Developer Interview: Damian Karzon

Developer Interview

We've been joined by Damian Karzon, the developer (DK Development) behind BoxShot (Windows Phone client for Dropbox), for this week's interview. Head on by the break for the insightful answers provided on platform development.

Tell us well-nigh yourselves and how you got into software evolution.

My name is Damian Karzon I'chiliad 23 and live in Brisbane, Commonwealth of australia. For me software evolution is pretty much in my claret, my parents did it and from them I was exposed to computers from a very immature age. Started working with HTML as a teenager then moved into VB and got attached to the Microsoft stack through Uni and I've been doing information technology e'er since.

What do you retrieve of Microsoft'south platform (from a user perspective) and how exercise you compare it to competitors?

I dear Windows Phone. It's so different withal so simple. The Live tiles and social integration actually sets it apart from the remainder.

What'south the number one feature y'all love the most almost Windows Telephone, and in Mango specifically?

Tiles! Windows Phone do these and so well, especially with the updates in mango. You tin can now pin certain functions of apps or the apps themselves, the tiles tin can exist updated automatically in the background. You can move them around your home screen and take as many as y'all desire.

What path(s) led you to develop for Windows Telephone?

I take been very interested in mobile devices for a long time, started with some Windows Mobile. Couldn't get into iPhone too much as I didn't want to fork out for a mac. The Windows Telephone vii was announced, using C# with Visual Studio and Blend, by far the all-time developer experience for a mobile platform.

What'south your take on the Windows Phone development procedure?

I really like what Microsoft have done for developers especially with the mango release, information technology's clear they actually listened to what we were all saying and tried to help. A good case of this is the programmer preview for mango, this allowed registered developers to flash a version of mango onto their phones a few months before the real release came out.

Have you lot developed for whatsoever competing mobile platform and if so how does their development procedure compare?

I have tried a flake of Android as Coffee is a lot like C# (at to the lowest degree syntax wise) just without the .Net framework and Visual Studio information technology was a lot harder than I thought.

I am a .Internet developer, that's what I exercise every solar day and I know it well. At the moment I simply do mobile apps for fun and developing for iPhone or Android only isn't fun for me and so I'll stick to Windows Telephone.

BoxShot for Dropbox is extremely popular, tell united states about its development and how the idea came effectually.

Well I accept ever been a big fan of Dropbox and before Windows Phone 7 I had a Windows Mobile app called DroppedBoxx, this app was a bit of a hit as information technology was the first to implement whatsoever sort of folder syncing. From that spawned my open source Dropbox library, DropNet, which brought well-nigh support for Windows Phone 7 then it was only logical that I made an app for information technology. I have recently released BoxShot v2 with some really nice features for mango as well as a brand new (less obscene) logo.

What other Windows Phone projects are you working on (excluding previous apps)?

Don't really have any new Windows Phone projects on the go at the moment, a few updates to existing apps (BoxShot and NumberTap mainly). Working on a few spider web projects here and at that place and touching a flake on Windows 8.

What communication would you give to other aspiring developers?

Keep at it, just because your first app didn't make millions doesn't hateful y'all should give upward. For me Windows Phone evolution is just a chip of fun on the side, hopefully the fun stays in information technology.

Give thanks y'all for your fourth dimension. Any closing words about WP7's future?

Cheers, I'one thousand pretty excited to see what'southward on the route ahead for Windows Phone. Whatever it is I'll exist at that place developing awesome new apps!

Cheque out Karzon's website, and be sure to follow him on Twitter.

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