Windows Phone developers get new tools for building mobile apps

Another trick has been added to the Windows Phone 7 developer’s kit with the release of the Microsoft Visual Basic CTP for Windows Phone Developer Tools.

The VB for Windows Phone tools allow developers to write Windows Phone 7 applications using the Visual Basic language as opposed to C# which was the only language previously available. The toolkit release includes all of the components required to get this up and running, including project templates, item templates, designer and emulator support, intellisense and debugging.

To use the toolkit, developers will require the final version of the Windows Phone Developer Tools which we wrote about earlier this month. Unfortunately, the toolkit only works with the Professional edition of Visual Studio, so if you are using the Visual Studio Express edition for Windows Phone you won’t be able to take advantage of VB without grabbing a trial edition of Visual Studio.

Additionally, Expression Blend 4 Service Pack 1 is now available to download, which - as well as bug fixes, stability improvements and better integration with Adobe products through FXG files - includes support for Windows Phone projects. Now you can use features built-in to Blend for developing Windows Phone apps, which become available if you have the Windows Phone Developer Tools installed.

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