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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

As far as I know you shouldn't even be making WP8 apps, because they are not compatible with any WP7 device. So developers are stuck with building WP7 apps that also work on WP8 devices, because most WP devices are WP7.

And I don't think a Windows 8 app can be the same as a WP8 app either. At the very least you'll need a whole new UI and design, and most likely quite different code, too. It's not as easy as Microsoft says: "write once, publish to all our platforms with Windows in their name".

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As a Windows 8 developer, the most frustrating part of WP8 is the lack of compatibility for native HTML5/WinJS apps. For me, this was the best thing about Windows 8. It made building apps easy and fun. The most ridiculous thing about the whole thing is that the HTML5/WinJS apps are completely responsive, and you pretty much have to build a mobile version of your app to support "snap" mode. So, they could easily have a write once, run anywhere model if they just supported native HTML5 apps in WP8. Sorry, /rant.

I did not know this about WP8, and I'm glad you said something. It's stuff like this that will make devs steer clear of writing for them. If I can write a PhoneGap app for Android/iPhone (Which I am), but I have to make major changes to write for WP8 then I am not going to do so.

There's a Windows Phone 8 implementation of PhoneGap: https://github.com/apache/incubator-cordova-wp8

Not true. Windows 8 runs WPF which is what also runs the UI of WP7/8. The code layer is/can all be C# as well. That means that the compatibility is actually must farther than that of Java/Android/Linux. Not being able to run Android Views on a Linux box being the differentiating factor.

Also, Not True. WP7/8 runs a modified version of silverlight. Now, both WPF, Silverlight and Windows 8 all use XAML, but you are not guaranteed that they will be cross compatible (close, but not quite the same). They all run C# code, but with different base class libraries and sometimes one env will not have certain classes (HttpClient, among others).

So, they are very similar and porting from one env to another usually isn't a huge deal, but issues can arise. See Portable Class Libraries to make your life easier in this regard: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh335063.aspx

It's not exactly massive differences. It's been a while since I used Silverlight but as long as you target Siverlight first you'll be alright, the biggest restriction is the reduced .Net library.

HTTPClient was released as a nuget component: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/henrikn/archive/2012/02/16/httpclien...

That's FUD. Check out this article on how much effort it takes to support both WP7 and WP8 with first class apps http://www.hanselman.com/blog/UpdatingMyWindowsPhoneAppToWin...

TLDR; minor code changes, change screen ratio, add screenshots

The app they are updating there is incredibly simple and using few of the APIs and similar changed from WP7 to WP8. Updating a real app that is actually functional (like say, actually updates you with the GPS when your phone is stolen and not just showing a banner, seriously?) would be far more difficult.

Far from impossible, but not a simple 'press button, app upgraded' as with iOS or Android. Plus this is apparently changing even further for the new MS Blue sometime in the future.

You seem to have some strange idea of FUD too.

Pass.

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