HTML and CSS Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
First steps with Windows 8
development
—Emily Dickinson
In Chapter 1, “Using Visual Studio 2012 Express edition,” you had a first short glimpse of the
Microsoft Windows 8 programming style. You created a simple application directly from one basic
template offered by Microsoft Visual Studio, then turned that into a slightly more functional and
significant application capable of displaying a random generated number on demand. As proverbial
wisdom reminds us, every journey—even the longest—begins with a small step.
To go beyond the basic level of getting and displaying a random number, you need to acquire
some command of HTML and CSS, and get the hang of the JavaScript language. The former will help
you imagine and create the graphical part of any applications you intend to try out. The latter will
help you organize the code to ward off unexpected results, so that you can translate your ideas into
instructions for the operating system more easily.
Now you're ready to take the plunge into the Windows 8 Runtime (WinRT) environment. A
runtime environment is the collection of Windows 8 programs and components that interact with any
applications and make them run. Such an environment provides services and data to any applications,
but also requires that applications comply with some rules and constraints.
This chapter has three main objectives:
Exploring the Windows 8 runtime environment
■
Reviewing graphics requirements for Windows 8 applications
■
Understanding the basic stages of the lifecycle of any Windows 8 application.
■
To meet these objectives, you'll build another sample application that employs a fundamental
service of the runtime environment—the data binding service. The data binding service offers an easy
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