cases where I’m having to catch and rethrow exceptions to get the expected exception type – which is something I don’t need to do in .NET/SL. Since my unit tests often check for expected exceptions (testing failure conditions), I’m seeing a lot of these issues and having to tediously address them one by one.
• VS10 crashes “for no reason” on some WP7 code. I have the same code in .NET, SL and WP7 and can walk through code in the debugger, but sometimes WP7 crashes Visual Studio – I assume this is due to the beta state of the tools.