
A first look at the Windows 10 universal app platform - NamTaf
http://blogs.windows.com/buildingapps/2015/03/02/a-first-look-at-the-windows-10-universal-app-platform/
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NamTaf
I'm curious in particular as to how they plan to deal with the UX side of
things. I'd go so far as to say that such issues could make or break the
entire concept.

There's been no small amount of problems with Windows' inability to adapt to
the new wave of high-dpi displays. My partner got a Yoga 2 Pro with the
3200*1800 screen and for example the youtube player controls are almost
impossible to interact with in some view modes (even with a mouse pointer). I
can see this being similar, in that if the app determines at runtime how to
display its controls then there seems to me like there will be issues, for
example with reflowing text or image positions to accommodate button size
changes.

I mean, the alternative is to have Mattel's My First Computer and have all UX
elements touch-size by default but then why even have a high-resolution screen
with more precise KBM inputs? I know that I don't really want huge icons on a
4K monitor because i want significant screen real estate.

I think that it's going to be interesting to see how they strike this balance.

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pmelendez
> "example the youtube player controls are almost impossible to interact with
> in some view modes (even with a mouse pointer). "

I have a Yoga 2 Pro too and that sounds like you were trying to use Chrome.
For some reason, Chrome for Windows is just horrible in high-dpi. Firefox and
IE do a nice job though, I don't the problem you are reporting in youtube with
either of those browsers.

~~~
NamTaf
Nope, it's either FF or IE, and I'm not sure if she uses it in tablet/tent
mode or standard laptop mode. One of them gave ridiculously small icons in
fullscreen.

When she's back I'll see if I can figure out what combination it was. But it
basically rendered them @1x size and then shoved them right at the bottom of
the fullscreen display.

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frik
Windows _universal app_ is a Windows Runtime (WinRT) application:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Runtime](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Runtime)

WinRT supports multiple UI APIs:

* XAML Framework

* DirectX

* HTML5/JavaScript

Windows universal apps can run on Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox One.

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forgotAgain
It will be interesting to see if they can pull off the adaptive interface. It
would be an incredible achievement if they can do it seamlessly in the first
iteration. It's a big enough leap that I'll have to see it before I invest
time in it. Nailing a simple To Do list demo would not suffice.

They are including the ability to specify the UI used for the platforms rather
than having it done by their framework. I can see why they need to do so to
satisfy cautious developers. I hope they're not doing so because the framework
will have unacceptable performance in the first release.

~~~
frik
Microsoft needs to dogfood it. By porting MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook
and Visual Studio to the WinRuntime and XAML Framework would a big step.

For example no high profile MS client product is written in C# using the
dotNet Framework. All parts of Windows (kernel/user mode, shell), Office and
various applications are coded in native C or C++ against the WinAPI. Visual
Studio is mainly coded in C++ too, with some dotNet bindings. Some server
products (outsourced to Microsoft India) use the dotNet Framework like
SharePoint and Exchange.

It would show confidence in their WinRT API. WinAPI will be around for a long
time and even WinRT-API is based on WinAPI/Win32 subsystem and COM.

~~~
elektronjunge
In the windows 10 announcement they demoed a version of Office that supported
the adaptive design. I don't know if they're dog fooding to get there though.

~~~
frik
It's a slang term:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eating_your_own_dog_food)

Beside that, MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint never used the native Win32 UI
controls. The applications were developed in the early nineties with a custom
UI library. Therefore it's highly unlikely that the full Office applications
will ever be ported to another UI library. MS Word uses e.g. WinAPI "fibers"
API, a rarely used WinAPI functionality that got popular again in recent years
with Lua "goroutine" and Go "goroutine". The applications are based on OLE
(Object Linking and Embedding) and MDI UI. The ribbon is implemented as an
owner-drawn "menu" that overdraws the menubar. There are _lite versions_ of
Word, Excel, Powerpoint for WinCE that were ported to several different
platforms including iPad touch version.

Office 95 italic "Microsoft" in window title:
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f5/Microsof_Offic...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f5/Microsof_Office_95_Suite.jpg)

Word 6.0 in Win3.1, it looked like an alien on Win95 with "-" (Win3) instead
of "x" (Win95) in popup-windows: [http://www.windows-
nation.de/Office/Word6c.png](http://www.windows-nation.de/Office/Word6c.png)

Word 97 running on NT 3.5 (looks like an UI alien with Win95 look&feel on
Win3.1 shell):
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/Microsoft_Offi...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3c/Microsoft_Office_97_Screenshot.png)

Office XP - looked out of place in WinXP which got a new theme at last minute;
later the Win8 theme was inspired by OfficeXP:
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/OfficeXP_Win8....](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/OfficeXP_Win8.png)

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CrazyCatDog
Stated goal number 3:

"Maximizing developer investments"

It's hard to think of a worse strategy. "Maximizing _return on_ developer
investments" is what Microsoft ought to be doing...

~~~
pavlov
Seems like that's what they mean, looking at the explanation of this goal:

 _" Maximizing developer investments. We remain committed to helping you get
the most out of your investments in training, tools, and code to continue and
target our new offerings. We also recognize that many of you are looking for
more ways to target a range of platforms with the same basic code or toolset
with cross platform technologies."_

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CmonDev
Just a small section about HTML5 in the bottom - thank you very much!
Hopefully the unreasonable and unnecessary Win.js push is over.

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WorldWideWayne
If they can only be distributed via the Windows app store, I don't really see
universal apps taking off.

Which segment of Windows users want the OS to be turned into a walled garden
like iOS? Personally, I will never make or use universal apps and I am a
developer who actually _like_ Windows.

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mberning
Oh god, not again

