Windows 10 And UWP Apps

[benasumwa]

Hello,

I am trying to wrap my head around this UWP thing. Kindly forgive if I sound rather uninformed.

How do I tell that my Windows 10 is UWP compliant? I ran winver and the current version 1709 (Os build 16299.125)

What do I need to do in order to develop UWP apps? (want to learn )

What do I need to do to a PC to make sure it can run UWP apps

Thanks in advance

Benson

Time is the father of truth. Time will tell.
-------------------------------------------
Benson O. A. (Infinity Link Limited)

 

[strongm]

This is probably a good starting point

 

[audaxviator]

UWP (Universal Windows Platform) is a single API for Microsoft's various systems (i.e. Desktop/Mobile/XBox).

UWP requires some Microsoft libraries that are installed on Windows 8.1 and newer. All versions Windows 10 are UWP compatible.

Large parts of the .NET API are repeated in the UWP API. The UWP API supports many .NET languages such as C# and C++ (not sure about VB, which seems to be finally on its way out).

Install a recent copy of Visual Studio (the Community version is free) and click the icon to create a new project containing "(Universal Windows)" in its type.

UWP will impose some limitation inherent to Games Consoles and Mobile Phones on your Desktop applications (i.e. forget about starting with or before Windows), which might prevent some smaller developers from creating certain utilities (i.e. how can anyone make an Anti-Virus UWP app?). In those cases you might look at using UWP as a GUI for WIN32 or .NET services, but any such services will not deploy on 10S/XBox etc. There is a desktop app converter for porting older apps but this seems to be a temporary paid-for service for businesses stuck with legacy code, rather than a long term development solution.

 

[strongm]

>sure about VB, which seems to be finally on its way out

Really? It's currently no. 6 on the TIOBE list (having been gaining since being in 29th position back in 2011). And .NET for UWP apps do provide managed types that you can use to create Universal Windows Platform apps for Windows 10 Visual Basic

 

[audaxviator]

Really?

I am not saying VB cannot work, but I cautiously suggest the state of VB in 2018 resembles the state of J# in 2004.

MSDN "Suggested Languages" for Win8 and Win10 are here:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/apps/dn465799(v=win.10)[/url]

That table alternates between C#, C++, JavaScript, WinJS depending on tasks. Note no suggestion to use VB, and MSDN code examples for UWP typically demonstrate C#/C++ only. In other words MSDN is not advocating the use of VB and is not providing mainstream support. Each can draw their own conclusions but my gut feeling is that the slow death of VB has begun.

TIOBE reflects the number of web search hits for a language. In my experience, end-users post about a topic online when something does not work (end-users generally do not create posts when things are going well). It would not surprise me if VB spiked on the TIOBE index at the moment when continuing to use VB becomes more difficult.

 

[strongm]

The very first page you link states "About to build a Windows Store or Windows Phone Store app and wondering where to start? With C++, C#, Visual Basic, JavaScript and a huge range of libraries ..." and "With Visual Studio, you can write apps in JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic or C++, or a combination.". And even links to "Create your first Windows Runtime app using C# or Visual Basic". But the pages are two or three years old, so maybe that explains the confusion. The link I provided itself links to a UWP document updated in the last week that states "You can use languages such as C#, C++, Javascript, and VB."

Sure, VB is dramatically less popular than it used to be (key popularity being before VB.NET got released), and a lot less popular than C# (or Java or Python), but that is not the same thing as dying. People have been predicting the death of VB since for at least 20 years, and it is still here. And, by the way, the UWP code examples page happily includes VB examples. Sure, there are fewer than the C# examples, but then MSDN code examples have always erred in favour C#/C++. This is nothing new.

(And if we follow your TIOBE argument to its logical conclusion, surely popular languages would score low ... in any case, I'm not sure TIOBE has much interest in end-user posts)

 

[benasumwa]

Strongm - thanks for the pointer to the MS documentation. I will make the effort to go through.

audaxviator - thanks for the explanations. I will expand on that for better understanding.


Time is the father of truth. Time will tell.
-------------------------------------------
Benson O. A. (Infinity Link Limited)