Reminder: Win8 tablet apps and VC++

C++ 1 Minute

Day-before reminder: If you are interested in tablet apps using VC++, check out the livestream starting at 9am U.S. Pacific time tomorrow, or come back later to watch the talks on demand.

Sutter’s Mill

Want to know how to write cool tablet apps using Visual C++?

On May 18, Microsoft is hosting a one-day free technical event for developers who want to write Metro apps for Windows 8 using Visual C++. I’m giving the opening talk, and the rest of the day is full of useful technical information on everything from XAML and DirectX to networking and VC++ compiler flags.

Please note: This event is Windows-specific, and talks will use both portable ISO C++ as well as Visual C++-specific libraries and compiler extensions; for brevity these are being referred to as "C++" to highlight to a Microsoft-specific audience that that this day is about Visual C++, not about Visual C# or Visual Basic or JavaScript.

From the page:

Join the Microsoft Visual C++ and Windows teams in Redmond on May 18, 2012 for a free, all-day event focused on building Windows 8 Metro…

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Published by Herb Sutter

Herb Sutter is an author and speaker, a software architect at Microsoft, and chair of the ISO C++ standards committee.

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11 thoughts on “Reminder: Win8 tablet apps and VC++”

  1. Just wanted to post a retraction. Despite the hysteria (understandable given the messaging from MSFT), it IS possible to write a desktop application in C++ using the compiler shipping with Visual Studio Express 2012. I just got it to work. Of course you can’t do it with the IDE, but the command line is there. And you have to install the Windows SDK separately. But it can be done. The raw tools are there.

  2. I don’t think it’s fair to pile-on or hijack the thread. Let’s face,these sorts of decisions come from elsewhere. Just wanted to register my dismay. I’m sure we’re all aware of the many sound arguments for making fully functional command line tools (note that I did not say IDE) available at no extra charge above and beyond what we pay for the OS.

  3. Oh, and how can you be seriously pushing C++11 when it cannot be used in many projects that must use VS2010 since many won’t have access to VS11? Hypocrisy, no?

  4. Microsoft is destroying FOSS by getting rid of the compilers and VC++ Express. Ironic, considering that the term “C++ Renessaince” was coined by a Microsoft employee…

  5. Disappointed to see that the compilers have been removed from the SDK, the WDK, and that VS11 Express only does Metro. So much for a free command line environment for non-metro apps. Very, very disappointing.

  7. @Herb: Is there any good books out there that help us learn C++/CX or writing native code for metro style apps etc

  8. Thanks Herb, and just today I got further confirmation of your viewpoint.

    Pete Brown said this about his changing position at MS – “I will also continue working with the Silverlight and WPF community, but will add to that a much larger focus on Windows 8 XAML going forward, and possibly some phone work too.”

    This is evidence that XAML is something important to MS.

    See Pete’s announcement here – http://10rem.net/blog/2012/05/22/my-new-role-at-microsoft

    Thanks for your response.

  9. @Fallon: The Windows team did emphasize HTML5+JS at //build/ because it’s new and so people do need to be educated that it’s for real, but you can and should use any of the three — HTML5+JS, XAML, or DirectX — for your apps. Microsoft does — for example, see the Bing Maps demo in the middle of the talk.

  10. Microsoft has said that HTML5/JS is the recommended way to build Metro apps.

    After the Silverlight debacle, how can you assure anyone that XAML/C++ is a vaild way forward, even if we hope that it will.

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