Windows 10 introduced a new software development platform- the Universal Windows Platform, or UWP. In some respects it builds upon the earlier Windows Runtime that was introduced with Windows 8. One interesting aspect of the platform is that- properly used- it can be utilized to have software that can be built once and distributed to a number of platforms running Microsoft Operating Systems, such as the XBox One.

I’ve fiddled a bit with UWP but honestly I found it tricky to determine what it’s for; As it is, it’s API as well as set of third-party portable libraries simply isn’t anywhere near a typical Application targeting the Desktop via WPF or even Windows Forms. But I think that is intentional; these aren’t built towards the same purpose. Instead, the main advantage of UWP appears to be in being able to deploy to multiple Windows Platforms. Unfortunately that is an advantage that I don’t think I can really utilize. However, I expect it will be well used for future applications- and it has already been well used for games like Forza Horizon 3, which utilized it for “Play anywhere” so it can be played not only on the XBox console but on any capable Windows 10 system. Forza 7 will also be using it to much the same effect.

Even if I won’t utilize it, it probably makes a lot of sense to cover it. My recent coding-related posts always seem to involve Windows Forms.  Perhaps I should work instead to learn UWP and then cover that learning experience within new posts? If I an encountering these hurdles then I don’t think it is entirely unreasonable to think perhaps others are as well.

I’ve also got to thinking that perhaps I have become  stuck in my ways, as I’m not partial to the approach that appears to bring web technologies to the desktop; Even today I find web applications and UI designed around the web to have a “feel” that is behind a traditional desktop application in usability. That said, I’m also not about to quit my job just because it involves “legacy” frameworks; We’re talking about quite an old codebase- bringing it forward based on library and platform upgrades would mean no time for adding new features that customers actually want. That, and the upgrade path is incredibly murky and unclear; with about 50 different approaches  for every 50 different problems we might encounter, not to mention things like deciding on the Framework versions and editions and such.

I know I was stuck in my ways previously so it’s hardly something that isn’t worth considering- I stuck with VB6 for far too long and figured it fine and these newfangled .NET things were unnecessary and complicated. But as it happens I was wrong about that. So it’s possible I am wrong about UWP; and if so then a lot of the negative discussion about UWP may be started by the same attitude and thinking. Is it that it is something rather large and imposing that I would need to learn that results in me perceiving it so poorly? I think that is very likely.

Which is  not to suggest of course that UWP is perfect and it is I who is wrong for not recognizing it; but perhaps it is the potential of UWP as a platform that I have failed to assess. While there are many shortcomings, future revisions and additions to the Platform are likely to resolve those problems as long as enough developers hop on board. And it does make sense for there to be a reasonable Trust Model where you “Know” what information an application actually uses or requests, rather then it being pretty much either limited user accounts or Administrator accounts and you don’t know exactly what is being used.

It may be time to come up with a project idea and implement it as a UWP application to start that learning experience. I did it for C# and Windows Forms, I did it for WPF, and I don’t see how the same approach couldn’t work for UWP. Unless it’s impossible to learn new stuff after turning 30, which I’m pretty sure is not the case!) If there is a way to execute other programs from UWP, perhaps the Repeater program I’m working on could be adapted. That is a fairly straightforward program.

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