14 DAY TRIAL // The first public development milestone of Windows 8 packs a number of applications developed especially for the operating system’s new Metro platform. In fact, together with the Windows 8 SDK for Metro Apps, which includes tools such as early previews of Visual Studio 11 and Expression Blend 5, Windows 8 Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is designed to spark the development of Metro style apps.
In order to make it as easy as possible for devs to create projects tailored to Windows 8, the Redmond company is offerings a variety of resources, including guidance and code samples.
Case in point: the “Windows 8 Developer Preview Metro style app samples,” available free of charge via MSDN.
“This sample pack includes all the Metro style app code examples developed for Windows 8 Developer Preview. The sample pack provides a convenient way to download all the samples at once,” the software giant reveals.
“The Windows 8 Developer Preview Samples Gallery contains a variety of code samples that exercise the various new programming models, platforms, features, and components available for the BUILD conference.”
It’s important to note that the “Windows 8 Developer Preview Metro style app samples” download doesn’t also offer documentation, training or guidance.
Of course, Microsoft has set up a new Windows Developer Center for Windows 8, and that’s THE place to search for details on anything from programming models to platforms, but also to the languages supported, and new APIs.
“These downloadable samples are provided as compressed ZIP files that contain a Visual Studio Express (BUILD release) solution (SLN) file for the sample, along with the code pages, assets, and metadata necessary to successfully compile and run the sample,” the company said.
“This sample is not the final shipping version of the sample, and is provided “as-is” in order to indicate or demonstrate the early functionality of the programming models and feature APIs for a forthcoming version of Windows.”
The Windows 8 Developer Preview Metro style app samples pack is available for download here.
Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview is available for download here. Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.