VC++ Metro Style Apps Windows

Question

I have a decade old MFC VC++ desktop application. Beauty of the application is it works from Windows 2000 to Windows 7, in more than 15 languages. Its multithreaded with IPC and SSL on top of winsocket.

Lately i am reading that win Windows 8 Metro style we will not be able to run the existing application. Does that mean Windows is heading towards killing VC++ or MFC?

Is there a possibility of me keeping same code base for all windows versions? Do I have alternative APIs for winsock and MFC? Is it compulsory to write the app in HTML5?

Answer 1

Metro Style is all about user experience and different UI layout. If you want to utilize metro style UI in your app then you many need to write a WinRT wrapper around you app to utilize it. That doesnt mean that your application will not run at all in Windows 8, all the leagacy application still run in Windows 8

Answer 2

Lately i am reading that win Windows 8 Metro style we will not be able to run the existing application

I find it easier to think about things in terms of the Windows Runtime (WinRT). The ARM based Windows 8 systems will only support WinRT programs. The x86 based Windows 8 systems are capable of running both WinRT programs and existing Win32 programs.

There is an implication (or possibly an assumption?) that all Metro style applications are WinRT applications. Certainly WinRT is intended for use in building Metro style applications. I could imagine building traditional Win32 applications that looked like Metro apps - big square active tiles, an application surface that stretched to the left and right of the visible desktop etc. I'm not sure those would really be considered "Metro style" apps even if they were built in the same style as a Metro app.

Existing applications will not run on ARM based Windows 8 systems and will not run in the non-Desktop part of the x86 based Windows 8 systems. They will run in the desktop part of the x86 based Windows system. That's where Visual Studio runs, that's where PhotoShop will probably run, that's where all the programs that currently run on Windows 7 will run.

Does that mean Windows is heading towards killing VC++ or MFC?

Absolutely not. MFC applications will run just fine in the desktop environment of Windows 8 on x86 based systems. MFC applications will not run on ARM based Windows 8 systems - but then there are lots of places MFC applications won't run.

As for VC++, you can build Metro style applications using C++ if you want to, you just have to follow the Metro "style".

Is there a possibility of me keeping same code base for all windows versions?

It depends on what you mean by "all windows versions". The code that runs on Windows 7 x86 based systems today will run on Windows 8 x86 based systems tomorrow. If that's your target market then you're done, you don't need to change your code. The only thing you won't have is an active tile. But you could build an active tile using the Metro style APIs and tie that back into your app's logic if that makes sense.

If you want to support ARM based Windows 8 systems as well as x86 based systems, or if you want all of your program to have the Metro look and feel when running on x86 based systems then you'll have to change your program to use HTML/CSS or XAML and the WinRT APIs instead of MFC and the Win32 APIs.

Or if you want both worlds, perhaps you might even seperate your program's logic from the UI and then build an MFC skin and a Metro skin around that common logic

Do I have alternative APIs for winsock and MFC?

For networking there are a number of classes you can use from JavaScript, Visual Basic, C# and C++. For building UI you either use HTML/CSS or you use XAML.

Or you continue to use MFC if that fits your needs. You're probably never going to ever build a Metro style app that's got a Multiple Document Interface with a Tabbed UI!