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takyon writes:

The Microsoft Build Developer Conference 2015, or Build 2015, runs from April 29th to May 1st. Already, many surprises have been revealed:

We got Android apps running on Windows. A Microsoft IDE running on Linux. .NET ported to Linux, too. Support for Objective C, the language that only Apple and NeXT has ever really used. Support for Google and Apple APIs - in fact, just carry on writing for Google and Apple. Wild, untamed Win32 binaries scaling the ramparts of the Microsoft Store. Phones turning into proper PCs when you plug them into a monitor and keyboard.

Rumors of Android apps running on Windows 10 turned out to be mostly true; Windows 10 will include an "Android subsystem" and many Android APIs to allow app code to be easily reused by developers, but Android apps won't automatically run on the OS. "[Project] Astoria also provides Java developers with hooks to Windows APIs that aren't present on Google's platform." In addition, Microsoft is courting iOS developers:

[More...]

The same goes for iOS developers. Myerson said a new tool being announced on Wednesday – we're told it's called "Project Islandwood" – will make it possible to convert Xcode project files into Visual Studio solutions. There's no code translation involved. All of the original Objective-C files remain intact. Myerson said a future version of Visual Studio will include full support for Apple's pet language, including Microsoft's much-vaunted IntelliSense tech.

It won't be possible to run iOS binaries on Windows devices, but the idea is that they will recompile for Windows with relatively little difficulty. The idea is that Microsoft's conversion tool handles the heavy lifting of converting iOS API calls to the corresponding Windows 10 APIs. During his keynote, Myserson showed off an app that he said used Apple's UIKit framework and Core Animation infrastructure, but which ran smoothly on Windows 10, including support for both mouse and touch.

Microsoft wowed the Build crowd with rehearsed HoloLens augmented reality demonstrations showcasing virtual app overlays in an apartment, an interactive 3D human body for studying anatomy, and a holographic "robot" and Minority Report-style UI elements surrounding a real robot on stage.

Microsoft has released a preview build of Windows 10 IoT Core for Raspberry Pi 2 as well as Intel's MinnowBoard Max.

Project Spartan, the replacement browser for Internet Explorer, has been given a final name: Microsoft Edge. Microsoft is defensively registering negative domains related to the new browser, although .sucks extortion is absent.

For the "enthusiast" PC gamer, Square Enix, Microsoft, and NVIDIA present "WITCH CHAPTER 0 [cry]" (video), a DirectX 12 demo running on four GeForce TITAN X GPUs.

This Gizmodo article has a nice writeup on all the happenings at the conference.

1. "takyon" - https://soylentnews.org/~takyon/
2. "Build 2015" - http://www.buildwindows.com/
3. "many surprises" - http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2015/04/30/microsoft_iconoclasm_risky/
4. "A Microsoft IDE running on Linux." - http://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=15/04/30/1319254
5. "Rumors" - http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2015/04/29/android_on_windows_is_microsofts_suicide_note/
6. ""Android subsystem"" - http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2015/04/29/windows_android_ios_compatibility/
7. "augmented reality demonstrations" - http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-hololens-demos-build-2015,29015.html
8. "released a preview build" - http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2015/04/30/windows_10_now_available_for_raspberry_pi_2_andminnowboard/
9. "Windows 10 IoT Core" - https://dev.windows.com/en-US/iot
10. "Raspberry Pi 2" - https://www.raspberrypi.org/windows-10-for-iot/
11. "Microsoft Edge" - http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2015/04/29/project_sparta_becomes_microsoft_edge/
12. "negative domains" - http://www.theregister.co.uk/Print/2015/04/30/microsoft_edge_sucks/
13. ""WITCH CHAPTER 0 [cry]"" - http://www.tomshardware.com/news/microsoft-square-enix-directx12-demo,29024.html
14. "(video)" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1mwhdYZvSE
15. "This Gizmodo article" - http://gizmodo.com/the-best-and-worst-from-microsoft-build-2015-1701497473

printed from SoylentNews, Roundup of Microsoft Build Developer Conference 2015 on 2024-04-25 00:48:50