December 6, 2011 at 18:11What does the scary number eight really mean?
This article was NOT written in vima
To begin with - I want to explain a little. For me, the word "marketing" means "Creating a certain opinion with the public regarding any given marketing object." This does not mean “Draining shit on the ears of morons” or “A story about how cool our useless goods are.” Good marketing made from BMW BMW. The same thing happened with Windows XP, which is one of the longest-lived axes in this world.
I want to note that Microsoft in America actively conducts many marketing companies and promotes its products. There is nothing wrong. There is so much good in this - because the users who read these newsletters and blogs know what features they will receive and how to use them.
For example, pinning applications and sites on the Windows taskbar. Do you know why in Russia, according to the standard, only 3 badges are pinned to the taskbar? Just because people do not know what and how to pin it there.
Marketing can do other wonders - for example, with the help of marketing, you can suppress Black Propaganda and start actively selling your product. An example of this is McDonald's. It seems to me that this is the most watered shit
So why am I doing this? Everything is simple here: due to the lack of correct data, srach begins to appear. Srach grows into trolling, and from this you can easily create good black propaganda.
In fact, this onethe article showed me how bad everything is. The moment lies in the fact that after six hours of excellent video presentation, tons of texts and video clips, after an excellent marketing company in the USA they already know and understand very well that it is like in Windows 8. But in Russia, the search on the system is shamefully confused with the new application store.
Well, then, in the details and screenshots, I will post facts about what Windows 8 is, how it is eaten and what it is consumed with.
And so, what is great and mysterious in this system? Of course, a newbie will tell you that Windows 8 is a new and disgusting start menu. But, we are not people, we are habro-people. Our task is to deeply understand the topic of conversation.
Win rt
We started. In order to understand what is one of the greatest achievements of the new axis, we plunge into the wonderful world of programming. What does the operating system actually do? No, it does not provide access to the computer for the user. It provides the programmer with an API. In particular, Win RT is a new set of APIs that make the programmer’s life easier.
The main approach used by the company is Clean and Simple. The interface should be simple and responsive. If the user clicks on the button, the button should respond instantly. Great thoughtfulness of the whole system should not occur. (Do you remember how Windows 95 went to the blue screen when a disk was removed from under the sidirome?)
Accordingly, the new APIs were riveted for this approach.
What's most interesting here:
They are completely native.
No matter how much the vaunted .NET is good, but its speed is not enough to properly provide access to the functions of the operating system.
They are completely asynchronous.
No matter how you try to do something, but only in a real-time system is there an opportunity to get a response in a certain time. On Windows, you cannot predict how long it takes to read five bytes from a file (perhaps this file lies 20,000 kilometers from you on a shared drive).
All major languages were supplemented with special extensions for working with asynchronous calls. This allows you to easily work in terribly unsynchronous environments. Well, here is an example in C #
public async void InitializeDictionary()
{
Stream s = await GetTextReader();
}
async Task GetTextReader()
{
StorageFile sfro = await Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocationAsStorageFolder.GetFileAsync("Test.xml");
IInputStream inputStream = await sfro.OpenForReadAsync();
Windows.Storage.Streams.DataReader dr = new DataReader(inputStream);
return inputStream.AsStream();
}
* This source code was highlighted with Source Code Highlighter. In principle, any more or less advanced programmer will understand the main idea. In order to parallelize your process you should no longer produce threads, just use a couple of new keywords.
By the way, you can pay attention to StorageFile sfro and where it comes from. The main joke in Win RT is that you cannot do synchronous operations. At all. They are no longer available.
Let's continue.
They are equally well supported in both C ++ and C # and VB.
Moreover, what struck me to the depths of my soul - on JS + HTML 5 you can get the same result.
Here I want to note that the guys at Microsoft, after a long game of Questions and Answers with themselves, decided that C ++ was worth living for several more generations. So many good trolls died on the basis of the battles for C ++, but it turns out he will still live.
Although, I was most pleased with the normal HTML + JS bundle, which is not inferior in speed to a .NET program. In this case, as I have already repeated, you have the opportunity to use ALL the tools available in Win RT. Are you weak in applying the Direct X 11 filter to your picture on the site? But in the eight it can be done.
Moreover, the sets of all new controls are registered both in .NET languages and JS, as well as in native code, so that all your applications will look exactly the same.
Well, delicious? The main thing is that it is incredibly fresh and new. And pulls to try. Well, this is just the programming part. We still have an incredible number of functions ahead.
Metro ui
Now let's move on to the design part. As for the menu in the new Win 8, the srach divorced so much that I personally saw how the trolls were taken out on carts from the battlefield. What is Metro UI? It would be foolish to say that this is the “New Start Menu Interface”. Not. This is a new approach to application design. Let's compare two pictures: This is the same tab in the control panel. On the first slide, you see the old approach, and on the second slide, the Metro-style interface design approach.
Here, with the naked eye, the absence of chromium is visible. Chrome - in translation from bourgeois means a visual stroke of elements. Kit, roughly speaking. Every self-respecting designer knows that it is better not to touch this kit, and if you touch it, then carefully. Because everything will come out as with a body kit nine. You can grind the car too much, or you can pick up too austere chrome.
Windows 8 developers have solved this issue with an ax edge. They generally turned off this chrome. That is, completely. You no longer have a stroke for the controls. You have only data on the screen and nothing more.
The idea here is that the user sees the data and manipulates it. He should not be distracted by all these shiny buttons.
Walking is just amazing in my opinion. There is no longer any debate about how many useful pixels on the screen the browser occupies - it takes up ALL the pixels on the screen.
Then IE10 can enter the scene, and it is desirable that he immediately leave the scene, because it will be discussed in another chapter.
And so, any application occupies the entire screen, works only on the presentation of data and does not bother at all to draw any stroke around the elements.
An offended designer may say that such a cruel approach leaves no room for action at all. Not at all. Who told you that data cannot be beautiful? Think for yourself, if you want a person to read beautiful articles, then why do you need to draw attention to the hosting logo? The logo of Habr is simple and memorable, but it does not callus eyes. The main thing on a habr is good articles.
This is the basis of the Metro UI approach. If you have a weather forecast, then who needs to draw attention to the Refresh button, if you can draw attention to the weather. (Here I want to note that in fact, these are not pictures, but a full-screen video that shows the current weather. Moreover, the program itself is written in javascript and HTML 5)
With this approach, there are even more opportunities for application design. You don’t have to be hand and foot bound in a form display class. You don’t have to worry about whether the programmer will remake your beautifully drawn buttons into controls, or just replace them with standard controls from Windows?
Of course, there are several other points:
1) Working in the Metro style requires a certain zen. A rainbow pitted on canvas will not make your super-metro app an app.
2) Moreover, very good restraint in the choice of fonts is required. As you can see, all the screenshots still have only one font. No one forbids you to use your font, but any Metro can be spoiled by the fact that 15 different fonts are used per page, and five of them will be a variation of Comic Sans MS.
3) It is necessary to break the patterns. If you have been drawing applications in the style of this all your life, then you will have to relearn. But, there is one, very important reservation, and the guys at Microsoft several times emphasized this. Take a look at this app:
This is an ordinary 11 version of MS Visual Studio. And this is the new version. And no one tried to sharpen it under the Metro. And why? Because at the same Windows 8 launch, the guys from Microsoft said that you can’t get the Metro interface into every application. Photoshop will work without a subway. And Visual Studio will work without a subway. For by themselves, these programs are not designed to work with your finger and are not intended to sit in front of the touchscreen.
So do not worry, if you are writing a global network sniffer, then continue to support it without changing the interface. But Sudoku could be rewritten under the subway.
So do not worry, the window interface is not going anywhere.
On the other hand, the most important plus of Metro apps is that when I relax, I like to see metro apps. When I quietly surf the Internet - I prefer to do this with metro IE10, and not with the usual. When I read news from my touchpad, I am pleased to see the metro interface on the screen. When I dig into tons of code, I have Metro on my side.
It’s just that Microsoft’s developers are well aware that they don’t have an alternative to the iPad. Therefore, they decided to kill two bits at once. On the one hand, they support the most widespread window manager in the world, on the other hand, they create a new, innovative manager that will be pleasant and convenient to use on laptop computers.
Therefore, let's forget another stupid one from the Windows 8 series: No, no one will force you to switch to Metro. Switching between the old desktop and the new Metro UI takes a quarter of a second and is not a switch at all.
We go further in the text.
Tablet PC Buns
As the studies of some guys who Microsoft trusts these studies show, the market will soon be full of tablets of various types and colors. Already, the choice is decent. There are more or less budget HP Slate ($ 500- $ 900), there are more wasteful Asus Slate ($ 1100- $ 1500) and there are already exorbitant Acer Iconica with two displays ($ 1400- $ 1800).
There are a few highlights here.
1) All of the above guys live on batteries
2) The screen is not large
3) The size should be smaller
4) Ease of use should be on top.
5) Goodbye IBM PC architecture.
As a matter of fact, in Windows 8 these chips were taken into account.
1) My Asus Slate on the seven lived for 3.5 hours. This is just shameful, it seems to me.
Windows 8 has added an extra hour to the life of this beast. Now I can live 4.5 hours when downloading the Internet, music and Word.
God knows what, of course I would like a 9-hour battery, but still, please note that just an hour of life turned out for free.
2) With the screen, the story came out as follows: How to make your applications work fine on both 1280x800 and 1920x1080? Of course, in the days of old Windows.Forms, you would not have been tormented and simply rejoiced at the fact that your program could occupy the entire screen, or simply would have locked up the resizing of the window. Also an option. But, there is one joke.
Recently, dpi monitors and screens jumped from 90 to 200 with a ponytail. This happened thanks to the market of mobile phones, which simply competed in the race for the number of dots per inch. The match is over. It’s unlikely that anyone will get above 400, but the trick is that with different dpi different programs will show different images.
If you switch Windows XP to 150 dpi then you will see a bloody mess of pixels in the icons, mismatched fonts and all that.
The situation with Windows 7 is no better. Let's leave Vista flush, it didn’t torment very long in this world and, fortunately, it died faster than XP.
But Windows 8 in the Metro part offers a slightly different approach to scaling applications and allows you to actively play with the dpi of the screen.
If you want to check how your application will look on a non-standard screen, simply select Deploy to “Emulator” in the Visual Studio configuration and set the screen resolution you need, enjoy Full HD on your little one.
3) Well, here it is clear to the electronic hedgehog why.
4) And here, Windows 8 even in its unfinished super-alpha pre-release version allows you to boast a set of fittings hitherto unseen by me on any touch device.
The on-screen keyboard is simply gorgeous.
In addition to the very pleasant “Recoil” sound, it has three features: The presence of the letter E. The presence of a dash. The presence of a comma in lower case. The latter just made me a fanatic and a fan of this keyboard.
Moreover, there is a special mode that allows you to type with two thumbs right on the go.
Despite the fact that the keys seem small, the set can be done with 1-3% error case. This is pretty good considering my minimal screen. Moreover, I want to note one more thing. Windows 8 rewrite your finger tracking algorithm a lot. If before you had to be a sniper in order to get into the checkbox, now you can easily resize the window with one touch. So no longer need to "five times poke." And of course, the honor of agronomy makes the layout of the new start menu and switching between applications. Simply swipe your finger from the right or left edge of the screen towards the center - and what you need appears.
5) As for x32 and x64 architectures - well, the device was introduced on BUILD Windows, which gladly drove the Eight on nVidia Tegra 3. Well, let's get closer to a brighter future on this field.
General impressions and system stability
Well, I don’t know if I have a roofing felts because I have an SSD, for some reason I still have a roofing felts, but I personally managed to load my laptop from scratch to fully load the desktop in 7 seconds. This is a new feature introduced in Windows 8, which is called the "kernel hibernation mode." After several reboots, the system itself makes some modifications and starts loading faster than the hamster. On the video from the conference you can see much more impressive results.
Now add to this the start menu, which is written on the very much-praised Win RT and which does its job very softly and quickly. That is, the system is very responsive. Even a frozen program that tries to bore 100% of the processor does not block the ability to open the start menu. And moreover, no one will forbid you to get to the new task manager, which kills programs at your first command, without any questions.
Compatibility with various programs - at the Windows 7 level. If something went there, then at 8 it will fly too.
IE10 has become not just a browser, but a platform. Firstly, browser auto-updates appeared. Secondly, in the IE system itself, it is presented in two ways - one of them with Metro UI support, and the second is more like IE9. The difference is very big. The first donkey, unlike the second with a high bell tower, spits on a flash and does not allow it to run. Like, in fact, any other plugins. The second one is more conservative, and allows you to cram yourself with Steroids from ActiveX and the like.
Immediately make a reservation, since the first release of Google Crome I have not gotten off the work of a colorful company for many years. And so, having installed the eight, I decided to “ennoble” it with a normal browser ... And while I reached the Google download site, I realized that I fell in love with the 10th donkey.
1) This is the only browser that out of the box supports multi-touch.
2) It is faster than Google Chrome 0_o. I think this is not for long, but now I see that the rendering of the Donkey has finally got to the really correct levels. Even on my not so hot connection, the donkey shines with speed.
Moreover, 10 Donkey in the style of Metro allows you to look only at the site and nothing more. Memory consumption is more than moderate: 227 megabytes with 10 open tabs. (It seems to me that these flash banners are not loaded).
By the way, like any other Metro application, Donkey goes into "freeze" mode after 5 seconds in the background. This means that it will not consume CPU time while in the background. (Hello to crooked java scripts)
Another of the WinRT and Metro UI fits is the ability to store program settings in the cloud. Now you can link your Windows login and password to your Live ID and get a full transfer of settings and saved games to other computers.
By the way, the password can now not be entered from the keyboard. There is a new superfitch - password picture. You make three gestures over any picture and this is your password. Repeat them and the system will let you in.
Anti-virus is installed with the system. Updates come automatically. A very useful thing. For all that, memory consumption on a clean system dropped from 400 megabytes (Windiows 7) to 200.
The process of copying files is now assembled in one window. You can optionally stop and start various copies. You can also look at the speed graph and hide it for all copy cycles.
From the sad - or not very sad - in the new start menu interface, it is best to navigate with either your fingers or the keyboard. The mouse suffers cruelly. I wrote to Microsoft, they answered me that they know and are actively working to improve the comfort of tailed people.
Moreover, despite the fact that I myself work on this system as the main one, I can say that I recommend installing it only to specialists in the field of administration and engineering. Super-pre-alpha-preview-beta version, which is now sometimes crashes. About once a week I reboot it. I have not seen the blue screen. Not all firewood came up, but over some firewood from Windows 7 I had to shaman with a tambourine.
Obviously, these are the shortcomings and omissions of the Developer Preview, but do not say later that I said that everything is perfect in it.
On ordinary hard drives, you can’t even dream of a “fast boot in 3 seconds”.
There are problems installing some applications when the system requires the .NET Framework 3.5.1. Being treated
by pre-enabling this component in the Windows component menu.
This is a very superficial description of the facts regarding Windows 8. It was compiled specifically for the UFO fan base based on my own three-month experience with this operating system.
What to do, and to whom it is good to live on Windows?
To take an item by its gills - go to dev.windows.com
There you can:
1) Merge the system image itself. Merge only with Developer Tools, otherwise then hesitate to reinstall.
2) Read about the new APIs. Unfortunately, the documentation leaves much to be desired. But, I can notice that the progress is on the face and every week I see an update of articles on the site.
3) On Google.com you can learn how to start the system from VHD.
In fact, the system is very interesting. Basically, despite the fact that the kernel is still the same, the developers managed to completely reflash and rewrite it well in a new way, without creating problems, but adding an amazing amount of new features.
All technologies and approaches such as Win RT, Metro UI (not to be confused with the “new start menu, which is better”) allow you to take a fresh look at the software development cycles. In particular, you can refresh the design of your sites, and maybe decide to get rid of a pair of shiny icons reflected on the floor on your site.
By the way, if you are engaged in 3D development, then do not deny yourself the pleasure of creating a DirectX application in Studio version 11. I was pleased with the opportunity to trace the fate of each pixel on the screen. (How is it for you to put a break point on a pixel, or just by clicking on a screenshot point to get a stack trace of this point)
Before starting to talk about what is in this system and what is not, please read at least the documentation .
By the way, on channel9You can find 6 hours of video presentations, which include interesting stories from the life of the eighth servers, programming on live examples and rebooting laptops.
For this, I want to take my leave and want to say hello to the Russian marketing team at Microsoft.
As one of our common friends said - “Developers, developers, developers ...” Gentlemen, we, developers, are attracted by facts and interesting information from the life of new programs and operating systems. As well as information on how we can apply this in our work.
For some reason, in the USA, the Internet is oversaturated with stories about how you can do something on Windows 8. But the hub is empty. Therefore, you, gentlemen, developers, I will ask you to delve into the topic.