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HTML4 six years before and had instead elected to back XHTML, XForms, SVG, and SMIL, it was hardly surprising that this suggestion was rejected. The result was very close, with 8 votes in favor and 11 votes against, but the decision still had far-reaching consequences. In the following years, the development of HTML5 was to take place in direct competition with the W3C. Ian Hickson, who at the time supported the position paper, together with the second Opera representative Håkon Wium Lie and Mozilla’s David Baron, reviewed the events in his web log and came to the conclusion: The issues have been discussed, the positions have been given, everyone knows where everyone else stands, now it’s time to get down and actually start doing work.
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The book tackles the major issues that you’ll need to understand in order to get started if you’re a XAML and C# programmer that wants to get down to business building your first Windows 8 apps. Does it tell you about the new UX requirements? No. Does it teach you C#? No. Does it mess around with unnecessary editorials on the importance of Windows 8 in rebooting the developer ecosystem with 400M pairs of eyeballs (800M eyeballs altogether) looking for your apps? No! It assumes that you’ve done your share of the umpteen Microsoft marketing presentations that lay out the fluff and are ready to get down to the gruff. He lays out what the tools are, how to use them, and how to sling the code you need to do on Windows 8: using the project templates in both Visual Studio and Blend, making something useful appear on the screen, binding your data to your controls, laying out your data on the screen, styling your data, and animating the display of your data.
Windows Store apps are an important addition to Microsoft Windows 8, providing the cornerstone for a single, consistent programming and interaction model across desktops, tablets, and smartphones. The app user experience is very different from previous generations of Windows applications: Windows Store apps are full-screen and favor a style that is simple, direct, and free from distractions. Windows Store apps represent a complete departure from previous versions of Windows. There are entirely new APIs, new interaction controls, and a very different approach to managing the life cycle of applications. Windows Store apps can be developed using a range of languages, including JavaScript, Visual Basic, C++, and, the topic of this book, C#. Windows 8 builds on the familiar to let developers use their existing C# and XAML experience to build rich apps and integrate into the wider Windows platform. This book gives you an essential jump start into the world of Windows Store apps; by the end, you will understand how
Windows 8 represents Microsoft’s desire to break out of the traditional desktop computing market and make an impact in the mobile world, which has been dominated by Android devices and, of course, Apple products. Microsoft’s plan is to offer the user consistency across devices, allowing the same apps to operate on the user’s data irrespective of which device, or which kind of device, the user has at hand. This is attractive to many users and it leverages Microsoft’s greatest asset—the leading position in the desktop computing market—to drive sales, acceptance, and credibility in the tablet and smart-phone markets. The traditional Windows desktop isnot a good model for consistency across different types of devices, and attempts to add touch support and rework the interface for smaller screens have not ended well. Trying to extend the old Windows model to small devices is part of the reason Microsoft’s previous forays into the mobile world have fared so badly. And that’s where Windows apps come in. Rather than perpetuate its existing application model, Microsoft has decided to create a new one. Windows Store applications, more commonly known as apps, are available on every device that can run Windows 8 and its derivatives (Windows Phone 8, Windows RT, etc.). More important, Windows apps run as well on large-screen desktop machines with a mouse and keyboard as they do on a moderately sized touch-screen tablet. Windows Store apps are a big departure from regular Windows desktop apps: they fill the screen, don’t have title bars and buttons, and have a completely different look and feel. Another big departure for Microsoft is that you can use web technologies to create apps, which is the reason I have written this book and, most likely, the reason you are reading it. By embracing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, Microsoft has embraced a completely new community of developers, who can take their knowledge of web app development and apply it to Windows app development.
Metro apps are an important addition to Microsoft Windows 8, providing the cornerstone for a single, consistent programming and interaction model across desktops, tablets, and smartphones. The Metro app user experience is very different from previous generations of Windows applications: Metro apps are full-screen and favor a usability style that is simple, direct, and free from distractions. Metro apps represent a complete departure from previous versions of Windows. There are entirely new APIs, new interaction controls, and a very different approach to managing the life cycle of applications. Metro apps can be developed using a range of languages, including C#, Visual Basic, C++, and, the topic of this book, JavaScript. Windows 8 is the first version of Windows that embraces the skills and knowledge of web application developers and makes JavaScript and HTML firstclass citizens in application development. In this book, I show you how you can build on your knowledge of web app development to create Metro apps using HTML and JavaScript. The result is apps that look and feel like an integral part of the Windows experience and that take advantage of core platform facilities. This book gives you an essential jump start into the world of Metro; by the end, you will understand how to use the controls and features that define the core Metro experience.
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In April 2010, I first heard the phrase that was Microsoft’s new strategy: “three screens and the cloud.” This referred to a targeted approach to make sure that Microsoft’s products were ubiquitous on mobile phones, desktop computers, and television screens and that these platforms provided a seamless experience by being held together with data in the cloud. The products represented on the three screens were Windows Phone 7, Windows 7, and Xbox 360. Microsoft still dominates the television screen with its Xbox line accounting for approximately half of all game consoles sold worldwide and a continued focus to move that platform beyond gaming, but to me Windows 8 brings a different meaning to three screens and the cloud—one where the three screens include phones, tablets, and PCs all running on the Windows 8 core and tied together with cloud services, as shown in Figure 1-1.
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Windows 8 is something new for Microsoft. Since the very first version of Windows was released in 1985, the main “desktop” user interface is taking a back seat to something new and, dare I say, radical. This can present challenges for some users and there is certainly a learning curve. This book is here to help with that. Why would you want to stop there though? All that was in Windows 7 still exists along with a lot more new features. This book will help guide you from computer novice to the stage where you can feel comfortable maintaining, safeguarding, and even customizing your own copy of Windows 8, giving clear instructions and easy-to-follow step-bystep guides. Beginning Windows 8 will show you how to be productive, protect your family, and how to unlock the hidden features and power that exist within this operating system—helping you to become comfortable, feel confident, and take your first steps toward becoming a Windows power user.
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