Microsoft® .NET Compact Framework (Core Reference)

Chapter 22. Interoperating with Native Code

Not all programming for the .NET Compact Framework involves pure .NET coding with C#, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, or other Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) languages. From time to time, you’ll have to call code written in languages such as C or C++ in the form of Win32 DLLs or COM components. Code written for the .NET Compact Framework is called managed code, and code written for other environments is called unmanaged code. Perhaps, one day, most programming for Windows CE will use only managed code, but until that time, it’s important to consider interoperability with the existing unmanaged code base. This consideration is particularly important because the Windows CE operating system itself is ...