Visual Studio Live! is the key event among the 4 ones in Live! 360 conference, taking place December 10-14 in Orlando, Florida. Greg Levenhagen is one of the speakers at this event. Find out more information on Greg and his two sessions at the event.
Greg:
I have the honor of speaking at VSLive this December. I would like to give a little more background and detail about the one of the sessions: Going from Silverlight or WPF to Windows 8 Apps.
Over the past year I have had many discussions about the development options for WinRT, mostly focused on XAML/C# and HTML/JS. There has been concern about which stack developers should focus their skills, but I get the impression that it's not a battle. If you already know XAML by either working in Silverlight, WPF or Windows Phone, you should heavily consider continuing to use XAML. With that being said, use the best tool for the job and don't make it a religious war! I have also heard concerns about the apparent shift from Silverlight, but it is just a change in run-time. The technologies used to write Silverlight applications, XAML and C#, are still a major focus and will be for a long time.
That leaves many Silverlight and WPF developers looking to use their XAML and C# skills to make Windows 8 Store apps. I'm going to discuss this exact process, what to expect and provide my personal experience during my VSLive session. Spoiler alert: Your existing skills port nicely! I'll dig into the async shift, new user experience features in Windows 8 and what it's like to actually port an application. There are considerations like navigation, controls, app model, designing for touch, animations, transitions, visual states, file & storage APIs, and validation. None of those are deal breakers though. My process of getting into XAML was with WPF first, then Silverlight, then Silverlight for Windows Phone and now Windows 8 Store apps. Each step meant a different run-time and various platform adjustments. As anyone with time in our industry realizes, things change rapidly. This is just the next step in our learning process and I happen to be thoroughly enjoying creating Windows 8 Store apps.
@GregLevenhagen
http://www.devTreats.com
NOTE: Join SilverlightShow's challenge for a free pass ($2,095 value) to Visual Studio Live! Orlando, Cloud & Virtualization Live! and 2 more other co-located events (December 10-14, 2012).
How to join? Take the challenge 'Headlines from the Future' in the challenge portal Deed. Add your headline, and click I deed it!. Encourage others to like your entry. And that's it!
The winner will be announced on November 14th - this may be you!
Want to attend the Live 360 events without challenging your luck? Get $500 off the Visual Studio Live! Orlando 5-Day Package by using code UGVS1 and $500 off the
Cloud & Virtualization Live! 360 5-Day Package by using code UGCV1. Both of the codes are exclusive to SilverlightShow readers and members.