Windows 8 UI Style A-- Who are we kidding? Windows 8 Metro App Thread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Windows 8 UI Style A-- Who are we kidding? Windows 8 Metro App Thread

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Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

megarust posted:

Is there an RSS feed for app releases anywhere? I'd like that.

You can kind of keep track yourself by searching the store for

*

which will show every app they have (sort by newest to find the new ones, click the newest one to keep your place for the next time you bring up the store)

They only add about 75-150 apps a day and at least 99% of them are pure garbage.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 04:07

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# ? May 8, 2024 08:36

Skeezy: Jul 3, 2007

Startacus posted:

Yea, that sucks majorly. Twitter has confirmed they have a Win8 app in the works, though.

It'll be months before anything involving an official Windows 8 Twitter app shows up anywhere. Those dudes are slow as heck with updates.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 04:15

Maneki Neko: Oct 27, 2000

tankadillo posted:

I really liked the desktop version of MetroTwit, but it doesn't seem to work on Windows 8 for me (just doesn't open, no error or anything) and the metro version crashes constantly for me. I also hope the developers fix these soon.

Desktop metrotwit has been pretty good for me, although occasionally timeline freaks out.

Skeezy posted:

It'll be months before anything involving an official Windows 8 Twitter app shows up anywhere. Those dudes are slow as heck with updates.

And it's probably going to such more than the 3rd party apps, if the Windows Phone version is any indication.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 06:27

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

And here's my next bad review about to happen, an email just gotten:

quote:

Since there�s a problem on your app Synth, I would like you to fix it ASAP.
I�m going to have a performance with window 8�s apps like drums, piano, guitar and synthesizer.

But the problem is your app Synth doesn�t work on my computer, Samsung Series 5 ULTRA with window 8.
As soon as I launch this app, it suddenly shuts down. So I cannot even open the app.
One of my friends has already made payment but the same problem occurs.

The big day is next weekend.
So please have it repaired and let me know so that I can use it or get a refund.

1) The certification delay forbids any quick fixes.
2) For all these crashes that are supposedly happening, I have zero crash data on the dev site.
3) There was a loving trial, 14 days to be specific. I hate people.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 11:41

robodex: Jun 6, 2007; They're what's for dinner

Welcome to the world of development :smithicide:

# ? Nov 12, 2012 18:21

GameCube: Nov 21, 2006

robodex posted:

Welcome to the world of development

The world of walled-garden development, you mean.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 18:29

Shadowhand00: Jan 23, 2006; Golden Bear is ever watching; day by day he prowls, and when he hears the tread of lowly Stanfurd red,from his Lair he fiercely growls.; Toilet Rascal

Does anyone know if there are any utilities out there that will recolor the mail and calendar apps yet?

# ? Nov 12, 2012 19:22

ljw1004: Jan 18, 2005; rum

Combat Pretzel posted:

And here's my next bad review about to happen, an email just gotten:

1) The certification delay forbids any quick fixes.
2) For all these crashes that are supposedly happening, I have zero crash data on the dev site.
3) There was a loving trial, 14 days to be specific. I hate people.

I wonder if it'd be worth putting in your own telemetry, e.g. writing to a log of what happened, and if failed to terminate properly the last time, then upload your own log of what happened the next time?

# ? Nov 12, 2012 19:24

New Yorp New Yorp: Jul 18, 2003; Only in Kenya.; Pillbug

ljw1004 posted:

I wonder if it'd be worth putting in your own telemetry, e.g. writing to a log of what happened, and if failed to terminate properly the last time, then upload your own log of what happened the next time?

I wonder if you can instrument a Metro app with PreEmptive Analytics. Probably not.

# ? Nov 12, 2012 20:07

AppleCobbler: Feb 8, 2003; remember that time I was just chilling out and definitely not having a massive meltdown? right guys? guys???

Combat Pretzel posted:

And here's my next bad review about to happen, an email just gotten:

1) The certification delay forbids any quick fixes.
2) For all these crashes that are supposedly happening, I have zero crash data on the dev site.
3) There was a loving trial, 14 days to be specific. I hate people.

You need to fix his problem ASAP otherwise there will be only drums, piano, and guitar in his performance; and then it'll just be another Coldplay cover :argh:

# ? Nov 12, 2012 20:07

megarust: Jan 24, 2006; ah-doop!

Sporadic posted:

You can kind of keep track yourself by searching the store for

*

which will show every app they have (sort by newest to find the new ones, click the newest one to keep your place for the next time you bring up the store)

They only add about 75-150 apps a day and at least 99% of them are pure garbage.

Thanks, pretty useful

# ? Nov 12, 2012 23:50

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

ljw1004 posted:

I wonder if it'd be worth putting in your own telemetry, e.g. writing to a log of what happened, and if failed to terminate properly the last time, then upload your own log of what happened the next time?

Tried something like that. Catching anything in the unexpected exception handler. Problem is, most IO functionality is async and that doesn't play well, once that handler has been reached.

# ? Nov 13, 2012 09:57

Drastic Actions: Apr 7, 2009; FUCK YOU!
GET PUMPED!; Nap Ghost

Sporadic posted:

You can kind of keep track yourself by searching the store for

*

which will show every app they have (sort by newest to find the new ones, click the newest one to keep your place for the next time you bring up the store)

They only add about 75-150 apps a day and at least 99% of them are pure garbage.

The fact that a good 60% of those apps don't even have a icon attached to them (instead using the default crossed out box) is just sad. Seriously, a good number of those apps are Windows SDK samples, but with slightly different item bindings.

People paid money to put that crap on the store. And they can't even put in the effort to make an icon.

# ? Nov 13, 2012 15:36

ljw1004: Jan 18, 2005; rum

Combat Pretzel posted:

Tried something like that. Catching anything in the unexpected exception handler. Problem is, most IO functionality is async and that doesn't play well, once that handler has been reached.

In VB/C# you can log the exception's StackTrace property. This will be a useful (async-aware) representation of the stack at the time the exception was thrown.

In C++ you can log the exception's _M_DisassembleMe field. This is the instruction pointer at the time the async operation was started (specifically, when the task was created). Back home on your dev box with symbols, go to the Debug>Disassembly window, type in that address, and it'll show which async operation failed.

In JS you can log the exception's data.stack property in base.js::terminateAppHandler. To get lots more async-relevant information, it can additionally be useful to capture the callstack at the time the async operation was started: look at the source code of base.js for "var tagWithStack = false". You can chance it to "= true", or e.g. "= tag.exceptionPromise". Then, you can view this in terminateAppHandler through e.detail.promise._stack.

VB/C#: Another approach is to say, well, every single unhandled exception will crash your program. Therefore you won't be adding any additional harm if you put "Try ... Catch ex As Exception" around every single top-level event handler (i.e. all the async voids). I know it's considered poor practice to do this because it harms the crash-dumps. Well, that's not a reason in this case. Have it log every single unhandled exception. Another approach is to remove async voids entirely, and instead have your event-handlers kick off async work by doing "DoWorkAsync().FireAndForget()", where FireAndForget is an extension method on task that keeps track of all outstanding tasks and logs whichever one ended in a faulted state.

C++: the analog of this is that every single task chain you write out of .thens() should either be returned to the caller (if you're writing a task-returning async method), or finished by a .then() that catches and logs exceptions, i.e.

code:

    .then( [](task antecedent) { try {antecedent.get();} catch (...) {LOG} });

# ? Nov 13, 2012 16:54

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

The relevant code runs on a separate thread, not on an async function. Hell, I can't even show a message box when I'm in the unhandled exception handler due to the async nature of it, to let the user know about a problem.

# ? Nov 13, 2012 17:08

ljw1004: Jan 18, 2005; rum

Combat Pretzel posted:

The relevant code runs on a separate thread, not on an async function. Hell, I can't even show a message box when I'm in the unhandled exception handler due to the async nature of it, to let the user know about a problem.

If it's already on a background thread, then the cleanest code pattern is just to fake it up sync as early as possible. In C++, I'd declare a task_completion_event. In the callback of the async API, do either set or set_exception on it. So your code looks like this:

code:

  task_completion_event e<void>;
  ActivateAudioInterfaceAsync(args, callback, e);
  task<int>(e).wait();

  // the sole job of "callback" is to do e.set() or e.set_exception().

This way you just have a good old fashioned code flow, with exceptions being thrown in the same place as they would if the code were synchronous. The only snag I'm aware of is that you must invoke AudioClient.Initialize from within the callback of ActivateAudioInterfaceAsync, not after it (like would happen if you used the above pattern everywhere).

# ? Nov 13, 2012 17:38

keyframe: Sep 15, 2007; I have seen things

Sporadic posted:

They only add about 75-150 apps a day and at least 99% of them are pure garbage.

You are full of poo poo.

It is more like %99.9 :smithicide:

# ? Nov 13, 2012 19:18

Kazy: Oct 23, 2006; 0x38: FLOPPY_INTERNAL_ERROR

keyframe posted:

You are full of poo poo.

It is more like %99.9

Seriously, how hard could it be to at least put a "must have store icon" requirement? :psyduck:

I mean it won't improve the quality of the apps, but at least it'll look like they're trying.

# ? Nov 13, 2012 19:29

Stick100: Mar 18, 2003

Kazy posted:

Seriously, how hard could it be to at least put a "must have store icon" requirement? I mean it won't improve the quality of the apps, but at least it'll look like they're trying.

I figured they did. It was part of the WP7 certification process, I guess they are trying really hard to get the number of apps up to allow in such junk. Reminds me of the early days of WP store when people were submitting thousands of the same free app just for free placement.

# ? Nov 13, 2012 20:51

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

This is probably the best free Craigslist app.

Craigslist+ (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/2e1631ad-28ca-4c79-a49e-99c47a32e37b)

Search through the Charms bar is kind of weird but you can also save searches to the main screen.

Kazy posted:

Seriously, how hard could it be to at least put a "must have store icon" requirement? I mean it won't improve the quality of the apps, but at least it'll look like they're trying.

not really...

# ? Nov 14, 2012 01:51

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

I blame HTML5+JS apps for this.

# ? Nov 14, 2012 02:35

Kazy: Oct 23, 2006; 0x38: FLOPPY_INTERNAL_ERROR

Is it me or did Chrome just phantom update with bigger touch targets in tab/menus?

I could have sworn that until today it's just been "Chrome but fullscreen"

# ? Nov 14, 2012 05:13

Aatrek: Jul 19, 2004; by Fistgrrl

There's a new OblyTile update, which includes the ability to edit custom tiles once they're in place.

# ? Nov 14, 2012 13:06

robodex: Jun 6, 2007; They're what's for dinner

Kazy posted:

Is it me or did Chrome just phantom update with bigger touch targets in tab/menus?

I could have sworn that until today it's just been "Chrome but fullscreen"

Keep in mind, every Chrome update is a phantom update.

# ? Nov 14, 2012 21:29

Kazy: Oct 23, 2006; 0x38: FLOPPY_INTERNAL_ERROR

robodex posted:

Keep in mind, every Chrome update is a phantom update.

I'm aware of the background updates, but I doublechecked the version numbers and they seemed mostly the same, and I'm not seeing it on any changelog.

# ? Nov 14, 2012 21:43

BogDew: Jun 14, 2006; E:\FILES>quickfli clown.fli

Is there a way to sideload apps that are region based? For instance the Nook app which only appears in America and not Australia.

:hurr:

It's just as simple as changing my region to United States in the system settings.

BogDew fucked around with this message at 04:55 on Nov 15, 2012

# ? Nov 15, 2012 04:53

ljw1004: Jan 18, 2005; rum

Combat Pretzel posted:

And here's my next bad review about to happen, an email just gotten:
[snip]
2) For all these crashes that are supposedly happening, I have zero crash data on the dev site.

The latency from when the crash-dump is uploaded to when it appears on the devsite can apparently be up to 14 days, but I hear that 5 days is more common.

(If you believe you've had a crash more than 14 days ago, but still no crashes up there, send me a personal email at lwischik at microsoft.com with details and I'll see if I can prod the team in charge of it, but no promises, since they're in a completely separate division from me.)

# ? Nov 15, 2012 07:21

Combat Pretzel: Jun 23, 2004; No, seriously... what kurds?!

That may explain it. I'll wait some longer.

Also, I've a weekend project cut out for me. If I can manage to write a decent beat detection and mapping algorithm, you might see a Metro version of this from me soon:

http://labs.echonest.com/Uploader/index.html

# ? Nov 15, 2012 13:01

Pile Of Garbage: May 28, 2007

cheese-cube posted:

There's a Google Search app which also allows you to access several Google wep apps including Voice:

Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Reader and Maps work pretty well in it. YouTube doesn't seem to work as I keep getting errors stating that Flash isn't installed/up-to date (Even though I can watch Flash content in IE10 fine which is what I assume it uses to render the pages).

Unfortunately it's x86/x64 only at the moment, not sure when they'll support WinRT.

Just aheads up they've updated this app so it now supports ARM/WinRT. I haven't used it on a tablet or touch enabled device but it is pretty nifty.

# ? Nov 16, 2012 08:12

Brodeurs Nanny: Nov 2, 2006

Is there a list of apps in the works? I'm hoping for Yelp soon.

# ? Nov 16, 2012 15:47

ThermoPhysical: Dec 26, 2007

Two weird apps appeared on my Start Screen out of no where. Logitech Camera Controller and HP Printer Control. I have NEVER installed these apps before and nor did I know they existed until today.

Logitech's app is pretty much useless and does nothing but link you to their site. I'm not sure why it even exists...

HP's app, I'm not sure about because the Store seems completely broken for me on my desktop but it works fine on my laptop. Maybe it's because I have the same account signed in twice? Who knows.

# ? Nov 18, 2012 19:04

Kazy: Oct 23, 2006; 0x38: FLOPPY_INTERNAL_ERROR

ThermoPhysical posted:

Two weird apps appeared on my Start Screen out of no where. Logitech Camera Controller and HP Printer Control. I have NEVER installed these apps before and nor did I know they existed until today.

Logitech's app is pretty much useless and does nothing but link you to their site. I'm not sure why it even exists...

HP's app, I'm not sure about because the Store seems completely broken for me on my desktop but it works fine on my laptop. Maybe it's because I have the same account signed in twice? Who knows.

I think Windows will automatically install apps for some drivers. It installed a Canon app when I added my printer.

# ? Nov 18, 2012 19:07

GameCube: Nov 21, 2006

ThermoPhysical posted:

Two weird apps appeared on my Start Screen out of no where. Logitech Camera Controller and HP Printer Control. I have NEVER installed these apps before and nor did I know they existed until today.

Logitech's app is pretty much useless and does nothing but link you to their site. I'm not sure why it even exists...

HP's app, I'm not sure about because the Store seems completely broken for me on my desktop but it works fine on my laptop. Maybe it's because I have the same account signed in twice? Who knows.

Device apps like these can be installed automatically. You'll see the same thing happen if you have a mobile broadband card, for instance; if your carrier has a Metro app, it'll be installed automatically.

# ? Nov 18, 2012 19:09

ThermoPhysical: Dec 26, 2007

Kazy posted:

I think Windows will automatically install apps for some drivers. It installed a Canon app when I added my printer.

Werthog posted:

Device apps like these can be installed automatically. You'll see the same thing happen if you have a mobile broadband card, for instance; if your carrier has a Metro app, it'll be installed automatically.

Huh. That's kind of neat then. I wonder why the HP app took so long to show up since I've printed before. Also, I've used my camera before but ah well. Really weirded me out though at first.

Thanks for clearing it up though!

e: Yeah, I'm starting to think that the store is broken on my desktop. Is there a way to make it work again short of restarting everything?

ThermoPhysical fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Nov 18, 2012

# ? Nov 18, 2012 19:12

Startacus: May 25, 2007; I am Startacus.

ThermoPhysical posted:

Huh. That's kind of neat then. I wonder why the HP app took so long to show up since I've printed before. Also, I've used my camera before but ah well. Really weirded me out though at first.

Thanks for clearing it up though!

e: Yeah, I'm starting to think that the store is broken on my desktop. Is there a way to make it work again short of restarting everything?

Maybe they just released the app?

Also, your store is broken in what way?

# ? Nov 18, 2012 19:38

ThermoPhysical: Dec 26, 2007

Startacus posted:

Maybe they just released the app?

Also, your store is broken in what way?

I'm not sure, I barely see the Start Screen anymore. They might've.

The Store refuses to load no matter what I do. I've left it on for like 10 minutes and it's still loading. I can close it and try again, same problem.

# ? Nov 18, 2012 19:41

chedemefedeme: May 25, 2007; Until then I need your help
figuring out the logistics!

Store loading perfectly on my laptop and surface right now, so...problem in your world, not Microsoft's

.

Any new/sweet apps lately? I'm itching to hear some more recommendations from folks on apps that enrich Win 8, specifically on tablets.

# ? Nov 18, 2012 19:56

ThermoPhysical: Dec 26, 2007

chedemefedeme posted:

Store loading perfectly on my laptop and surface right now, so...problem in your world, not Microsoft's .

Any new/sweet apps lately? I'm itching to hear some more recommendations from folks on apps that enrich Win 8, specifically on tablets.

Yeah, it's working fine on my laptop here. Now sure what's happening but I'll figure it out.

# ? Nov 18, 2012 20:03

Call Me Charlie: Dec 3, 2005; by Smythe

chedemefedeme posted:

Any new/sweet apps lately? I'm itching to hear some more recommendations from folks on apps that enrich Win 8, specifically on tablets.

Pepperplate (http://apps.microsoft.com/webpdp/app/494557f9-8871-47a3-89f2-42ae56aca3f4) is pretty cool.

You can grab recipes from anywhere. It even worked with the Food Network app.
You can scale recipes up or down.
Combine recipes into menus.
Plan meals way in advance (live tile shows the next meal)

And it saves everything into the cloud.

# ? Nov 18, 2012 20:14

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# ? May 8, 2024 08:36

Kazy: Oct 23, 2006; 0x38: FLOPPY_INTERNAL_ERROR

It's definitely not just you. My Ativ's store isn't working right now either, I just get the spinny logo.

# ? Nov 18, 2012 20:14

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > Windows 8 UI Style A-- Who are we kidding? Windows 8 Metro App Thread

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