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Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 9:04 am
by Otto
Hello Antonio,
There are several posts from me without no answers.
What are the plans of Fivetech supporting “Metro like style” any longer.
It is a long time I didn’t see any improvements concerning these controls.
Best regards,
Otto

METROPNL need some more work
Combometro

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:24 am
by norberto
Otto, the oficial name is Modern UI. Metro was codiname of Project and Microsoft says to avoid this name.

now 30 days to launch of Windows 8 and surface! :)


regards

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 10:41 am
by Antonio Linares
Dear Otto,

We dedicate our time to several tasks based on its urgency in these forums: bugs fixes, tech support, updates, etc

We plan to keep updating them but also It seems as there is a very little interest here for those controls :-(

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 11:43 am
by Otto
Hello Antonio,
thank you I understand. Yes I see myself that there is not much interest in Metro style in this forum.
It is not so easy to understand the advantage of this new design but if you do then software design gets easy.
This is a design revolution which is taking place right now.
Although this is the worst news for me I have to find a way. Hope I can stay with Fivewin and that we will get a solution from you.
Best regards,
Otto

Norberto,
I know. But when we speak about “Metro like style” we know what it is about.
Best regards,
Otto

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 12:09 pm
by Antonio Linares
Otto,

Could you please summarize the list of pending issues for FiveWin Touch ? thanks

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 12:48 pm
by IBTC
Antonio Linares wrote:It seems as there is a very little interest here for those controls
I think that this will change in the future. On the other hand as long as the controls of Modern UI are not finished/completed many will wait, like us.

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:13 pm
by reinaldocrespo
Hi everyone;

I keep reading about having Metro style FW controls but I have a question on this subject: what good is it to have Metro controls from a Win32 app? Is the purpose to imitate or to make the customer "think" that we actually have a WinRT executable? It is still not a native Win8 application, thus it does not execute under WinRT, it still has to run under Win32. Right? If so, then what we will really need is to be able to create native WinRT apps that can use the newer api in WinRT. Does this make any sense?



Reinaldo.

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 1:45 pm
by Rick Lipkin
Reinaldo

You make a good point .. and I agree with you but the philosophy of the 'marketing department' is to ( generally ) "sell the sizzle, and not the steak".

I see several software vendors imitating many of the WinRt controls such as sliders, etc

Image

and as Windows 8 becomes more 'mainstream' I think you will see more and more marketing of Win32\64 apps that share many of the same 'look and feel' controls as WinRt.

However, I will say that any 'savvy' IT manager or CIO will see through the interface and know they are being sold a Win32\64 application. From what I understand MS WinRt's goal is to be able to create an application and port it across multiple platforms e.g. tablets, smart phones, etc...

I am not a fan of Visual Studio as a development platform for many personal reasons, I have rarely seen the phrase "code once and deploy to many platforms' actually work without a whole lot of modifications. In all fairness, Antonio has done a great job with FiveWin but there are limitations..From a famous classic Star Trek line "you just can't change the laws of physics" ( scotty )

Perhaps I am wrong and just been around the block too long :|

Rick Lipkin

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 2:40 pm
by Otto
Hello Antonio,
thank you for your response and offer.

The most important at the moment is the combobox with style DropDown.
That user can either enter a text or just select an item from the list.

Reinaldo,
For us Metro like style is very important.
As we install all our software to use through remote server we need these controls.
Many of the servers are 2008 servers so they don’t support true windows 8 metro.
But we want look and feel like true windows 8 apps for our apps.

Windows 8 metro is a design concept and I think independent of the OS. I am sure we will see “Metro like” apps on all OS in the future.
It is a new way of designing. Focusing on the main tasks and understanding that the users are not multitasking – capable.

Converting existing programs to Metro style is not as easy as it looks at first sight.
Think how much all of our programs evolved. First you have a button than functionality gets more complex and you change the button to a popup button.
Then these popup menus get very complex. Converting to metro then means to take out the complexity make the program useable at a fingertip and without a learning curve.

Best regards,
Otto

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 3:01 pm
by reinaldocrespo
I think Rick's answer is an acceptable explanation: "It's more about the sizzle than about the stake". I get it.

In Windows 8 you either work under the traditional Win32 desktop paradigm or under the newer Win 8 RT interface. Users can always jump back to Win32 to run our "Metro-like" solutions. However, I think -eventually- they are going to notice...

Having said all that, I guess that "metro-like-Win32" would be good enough for now. But, somehow-some day, we are going to need to write WinRT. Aren't we?



Reinaldo.

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 3:10 pm
by norberto
HI,

Windows 8 will support c, c++, so I think we need a fivemoderdUI, but understand that lack 1 month for Windows 8 release, then, as Antonio is going to do something that hasn't been released? that still does not have documentation available, except for those who subscribe to MSDN.

the same is true for Windows phone 8, the sdk should be out this week, but only for subscribers.

I also think that try to mimic controls on win32 is a BIG waste of time.
To mimic the Modern (metro), will certainly have a program like Vista transformation pack, that transform your Windows xp in 8 and also changes its controls on something like that.

too many people are confusing, metro (modern) aplication runs on WINRT, but runs on Windows 8 too. Win32 appl run win desktop mode.

All my computers are in Windows 8 for a while and I'm very happy ... and using Windows phone 8 (leaked) too. perfect integration. :D :D :D

Otto: Windows server 2012 uses interface like metro, you can down the trial.


Regards

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 3:28 pm
by Otto
>BIG waste of time
Norberto,
I think on this you are wrong.
First as I wrote you have to redesign your program. This task is the same if you do it for WINDOWS 8 new UI or for “metro like style”.
In any case you have to do this.

Second not all companies will immediately update all the PC’s to WINDOWS 8. So you have to support heterogenic systems. The only way to do this is “metro like style” or a 2012 Server and operate your software remote.
Best regards,
Otto

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 4:18 pm
by Rick Lipkin
Question .. is WinRT part of the dot net 4 framework ??

Rick

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:52 pm
by devtuxtla
Hello antonio

We are waiting for a FiveWin version that can generate all controls type meter.
Our applications must operate under Windows 8 and RT.

We have patience, but little time to migrate applications under Windows 8, in my view, it is urgent to have a compatible version of FiveWin / Metro.

Thanks for your effort.

Regards

Re: Metro style

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2012 5:58 pm
by reinaldocrespo
hey Rick;

It is not part of any .net framework. It is like a new api.


Reinaldo.