Universal Bridges in Windows 10

Abilash Ashok | Lead - UX Development
Universal Bridge in Windows 10
Project Astoria and Project Islandwood | May 19, 2015

2@abhilashca © 2015 www.cametoofar.com | abhilashcashok@hotmail.com | Universal Bridge in Windows 10
Contents
 Cross-platform bridge
 Windows Architecture
 Project Astoria
 Project Islandwood
 Takeaway

Cross-platform bridge
 Project Astoria (Android)
 Project Islandwood (iOS)

Windows Architecture
 Subsystems
 Run applications written for many
operating system
 Supports multiple API families
 Win32 (word.exe, etc.)
 POSIX (Unix shell)
 OS/2 (IBM)
Windows 2000 Architecture

Project Astoria
 Android subsystem
 Subset of Android APIs on Windows
 Android
1. Android Open Source Project (AOSP)
i. Linux Kernel
ii. Open-source libraries
iii. E.g. Android share service mapping Windows share contract
2. Google Mobile Service (GMS)
i. Proprietary JAVA APIs tied to Google Service
ii. E.g. in-app purchase, location based services
Android
Android
Application

Project Astoria (Contd.)
 Developers Takeaway
 IDE – Eclipse, IntelliJ -> APK files
 App using AOSP should work without recompiling
 App using GMS API needs to be changed to MSFT implementation
 Provides Windows platform specific APIs – Live Tiles, Bing Maps, etc.
 Won’t have full access to underlying Windows capabilities
 Where to Start?
 Windows Dev Center
 Drag-drop APK for App Analysis
 Report shows required changes

Project Astoria (Contd.)
 Store submission
 Submit APK to Windows Store
 Wraps APK into AppX
 Verifies restricted/unsupported APIs are not used

Project Islandwood
 No subsystem
 iOS developed using Objective-C, other than C++, C#
 Grafted Objective-C support from CLANG compiler into Microsoft C++ infrastructure
 Supports subset of iOS APIs on Windows
 Basic libraries – CoreFoundation
 Graphical libraries – UIKit, CoreAnimation, CoreGraphics, CoreText
 3D support – OpenGL
 Services – StoreKit and Notifications
 E.g. Candy Crush Saga (few percentage)

Project Islandwood (Contd.)
 Developer Experience
 Objective-C support in Visual Studio 2015
 Import Xcode project
 Compiles to regular Windows app using Win32 subsystem
 More work compared with Android
 E.g. Hardware back button
 Just like another native development
 Supported platform
 32b & 64b x86, 32b ARM, 64b ARM (future)
 SWIFT support (in-progress)

Other Bridges
 Project Centennial
 Package and publish .NET and Win32 app to Windows Store
 Project Westminster
 Package your website to Windows Store
 Where to Signup for UWP Bridge Toolkit Dev Preview
 https://projectipreviewsignup.windows.com/

Takeaway
 Original idea – “Reuse business logic across platform, Build UI natively for each Platform”
 Suitable for large applications
 Target only phone and tablet, not UWP app
 Needs to consider
 App-experience and design guideline
 Platform specific features like Modern Design, Live Tiles, Xbox Live, etc.

Reference
 https://dev.windows.com/en-US/uwp-bridges
 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2015/05/01/bringing-clang-to-windows.aspx
 http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/05/android-and-ios-apps-on-windows-what-is-
microsoft-doing-and-will-it-work/1/
 http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/10224.posix-and-unix-support-in-windows.aspx

Thank you
for your time.

Universal Bridges in Windows 10

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