As was the case near the launch of Windows 8 last year, Microsoft has once again shifted focus towards Metro apps, in order to bring more apps to the Windows 8.1 Store.
While the technology titan points out that quality is more important than quantity, it has provided a ton of technical details on how to bring Metro apps to its upcoming operating system.
In a lengthy blog post, Microsoft tries to engage developers, and explains that Visual Studio 2013 Preview packs enhanced versions of what it calls XAML templates to make it easier to port apps to the Windows 8.1 platform:
The Windows Apps Team explained:
“In Visual Studio 2013 Preview, the default XAML templates have been redesigned to take advantage of new features introduced in Windows 8.1 Preview. As part of the redesign, we focused on two major areas: incorporating your feedback and simplifying the templates to make it easier for apps to consume them.”
The post then goes into detail template changes — everything from data model updates to styles and data templates, data bindings, UI, view states, and all that good geeky stuff.
“Many developers have already created apps using the Windows 8 templates and want to be able to migrate them to target Windows 8.1 Preview without having to start from scratch with a new template. As it turns out, there is very little that you have to do to upgrade the template code in your app.”
Microsoft has made it clear that it wants to see more high quality apps in the Store, and the arrival of Windows 8.1 (with everything it brings to the table) is a perfect opportunity to convince more and more developers to create Metro versions of their software.
Popular tools have already been confirmed for arrival on Windows 8.1, and technical breakdowns like the one above, will help entice more developers to code for the platform.
Does this imply that Windows 8 Metro apps won’t work in 8.1 without change or is it just for the abilty to use new features?