Building a Windows 8 app? Pick your favorite flavour!

When building an app for Windows 8, you have three programming models to choose from: .NET, HTML/CSS JavaScript, or C++

When I started coding, I quickly discovered that a big part of development was making choices. I also discovered myself frustrated when working with tools and platforms that did not give me choices and forced me down a specific path.

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Metro Applications - FAQ

With the advent of Microsoft Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Office 2013, Microsoft is now all about Metro UI and Metro Apps. And when Windows 8 will be released, everybody will be developing or talking about Metro apps. But what is a Metro app and how to build these apps? There are many questions in the mind of many developers. Let’s just find answers for few of them in this blog post. 

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Poll: Is your company(or you) moving into #winRT development or are sticking with #silverlight & #WPF for now. #wpdev #win8dev

Poll: Is your company(or you) moving into #winRT development or are sticking with #silverlight & #WPF for now. #wpdev #win8dev

Submit your poll here

ReSharper 7 Adds Windows 8 Support, New Languages

JetBrains has announced the availability of ReSharper 7 Beta. In addition to support for Visual Studio 2012, this release includes tools for Windows 8 and WinRT development, additions to the Type Hierarchy, new refactorings, and improved support for several languages.

ReSharper 7 adds support for Visual Studio 2012 and the new Windows runtime for developers working with Metro-style applications in Windows 8. According to the JetBrains blog:

...The new version provides code inspections and quick-fixes that ease transition to the new environment, such as those highlighting WinRT types that should be sealed or those that can’t be generic; support for projected types and new types of resources in XAML, as well as type, naming, and method projection support for JavaScript.

In addition to the WinRT-related additions, ReSharper has improved support for JavaScript and jQuery, ASP.NET 4.5 and MVC 4, and SharePoint and LightSwitch projects. The SDK includes the ability to add other languages as well.

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Learn how to develop Windows 8 apps in the UK

Last week I mentioned the free eBook Programming Windows 8 Apps, from Microsoft Press. Now if you are in the UK and are interested in learning how to develop for Windows 8 we have a number of Windows 8 devcamps  coming up in London:

“The Windows 8 Camps have been designed to show you how to build a Windows 8 app. You can tailor the day to make it as personally productive and rewarding as possible. You can work on your own projects with assistance from Windows 8 experts, network with others and also have the option of attending short tutorial sessions on Windows 8 related topics. 
The Windows 8 Camps will cover an introductory overview session as well as a range of short tutorial sessions. Short tutorial sessions will include topics such as the basics of the OS and interaction with the OS, Metro style UX with examples in Store apps, The Store and the developer opportunity, the high level view of the platform – i.e. WinRT and the choice around implementation technology, and the tooling – the role of Visual Studio and Expression Blend”

See details of how to book, agenda, prerequisites and other details at the links below…

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Using the Windows 8 Simulator & VS 2012 to debug the IE10 touch events & your responsive design

I’m currently working around the touch events of IE10 and even if I’m lucky enough to have a Windows 8 tablet, I was looking for a simpler way to do basic tests on my classical laptop without switching to the tablet each time. While looking for that, I’ve discovered several tips & tricks that may help you debugging the IE10 touch events in your code without even using a touch device. Nice side effect: the same approach will also help you to test & debug your responsive web design!

Pre-requisites: to follow this tutorial, you need first to:

1 – Download & install Windows 8 Release Preview on your machine: http://preview.windows.com
2 – Download & install Visual Studio 2012 RC Express for Windows 8: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/apps/br229516

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