Crossfire Casts a Wider .Net

AppForge Inc. has started shipping its first mobile and wireless application development environment for Microsoft Corp.s .Net platform.

Crossfire, which was released last week, provides back-end support to a wide range of device operating systems—specifically those beyond Microsofts.

"Crossfire, as the name implies, is the ability to expand the Microsoft .Net framework into not just Microsoft devices but non-Microsoft operating systems such as Palm and Symbian," said Gary Warren, CEO of AppForge, in Atlanta.

Using Crossfire, developers can create a single application and deploy it to the myriad devices in an organization without having to rewrite the application for each operating system and form factor.

In the past, "every time a new device came into their network, theyd have to redevelop the software they did on the initial rollout," Warren said. "Now all they have to do is install a new device definition."

Developers can test the application within the integrated development environment without the need for an emulator, officials said.

Crossfire also supports features that have become de rigueur in high-end wireless devices—multiple graphics file formats, for example, and the ability to control a devices built-in camera. It also provides database support, integrating with several mobile databases, including Microsofts SQL Server CE and Pocket Access, PalmSource Inc.s PDB and databases running on Symbian Ltd.s operating system.

Crossfire pricing depends on the size of the purchase.