A Stopwatch for Windows Mobile

I have got a new mobile phone, a HTC Touch Diamond. Besides the fact that it has a sleek design and is much easier to work with when reading email and browsing the web than my old phone.

However, that it is not the only reason for buying the Diamond. Another, very important reason, is that it runs Windows Mobile 6.1 - and therefore I can write my own programs for it using pretty much the same toolset as I use for any other .NET program. Granted, there are stuff missing in the Compact Framework compared to the full-blown framework (Expression trees anyone ?), but it is normally quite easy to find alternatives, and the Compact Framework does make it quite easy to program the device.

My first application for the Touch is a simple Stopwatch program. I wrote it, because there was no stopwatch and/or timer program on the Touch when I got it, so why not write my own ;-) The application it is quite simple, but I learned quite a deal about the device and the Compact Framework while developing it. It essentially relies on the Environment.TickCount counter to measure time, so it might not be 100% accurate - but for my needs (such as heating pizza's), it is quite sufficient.

If anyone's interested, you may download the source from here. If you want to compile it, you will need a copy of the OpenNET CF Framework, because I needed to use some parts of it for making the phone vibrate when the alarm goes off. (It could be replaced with some P/Invoke calls, but i got lazy ;-)

The application itself has the following features:

• Simple stopwatch
• Timer with alert (vibration and sound)
• Configurable alarm sound (only .wav files, sorry).
• Settings are remembered (stored in Application Data)