The Windows Runtime

After nearly 2 years of not being able to tell anyone what I was working on – or even the name of the team I was on! – //build is finally here and the Windows 8 developer preview is finally out there in the open for everyone to start building applications for. You have NO idea how hard it’s been for me to keep my mouth shut and blog quiet about this!

I am a program manager on the Runtime Experience team, one of many teams in the Windows division building Windows 8. Our team is responsible for building the underlying infrastructure that powers the Windows Runtime (or WinRT for short). In particular, I work on the WinRT metadata infrastructure. I also work closely with our partners in Developer Division that use the metadata to project WinRT APIs into multiple languages.

In a nutshell, WinRT is the new API surface area for Metro style apps in Windows 8. WinRT APIs are available across multiple languages – C#, Visual Basic, C++ and JavaScript – enabling developers to build Metro style apps using the language and frameworks they are most familiar with. Much, much more info is available on the new Windows Dev Center.

In addition to the developer preview docs for WinRT, there are several sessions at //build focusing on WinRT – what it is, how it works under the covers, and how you use it from the various languages. Here’s a handy list of all the //build sessions you should check out if you want to know more about WinRT:

As I write this, not all the sessions have been delivered and none of them are available online yet. But they should all be online within a couple of days. Also, you can also get more information as well as ask questions over at the Windows Dev Center Forums. Our dev manager has already been very busy answering questions!

I am so excited that you can finally see what we’ve been working on and I can wait to see what you build with Windows 8!

Comments:

Congratulations with release :). Now it's out, and I can't wait to learn more about WinRT internals. Please keep posting :)!
[...] DevHawk Designs « The Windows Runtime [...]
Great! Finally the Longhorn promise is a fact
I’m just wondering how the HTML5/JavaScript Metro applications will be packaged and protected against reversal … For packaging I’ll expect some sort of signed zip/jar (no mention about .appx on MSDN) but for protection, outside of heavy obfuscation for JavaScript I can’t envision any other way (maybe a new precompiled/binary format ?) If the protection is not good, writing HTML5/JavaScript apps will not flourish to much IMHO. Since the Metro documentation state that the applications are self-consistent (no shared DLL’s, etc), I’m just wondering how you can create a modular, BIG Metro application by creating reusable components/libraries … Another issue that bother me relate to the library reuse, since the Metro documentation state that the applications are self-consistent (no shared DLL's, etc), so I'm just wondering how you can create a modular, BIG Metro application by creating reusable components/libraries ... If all the HTML5/JavaScript Metro apps should contain the same CSS and WinJS scripts then it doesn't look quite good ... I expected some form of libraries/reuse to exist from the start. Do you have more details for all of these ? BTW, all the HTML5/JavaScript way of programming Metro apps remind me about Opera widgets that you can build for several years now
A deep-dive into WinRT and CLR under Windows 8 and better details of the actual Windows 8 architecture can be found here A bad picture is worth a thousand long discussions.
Dev{eloper} Stonez, would you mind re-asking your questions over on the Metro style apps Forum? We have support engineers actively monitoring those forums and it will be easier to for others with similar questions to find answers posted there rather than here. Thanks!