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Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

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Re: Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

#61

Post by notatoad »

bitwize wrote: post #53
notatoad wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my mind an app is a sandboxed, focused thing that lives in a single window and behind a single launcher icon. application or program or any other older term from before iOS introduced "apps" could be a collection of a half-dozen different entries in your start menu, or an application like GIMP that scatters a bunch of different windows around your screen. "App" implies a level of simplicity.

App has been short for "application" since at least the DOS days, when Lotus 1-2-3 was frequently called the PC's "killer app".

yes, but the meaning of words can change over time.

Re: Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

#62

Post by icebraining »

ant6n wrote: post #58
wlesieutre wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, especially with OS X having .app file extensions. I still called them "Applications" more often than not though.

Oh, so it's like a Mac thing. So why do we have to call Windows programs 'App'?

It's not a Mac-only thing, it has been used on Linux and Windows for decades.

http://www.drdobbs.com/windows/windows-apps-and-exception-ha...

Re: Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

#63

Post by maxxxxx »

gh-lfneu28 wrote: post #55
maxxxxx wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how long they'll stick to UWP. In 2 years they probably have another cool next thing.

Yeah, they dropped that .net thing in less than that .. oh wait

They have abandoned WPF, Winforms and Silverlight. Not sure what happened to WinRT.

Re: Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

#64

Post by thebigshane »

bitwize wrote: post #52
ridiculous_fish wrote: post #47

Let's say I'm building something like an IDE, where I'm not targeting Xbox or phones. Is UWP appropriate for me? Should I aim to be on the Windows Store?

It depends on the IDE; in particular, whether it competes with Microsoft's own line of business. Microsoft has historically had non-compete clauses in its dev tool EULAs. It was an EULA violation, for instance, to use Visual Studio to write a word processor, database, or spreadsheet program. I don't know if it still holds for the cuddly "new" Microsoft... but tread carefully. Windows Store is curated and thus more re…

Wait... what? Do you have a source for that? I can't find anything in my searches to confirm that. I did see various EULAs saying you can't redistribute some bits included with some of the MSDN products (like MSDN documentation and sample Jet DB files) with your product, if your product is primarily a general word processor, database, or spreadsheet application. But nothing like you can't write one of those applications at all.

Re: Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

#65

Post by Aleman360 »

maxxxxx wrote: post #63
gh-lfneu28 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, they dropped that .net thing in less than that .. oh wait

They have abandoned WPF, Winforms and Silverlight. Not sure what happened to WinRT.

WinRT got rebranded to UWP.

WPF was XAML v1. Silverlight was XAML v2. UWP has XAML v3. Your skills are still applicable.

Re: Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

#66

Post by maxxxxx »

Aleman360 wrote: post #65
maxxxxx wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have abandoned WPF, Winforms and Silverlight. Not sure what happened to WinRT.

WinRT got rebranded to UWP. WPF was XAML v1. Silverlight was XAML v2. UWP has XAML v3. Your skills are still applicable.

There is a little more to it than XAML. Skills wise it's not too bad but I have looked into porting some WPF apps to WinRT a while ago and those frameworks looked very differently under the hood despite some superficial similarity. I still don't understand why they need to create all this framework churn. WPF could have been extended to what UWP is now in my opinion.

Re: Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

#67

Post by stuaxo »

bradleyjg wrote: post #2

What ever happened to programs? Was there something about that word that terribly offended people? Too hard to type out? Is 'app' soon going to be replaced by some kind of pictogram? Enquiring minds want to know.

Fairly sure it is just short for application.

They used to be called apps when we made them for J2ME phones. Symbian apps were not sandboxed, but J2ME ones were, and this was the majority. Later on apple brought sandboxed apps to the iphone.

And no-one knew what an app was back then, most seemed surprised that a person even made the games they played on their phones.

Re: Microsoft Announces Converter for Bringing Win32 Apps to the Windows Store

#68

Post by Aleman360 »

maxxxxx wrote: post #66
Aleman360 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WinRT got rebranded to UWP. WPF was XAML v1. Silverlight was XAML v2. UWP has XAML v3. Your skills are still applicable.

There is a little more to it than XAML. Skills wise it's not too bad but I have looked into porting some WPF apps to WinRT a while ago and those frameworks looked very differently under the hood despite some superficial similarity. I still don't understand why they need to create all this framework churn. WPF could have been extended to what UWP is now in my opinion.

XAML was reimplemented in C++ and now renders with DirectComposition instead of Milcore. It's much faster now and far more capable.

You can also now use it with both native C++ and C# thanks to WinRT.

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