Here comes Windows 8

As part of my new work for Telerik, and in preparation for writing a book on Windows 8 XAML programming for APress, I’ve been digging into Win 8. 

Rather than waiting for it all to become clear, I’ve decided to start blogging about what I’m learning as I go.  That will make for some scattershot  posts, but it will also, I hope, capture some of the fundamentals that might otherwise be glossed over.

Microsoft’s advice is that if you are already a XAML programmer, program Win 8 in XAML.  After looking at the XAML samples and the Javascript samples, I can see their point; to a Silverlight or WPF or Windows 7 programmer, the XAML approach is not only familiar, but there is a great deal of overlap, making the learning curve much easier.

To get started I bought a Samsung Slate and dock, which I’m using to drive a 24” monitor, keyboard and mouse.  Other folks I know are using powerful laptops (with or without touch screens) and some folks are making Win 8 their desktop operating system (see my interview with Shawn Wildermuth).

The first thing I did was to download and install Windows 8 directly to the Samsung. This was incredibly fast and easy and when it was done my Win 7 machine was instantly a Win 8 machine. 

Second step was to download and install Visual Studio 11 and the SDK. Also fast and painless.

Step 3 was to download the samples.     While I don’t find it very helpful to simply read the samples, I do find it tremendously useful to have the samples on hand as I’m reading about particular topics. 

Microsoft’s documentation is very good, especially for a preview edition; if there is a complaint at all it is that there is so much documentation it is hard to figure out where to start.

What is missing is a tutorial that takes you through the story of Windows 8 and teaches you what you need to know as you go.  And thank goodness, because that’s what keeps us authors busy.

Stay tuned for more, starting with the fundamentals and working my way through this brave new world.