I’ve started on a new project this week, prototyping a media-rich Metro app on Windows 8. To spice things up, the higher-ups decided it would be interesting to use HTML + JavaScript instead of XAML + C# (which I would have preferred for the sake of being more productive).

I’ve never liked developing in JavaScript  much, so I was pleasantly surprised. It is incredibly straight-forward to get an impressive, responsive app built in a very short timeframe. I can’t give the specifics, but the progress we (me and another dude working on the project) have made in just one week is pretty insane, especially since we are learning as we go.

There is a vast amount of samples available here, going through them has been an immense help. Additionally, one of the new things to wrap your head around in .NET 5 I found was the new async stuff. It may seem weird at first,  but becomes natural very quickly. Additionally, I found reading through Window 8 JavaScript–Asynchronous Programming & App Storage very useful.

In the meantime, I am also developing a Metro app for browsing Reddit using XAML and C# (which gives me a good comparison between JS+HTML and XAML+C#. I still prefer the C# way (static/strong typing, yay!) but I agree that the JS option has become incredibly powerful). I intend to release some screenshots, source and a built app as I progress.

And now, back to the Matrix marathon. Shame they only made one movie..

Yesterday was a great day. Visited a car boot sale and found a bargain: a working Commodore 64 (C64) with a bunch of accessories and more than 130 games on tapes. Nostalgia++.