Project IslandWood goes forward with new tutorial

Feb 19, 2016 06:21 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft is very keen on fixing the app problem on Windows 10 Mobile, and while the future of Project Astoria for Android apps is still uncertain, the company’s advancing at full speed with Project IslandWood focused on iOS apps.

In a new blog post rolled out today, the Redmond-based software giant is showing developers how to use the iOS bridge to use Storyboards and Auto Layout to create a Universal Windows Platform app that can run on both PCs and smartphones powered by Windows 10.

And to provide better instructions on how to do it, the Windows Apps team is porting a Calculator app from iOS to Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile, thus proving how easy it is to actually tweak an application developed to run on iPhones and iPads in order to add Windows support.

What about Astoria?

The lengthy post could be very appealing for programmers and software developers looking at Windows 10 as their next destination and shows Microsoft’s commitment to IslandWood as a way to tackle the lack of apps that’s currently impacting its modern platform.

“The team is committed to working with the iOS developer community to improve the bridge and enable iOS app developers to port their apps to the Universal Windows Platform,” Microsoft says in an attempt to entice iOS developers to bring their apps on Windows 10.

Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella himself revealed that banking on universal apps is what the company wants to do right now, asking the company’s shareholders for more time to make this new concept succeed. He played down the urgency to bring Android apps on Windows 10 though, suggesting that building and improving Microsoft’s own Universal App Platform is a priority.

Certainly, with Project IslandWood the lack of apps on modern Windows can be addressed up to a certain degree, but convincing developers to port their programs for the platform continues to be the biggest challenge.