Windows 8 Application Development with HTML5 For Dummies

Chapter 3

Getting a Grip on Windows 8 Development

In This Chapter

Comparing the ways to build apps in Windows 8

Touring the tools

Putting the users first in the Windows Store

T he Windows 8 style is the basis for a lot of decision-making when it comes to applications for Windows 8, and Microsoft makes no bones about it. Unlike the battleship gray VB6/Windows Forms applications that, effectively, have no rules, Windows 8 apps seek to provide a certain user experience and have rules to enforce that. If you don’t follow those rules, you don’t get in the Store.

From Microsoft’s perspective, Windows 8 is about the users and the developers. Focusing on the developers is nothing new, but focusing on the users is frankly a little new for Microsoft. They’ve always had the philosophy of “We’ll take care of the developers, and they’ll take care of the users.” That didn’t turn out so well, in hindsight.

The driver behind all of the new focus on the users was the development of the tablet, which Microsoft has been fiddling around with for years. Fact is, they did a pretty bad job. True, the hardware wasn’t there yet, but Google and especially Apple swooped in and kicked Microsoft’s behind. Taking ...