Win 8 makes developers suffer ten reasons to focus on cloud computing

If you have a plan to develop a local application based on Windows 8, be prepared in advance. What are the specific psychological preparations to be done? Justin James, an engineer from Levit & James, reasons Windows 8 will is painful for developers, listed 10 of the painful things that might happen in the development process. CSDN has provided a translation for this article:

Since the release of the Windows 8 Developer Preview, the user experience has aroused widespread concern and buzz, but few people have talked about its impact on developers. Windows 8 is the largest upgrade since the Windows 3.X development to Windows 95. There are good aspects and there are bad aspects. If you want to develop a Metro-style interface based on the WINRT API for Windows 8 local applications, you should pay attention to the following 10 things.

1. New Market patterns

If you want to develop applications that are fully compatible with Windows 8 (including Windows 8, which runs on the arm structure), you need to rewrite your application based on Winrt/metro. Of course it's good for those who want to enter the market, but for developers who have successfully applied, everything is going to start again on this platform.

2. Asynchronous model

Developing any long-running Windows 8 application relies heavily on asynchronous operations. In some scenarios, this may be a good solution, but in other cases it can be difficult to work with (the following items are loaded). Not only is it used to solve the problem of asynchronous invocations, it also solves problems such as error handling, providing feedback to users, and so on. It requires a new UI design that is completely different from the interface that WinForms developers use.

3. Restrict direct access to hard drives

Windows 8 restricts direct access to the system in many ways, and most developers are puzzled by access restrictions on hard disks. Windows 8 uses isolation mode for applications, and if the application requires access to external data (including network services), you can give up moving it to Windows 8.

4. Touch UI Interface

Unless you've developed a lot of mobile apps, there's a lot of hassle in designing the Windows 8 new-style UI interface (because this UI interface is for touch interactivity). It took me a long time to understand the design of such UI interfaces. The interface between the mouse and keyboard controls can be very well displayed and working on the touchscreen experience may be very poor, and vice versa. The balance between them is difficult to grasp. While Microsoft has been studying the Metro-style interface for years, it is trying to figure out the problem.

5. Grasp the rules of the Microsoft application store

If you want to take advantage of the Microsoft App Store, you need to understand its rules. Although the rules are reasonable, if it is like the WP7 App hub, it will cause great disharmony. For starters, Microsoft will rigorously examine their applications and look for all the problems, such as unhandled exceptions. While this can guarantee high quality applications, it keeps developers away. In addition, you need to follow the approval process. Details of the Microsoft App Store have yet to be published, but it may also disappoint developers based on previous WP7 experiences.

6. Too much emphasis on cloud computing

While Microsoft does not require the use of cloud computing, Web servers and other technologies, it is clearly encouraged. Like automatic sync settings, the transfer of data between devices will become the basic rule, and users will expect to use these features without exception. Windows 8 can do this easily (you can automatically sync locally saved information to live), but you have to be careful with sensitive data. Encryption and other privacy and security technologies will become increasingly important.

7. The interaction between the agreement and the product

Windows 8 has a unique idea that applications can provide services to the operating system (such as providing contact information, pictures) instead of simply storing the data in a normal directory. Although the technical level is relatively easy, but it is more difficult to rise to the concept level.

8. Market uncertainty

A higher level of pain is described below. It is clear that Microsoft is rolling out Windows 8 for the tablet, and it may also launch Windows 8 for Windows Phone. Now we can see clearly that Android is taking over the tablet market, and only people trying to preview Windows 8 developers will use the Metro-style UI interface. Furthermore, the Wetro-style experience is intended for touch devices, and the preview version can only be installed on a virtual machine, so it is difficult to actually achieve a tablet experience.

In addition, users who have seen the Windows 8 Developer Preview version do not represent a typical user. Does Windows 8 match this market? Will Microsoft completely abandon the Metro-style UI interface? What is the market outlook for Windows 8 Tablet PCs? It's hard to make a conclusion now.

9. Lack of tablet hardware products

Running Windows 8 without a tablet computer is a serious problem. At the same time, you can't tell whether your app's experience on these tablets is being liked by users, regardless of UI or performance.

10. Traces of obsolete technologies

It hurts my heart most. Microsoft has used a technology as a major development technology for the future, and a few years later the technology has died halfway through. It is not clear whether Microsoft will be lax (such as kin) before Windows 8 is released, or whether it will go down a broken path (such as Zune, Silverlight) after Windows 8几 years. If Windows 8 does not succeed, Microsoft may expand its new path, and all the efforts you have made on Windows 8 will be discarded.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)