DarksideCookie

I know I am a Microsoft fanboy, and I am the first to admit it. But I still want to say that I can listen to other peoples arguments and try to look at the facts objectively. I tend to see benefits in a lot of Microsoft things, but that doesn’t mean that I believe that everything else sucks.

I have used a Windows Phone device since before they were even released, built a couple of apps for it and talked about it for different audiences. And it is not a big secret that I like it, especially since I got Mango on my phone.

Having that said, I still believe that there are 2 very good alternatives available. The iPhone is, whatever kind of fanboy you are, a great phone. No, I don’t like a lot of things when it comes to Apple, and I don’t like being stuck with iTunes, and I don’t like Apple’s censorship. But it still is a freaking awesome phone, and pretty much single handedly managed to change the smartphone market into what it is today, which is SO much better than it was with Windows Mobile.

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I have just returned from the Developer Mania II conference that I spoke at today. It was a great one-day Microsoft conference about Windows Phone 7 development, and I heard some good speakers.

My part in the conference was to share the stage with Johan Lindfors and talk about MVVM. As a part of that talk, I showed off some code I have created to simplify navigation in MVVM scenarios. I thought I would share that code, so here it is: DeveloperMania.MVVM.zip (628.26 kb). It is a little on the heavy side, but that is due to the inclusion of Unity…sorry!

A question I keep running into when I speak about XAML-based application developer is how the developer/designer workflow should work. I don’t know if the question is common in general, or if it is because people feel that I’m not only passionate about coding, but also about design.

I have spent quite a lot of time thinking about how this workflow should work when working with XAML. In other technologies, I believe that the flow is much harder to get going, and I believe it requires more steps. In the “XAML world”, it should be a lot easier. The separation between functionality and design is pretty clear. And this separation should enable quite a well working flow.

Before I get into how I see it, I want to add a disclaimer… I have not been able to try this out in the real world as much as I would have liked. Mainly because I, in most cases, play all the roles. Or at least manage everything from XAML to code, with visuals coming from a designer.

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Earlier this week, I got a link to a blog post that I for some reason just loved. I also managed, for some reason, to etch itself in the back of my mind. It is about the fact that due to human nature, and the that we have pretty much secured our survival and don’t need to fight to survive anymore, we are turning into a self-destructive and delusional species that try to turn unimportant things into important things just to give ourselves a reason to exist.

My short version of it however doe not do it any justice, so I suggested heading over and reading it in full here: http://phirate.posterous.com/weve-been-alone-too-long

It sort of sat there in the back of my mind, gnawing a little on me ever so often, until I found this: https://secure.mysociety.org/admin/lists/pipermail/developers-public/2011-October/007647.html

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A couple of weeks has gone by since Microsoft unveiled Windows 8 at the BUILD conference in Anaheim, and things are kind of back to normal. Except for the fact that Microsoft has gagged all of their normal information channels.

Apparently, Microsoft representatives are not allowed to talk about Windows 8 at all. And speakers at some conferences have been informed that they are not to talk about Windows 8 on stage. At least not their personal opinions. I assume that they are allowed to talk about the facts that were unveiled in Anaheim…

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I feel that the one thing that has been lacking here at Build is information about the fact that “old” windows application technologies are still there in Windows 8, and are just as much first class citizens as the new Metro style apps. They even have a lot on offer that the new apps don’t.

Microsoft promises that any application that runs on Windows 7 will also run on Windows 8. They are also saying, repeatedly but not loud enough, that the “old” technologies are still a very viable option for developing apps. You should not necessarily default to building a Metro style app when creating a new application. To be honest, in my world at least, I am very likely to lean towards another technology when starting a new project.

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Ok, so I will only quickly mention this as I find it awesomely cool, but have limited information. But basically, all apps get the ability to store settings and a certain amount of data in a roaming data store. This roaming data store is then synched “up” to Live services, and then down to all the users devices. This way, all settings and app things that makes sense to have identical in all places will just be on all devices automatically.

This means that a setting only needs to be done once, and then all your devices will have the same setting. I do however assume that you can manipulate what settings are synched, but I have to check…

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Earlier today, I made an update to a previous post, cause I had misunderstood some things regarding WinRT. It is however getting clearer and clearer as we get more and more information.

This post is a way for me to try to explain the Windows 8 developer story as I see it today. I am probably wrong in a hundred different ways, as I am trying to stitch together lots of little pieces of information to get a bigger picture… But I am at least going to try to get what I believe down on paper, and also add my own reflections of course…

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Ok, so Build is onto it’s second day. A second day that has been a lot “slower” than day one. The keynote contained a lot of different information, mostly focused around connected apps and Windows Server 8, which I assume was to be expected.

The keynote did contain some gems though…

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Ok, that was day one of Build Windows…and I am left very impressed! I had high hopes, but to be honest I guess I still had low expectations for today, but I can honestly say I was blown away. I know I am a Microsoft fanboy, and that I like most of the things Microsoft comes up with, but people who know me also know that still trash a bunch of their things as I find them lacking. But this really seems very good!

There has been so ridiculously much information coming out today that I don’t even know where to start. The keynote had a bunch of interesting points, but the following sessions were just packed with awesome stuff.

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