Develop for UWP?
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So I asked this question once a few months after Windows 10 was released, but now that it has matured a little I wonder what people's opinions are. I personally don't see any advantage to UWP. Windows Phone is dead, Hololens is kinda cool, but is expensive and despite what Microsoft wants you to think, there is probably o value in porting your apps to work with it. That leaves us left with targeting Xbone and PC. Hardly universal anymore, and to be honest, unless you are developing games (I'm not) Xbone is not a useful target. I'm sure there are a lot of PC users to target, but how many people actually use the store? I know I have 3 or 4 store apps and they are all games. It makes more sense just to use WinForms or WPF at this point. What do y'all think? Is there much point in targeting UWP for you apps?
i cri evry tiem
I'm a dinosaur "legacy" desktop developer for Windows 7 and 10 PC's. I've been developing applications that run industrial machines for 25 years. Visual Studio + C# + WPF are the best set of tools and technologies that I've ever had the pleasure of using. Screw UWP.
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So I asked this question once a few months after Windows 10 was released, but now that it has matured a little I wonder what people's opinions are. I personally don't see any advantage to UWP. Windows Phone is dead, Hololens is kinda cool, but is expensive and despite what Microsoft wants you to think, there is probably o value in porting your apps to work with it. That leaves us left with targeting Xbone and PC. Hardly universal anymore, and to be honest, unless you are developing games (I'm not) Xbone is not a useful target. I'm sure there are a lot of PC users to target, but how many people actually use the store? I know I have 3 or 4 store apps and they are all games. It makes more sense just to use WinForms or WPF at this point. What do y'all think? Is there much point in targeting UWP for you apps?
i cri evry tiem
I really like UWP as a platform. The major thing I dont like is the control venders seem to think if you want UWP you want big finger clickable controls. I wish you could easily adjust the control sizes for mouse and keybord to give a more WPF control sizing and have an easy toggle to let users switch to touch screen mode. The other thing I dont like is if you are accessing a database like documentDB you cant do it directly from UWP easily. This makes prototyping a pain as you have to setup a prototype web api and a prototype UWP app. I guess with other mobile development it is the same.
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So I asked this question once a few months after Windows 10 was released, but now that it has matured a little I wonder what people's opinions are. I personally don't see any advantage to UWP. Windows Phone is dead, Hololens is kinda cool, but is expensive and despite what Microsoft wants you to think, there is probably o value in porting your apps to work with it. That leaves us left with targeting Xbone and PC. Hardly universal anymore, and to be honest, unless you are developing games (I'm not) Xbone is not a useful target. I'm sure there are a lot of PC users to target, but how many people actually use the store? I know I have 3 or 4 store apps and they are all games. It makes more sense just to use WinForms or WPF at this point. What do y'all think? Is there much point in targeting UWP for you apps?
i cri evry tiem
Actually I did think of releasing not one but two UWP. The 1st is a free fancy test app to get a feel of API and get ready for my 2nd AR app. During my research of my 1st app, I found out GDI+ is not supported and text outline functionality is not supported by UWP graphics API, meaning I have to totally rewrite and reimplement my library using freetype2. Too much work for a free app! For my 2nd app, I am not sure if DirectShow is supported. What UWP attracts me is the Microsoft store. If I were to sell my app myself, I dun think any credit card merchant will bother with someone like me who has no money or sales record.
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So I asked this question once a few months after Windows 10 was released, but now that it has matured a little I wonder what people's opinions are. I personally don't see any advantage to UWP. Windows Phone is dead, Hololens is kinda cool, but is expensive and despite what Microsoft wants you to think, there is probably o value in porting your apps to work with it. That leaves us left with targeting Xbone and PC. Hardly universal anymore, and to be honest, unless you are developing games (I'm not) Xbone is not a useful target. I'm sure there are a lot of PC users to target, but how many people actually use the store? I know I have 3 or 4 store apps and they are all games. It makes more sense just to use WinForms or WPF at this point. What do y'all think? Is there much point in targeting UWP for you apps?
i cri evry tiem
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So I asked this question once a few months after Windows 10 was released, but now that it has matured a little I wonder what people's opinions are. I personally don't see any advantage to UWP. Windows Phone is dead, Hololens is kinda cool, but is expensive and despite what Microsoft wants you to think, there is probably o value in porting your apps to work with it. That leaves us left with targeting Xbone and PC. Hardly universal anymore, and to be honest, unless you are developing games (I'm not) Xbone is not a useful target. I'm sure there are a lot of PC users to target, but how many people actually use the store? I know I have 3 or 4 store apps and they are all games. It makes more sense just to use WinForms or WPF at this point. What do y'all think? Is there much point in targeting UWP for you apps?
i cri evry tiem
I too was phased by MS's previous visions for trying to create ubiquitous platforms but I can't fail them for not getting it right first time. Just look at Java which never seems to die :D But I think MS is on the right track with UWP considering it is core to the entire Windows 10 platform, that includes desktop, tablet, mobile (hmm), HoloLens, IoT and now Xbox. No other technology has such a reach unless you count C#/Mono. With the mess with Android, sooo many versions, devices variants and even apple can't keep it's desktop / mobile frameworks in line (however they do seem to be making strides now). These days, I create my core "program" / "library" for a project truly universal in a shared / pcl / netcore project and then consume that from any project, whether it's UWP, Android or iOS (or anything else). The thing that UWP really gives me is I only need ONE solution to target all their platforms without nasty #IF statements everywhere. One binary that runs on ALL Windows 10 devices. Simples. For other platforms (even using Xamarin) I have to plan for so many variants, so I simply limit the scope to make it easier, I don't have to do that with UWP as it "just works". My two pence anyway. Simon (darkside) Jackson ID&Xbox MVP & Best selling author [Mastering Unity 2D Game Development] (https://www.packtpub.com/game-development/mastering-unity-2d-game-development) [Unity 3D UI Essentials] (https://www.packtpub.com/game-development/unity-3d-gui-essentials)