What Is Windows Runtime?

The ongoing evolution of the Windows operating system has traditionally posed some challenges to provide a programming model that can be leveraged from many languages and technologies. Although users of C and C++ can usually use a new Windows version’s extended application programming interfaces (APIs) straight away, developers using managed code languages have often been left out in the cold. Instead, one had to resort to interop plumbing using things such as P/Invoke and COM interop, which isn’t the most pleasant development experience.

At the same time, the desire to build rich Windows applications using different technologies also grew. In particular, developers with a web programming background haven’t been able ...

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