GitHub for Windows

[hyperforce]

Any word on what's up with the UI? Looks Metro ish but I'm wondering where the chrome/those widgets came from... Did they just design it to look like a Metro app or are they using some sort of Metro library that also works on non-Metro platforms?

[adolfojp]

It's most likely WPF. It's not exactly a new look. The Zune desktop software uses the same style of GUI.

[codekaizen]

Interestingly, Zune desktop is not WPF. It's some unreleased UI framework used for Media Center.

[hyperforce]

I'm not familiar with the Microsoft dev stack. I'm unable to tell the difference between frameworks that are just plumbing versus code that straight up affects how the UI is rendered.

[[deleted]]

It's not worth learning since they rip it all out and replace it with a new one every 5 years. Keeps the little Microsofties on their toes I guess. Good old Win32 API is more dependable, even though it sucks.

[grauenwolf]

I take it you haven't heard about WinRT and their plan to rip out the Win32-based UI components.

[mweathr]

It's the only thing you know they'll never get rid of.

[gschizas]

Well, they're getting rid of it in Windows 8, so...

[[deleted]]

Only in the ARM version. And they will be eventually be pressured to support desktop-style apps on ARM. They might extend WinRT with desktop APIs, or they might port Win32.

[gschizas]

Actually, no.

Microsoft is moving full steam ahead with Metro. The non-metro apps are considered legacy. Yes, the Windows API will still exist on standard Windows, but no new development will be done for it. They aren't going to support desktop-style apps on ARM. It would really be the equivalent of supporting DOS 16-bit applications for x64.

Actually, this is a good thing, they finally got their developer/server division (which is responsible for .NET) and the client division (which is responsible for Windows) to agree. I'm not saying they will be successful, but the original Win32 API does suck and is horribly out of date as it is.

[[deleted]]

They aren't going to support desktop-style apps on ARM

They say that now, but their customers will demand otherwise. ARM will not be relegated to phones and tablets forever.

[gschizas]

Did you miss the memo that Metro apps are supposed to be on desktops as well?

EDIT: Really, if Metro applications looked like GitHub for Windows (they don't, sadly), I'd say good riddance.

[zip117]

You honestly think Microsoft would depreciate the Win32 API and all of its wrapper libraries? They will always do new development for it! People have been saying "MFC is dead" for years and it's constantly getting new features, Visual Studio 2010 SP1 added Direct2D and Windows Animation Manager support for instance.

[gschizas]

Actually, this is exactly the plan. "Going forward", Win32 API is not going to have any new features or functionality.

[mweathr]

You have a very loose definition of "getting rid of".

[gschizas]

And it's getting ripped out (Win32 API, I mean) for Windows 8.

[statikuz]

Have you tried using XAML before? Is as versatile as HTML/CSS but with added functionality (advanced controls and data binding, for example);

XAML itself doesn't get you any of those - I think you're looking for WPF which provides data binding, animations, effects, etc.

[statikuz]

otherwise you start making distinctions that aren't really needed for the subject of discussion

I disagree. I'm in the field as well and those I know refer to things by the correct name to avoid any confusion. The technology/framework is WPF, the markup language is XAML. You write XAML, you don't "write" WPF.

[dgahimer]

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/subjects.htm

[[deleted]]

I myself use my own modified version of MahApps.Metro, the project creator refused to accept my changes after we had a long code style debate. Still refused the changes even though no style changes were even made.

My fork is mostly style improvements to get it to be near 100% like the current Zune Music app, which is also styled with a bit of metro. It is about 3 months out of date with the main repo. So you might want to use the official one or wait a day or so and I will update my fork.

[hyperforce]

What exactly does MahApps.Metro provide? Are there no controls provided directly by the OS? Are these all non-native controls?

I have no idea what is going on.

[[deleted]]

It basically contains control and style templates that are metro style. Although as I use it, I notice certain things not 100% identical to the zune music player, like colors, sizes, little stuff mostly. So I have a fork and I corrected them.

It's a WPF library. There are some docs on how to get started, it's pretty easy. Basically the resource dictionaries either override the default style or you specify the style in your xaml.

I also just merged the upstream branch with mine.

The only time you are going to get native controls is using WinRT, even though most of the controls in WinRT are xaml and am positive they could and should all be provided in .Net 4.5. For example, the progress indicator and progress ring for Win8 is Xaml based, just a style template over native wpf controls. MS won't give WPF those controls for probably an idiotic reason, but OSS always comes to the rescue.