Microsoft has launched its Windows 10 developer tools technical preview. The tools, available to anyone who is a registered Windows Insider, are meant to give developers a preview of the possibilities for apps in Windows 10 and the broad range of devices it will support. Microsoft has also released several supporting resources, including tutorial videos, documentation and code samples, to help get would-be developers up to speed.
With Windows 10 apps meant to work well in many different situations, screen sizes and input methods (keyboard, mouse, touch, joypad interactivity), Microsoft wants to give developers a helping hand. The new Windows 10 developer tools technical preview tries to address what could be a common set of chores for developers and help them create slick accessible apps. Key aspects of the tool offerings are as follows:
- Adaptive UX: this lets Windows 10 apps use a single UI which can work well in disparate screen sizes.
- User controls: these determine what kind of UI interaction mode is in use and change the app UI appropriately. Providing larger buttons for touch-UI, for example.
- API contracts: to check if certain features are available in a device at runtime. For example you might want to check for hardware buttons present on a smartphone.
- Visual Studio Tooling improvements: Various improvements in the Visual Studio 2015 tools as detailed in this blog post.
Microsoft has made available a number of resources to help developers make the most of the new tools. These include a video presentation giving an overview of building Windows 10 Universal Apps. A series of videos describing the process of converting a Windows 8.1 app for Windows 10 platforms and more, called A Developer's Guide to Windows 10 Preview. Online documentation is available here and Microsoft has thoughtfully provided code samples here.
The Microsoft Build conference will be held in late April. The firm will be spending a lot of time at the conference discussing Windows 10 and its universal apps. Between now and then the Windows 10 developer tools technical preview will let developers get a taste of what to expect in the future. Remember that Windows 10 is going to be launched "this summer," in 190 countries.
