Windows 8 Announcement Executive Summary

Well, the first day of the BUILD conference certainly started with a blast. I just came back to the hotel after sitting through a full day of keynote presentations introducing Windows 8 – the operating system, the development platform, and the user experience.

The purpose of this post is to summarize briefly the Windows 8 announcements and the way they reflect on existing and future development. This is just an executive summary – if you are looking for the nitty-gritty details, follow this space (and other spaces :-)) for future posts.

Windows 8 and Metro Apps

Windows 8 builds upon the success of Windows 7, and has complete application compatibility with Windows 7. Absolutely all applications and hardware designed for Windows 7 should work with Windows 8.

WinRT – the Windows 8 development framework – is an unmanaged library that wraps some (not all) Windows native APIs. WinRT has natural bindings to the major programming languages, including C++, C#/VB.NET, and JavaScript.

Windows 8 features two types of apps – Metro-style Windows 8 apps, and “standard” apps. (To appreciate the Metro-style UI, watch the keynote or the following 4-minute video: ) Metro-style apps as well as legacy apps can be delivered through the Windows Store. There is a paid, trial, and free model.

The Development Platform

Metro apps are built using XAML and a programming language of your choice (C++/C#/VB.NET/JS). Any WPF/SL developer will feel immediately at home. There are two development stacks – using standard .NET and native technologies like WPF, SL, MFC; or using WinRT bindings from C++, C#/VB.NET, and JavaScript.

The development concepts, user interface guidelines, styles, controls, and many other things are borrowed from or at least strongly influenced by Windows Phone 7. (This does not mean that Windows 8 apps will run on Windows Phone 7 without modification.) The development platform is Visual Studio 11 and Expression Blend.

Read more: All Your Base Are Belong To Us
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