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Are Nintendo et al. not doing this kind of thing any more? Is it considered too old fashioned?

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Used to read The Escapist, quite enjoying the magazine format, but seven or so articles all on the same day each week became too much (once a month please!). The format has changed since then, it just isn't the same.

And the Comics:
xkcd comic & blag
Penny Arcade
and no feed, but 8-bit Theater

And a number of various personal feeds

Slashdot I just check every few hours, I can be assured there is going to be a new article to read

DS Wifi Lib Test lets you probe for 802.11b access points.

Here is the not tremendously mature code for doing wifi on the NDS.

On the other hand, there are a couple articles in the slashdot submission queue pointing out the release of homebrew quake (with wifi) for the NDS. So its fair to say it's a solved problem. But again, there is a fair amount of work to be done as far as releasing a truly polished, complete, easy to use development environment for the NDS. What is there is certainly not bad, but it is a bit rough around the edges.

http://akkit.org/dswifi/

a) How difficult would it be to transition from the homebrew SDK to the official one? Would it be worth doing any real work to begin with before transitioning?

Well it's like transitioning from OS/2 to Windows. It has the same general list of stuff, targetting the same general hardware, but the names of API functions and the order they want arguments in is different. It's not challenging, but it's a big hassle.

Would it be worth any real work? Depends. If you follow GoF Strategy Pattern and wrap dealing with the SDK, then you can pretty cleanly replace your stubs and not worry about becoming bug central. If it's a system you haven't done yet, then yes, it would be useful to do it in the homebrew SDK just to learn the machine. If the game industry is new to you, having a functional demo on real hardware makes getting investment much easier, so it might be useful for those reasons too.

If on the other hand you're a pro gamedev from a different platform, then you won't have a hard time getting money, the machine's gonna be stuff you already know, and so for them, no, it's probably not worth the hassle, and just wait a week until Nintendo sends you a kit.

Different strokes for different folks. For non-pros, the homebrew SDK is a minor miracle.

b) Is the official SDK significantly better to be worth using?

Well, you can't sell games make in the homebrew SDK at Walmart. :D In response to your real question, yes there are a few things that the real SDK does significantly better - the homebrew SDK doesn't do NiFi at all, for example, and its sound stuff is acceptable whereas the real SDK's sound stuff is quite nice. What you really want to know is "is the homebrew SDK good enough?" On almost every front, yes. WLAN is still a hassle, but thanks to my bounty which led to Steve's work, the Internet is within your grasp using normal TCP and UDP.

The homebrew SDK is just fine. Give it a try.

I've heard about people trying to reverse engineer the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection so that this is possible, but I really think they should have included this in the first place. It would have had so many uses.

Well, they're half there, there are even programs to scan networks or upload stuff to your DS.

A browser would be give some trouble, given that there are only 4 MB RAM, you have a resolution of 2 x 256 x 192 and only 66 Mhz; a ported version of Links may do but you will *not* see a Firefox.

It could simply be that the Wifi wasn't ready by the time the system launched and so they went with what they could do, Pictochat. That would be understandable. I do agree though that a built-in browser would be awesome. The touch screen could be used for the keyboard as well as clicking on links and such. Perhaps the top screen could show a zoomed-out view of the entire page while the bottom screen showed a 100% size view of a certain portion of it, with the ability to drag that portion with the touchscreen (like Google Maps). It could be quite interesting.

As for the reverse engineering that you are talking about, I presume you are talking about Stephen Stair - http://www.akkit.org/dswifi/index.html
I believe that he currently has UDP/IP functioning and is working on getting TCP/IP to fuction correctly. Already people have made some simple applications for what is currently available, such as a program that transmits a file to the compact flash cards of several hardware products used for DS homebrew (Game Boy Advance Movie Player and the Supercard among others). There is also a (rather useless) program that replaces the keyboard when using mIRC, letting you type (but not receive) text into the channel from your DS. I believe there's also a program that allows chat between a PC and the DS. It's all rather interesting, and only time will tell how more advanced these programs will get. Hopefully, once TCP/IP is figured out correctly, a simple web browser can be created.

I also believe that there is a company that is creating an instant messenger cartridge for the DS. More info can be found at http://nintendoinsider.com/site/EEkuFAyluAHuhWnZnZ .php

I doubt it'll be much longer until SgStair completes Milestones 2 and 3. See his progress at http://akkit.org/dswifi/. Now I'm just wondering which homebrewer will put it in their game or app.

The Nintendo DS is absolutely capable of running standard TCP/IP. Someone just needs to write the code.

What would be funny/cool/(insert superlative here), would be that this guy's API broke out onto the marker BEFORE the clean-and-polished version Nintendo offers.

http://www.akkit.org/dswifi/index.html

THE RACE IS ON!

SEE!
The Everlasting fight of Homebrew against Corporation-Produced!
FEEL!
The rush of ecstasy as one participant battles against sleep, bugs and proprietary locks!
HEAR!
The PING? PONG! Of an IRC Client in the works!
TOUCH!
ing is good?
SMELL!
Uhm, okay, I'm going too far in this old movie poster parody.