Windows Universal/Store apps support

Rikki Cattermole via Digitalmars-d-learn digitalmars-d-learn at puremagic.com
Fri May 29 03:01:48 PDT 2015


On 29/05/2015 9:55 p.m., Paulo Pinto wrote:
> On Friday, 29 May 2015 at 07:41:14 UTC, Rikki Cattermole wrote:
>> On 29/05/2015 7:03 p.m., Paulo Pinto wrote:
>>> On Friday, 29 May 2015 at 03:23:39 UTC, Rikki Cattermole wrote:
>>>> On 29/05/2015 3:57 a.m., Olivier Prince wrote:
>>>>> I searched the forum to find if there is some support for new Windows
>>>>> development technologies and I didn't find anything related (except
>>>>> some
>>>>> rants about WinRT 3 years ago).
>>>>>
>>>>> - Is there any support in D or phobos for developping this kind of
>>>>> applications?
>>>>
>>>> No.
>>>>
>>>>> - Does D support ARM as Windows target?
>>>>
>>>> Yes/No. ldc/gdc guys probably are a good place to start.
>>>>
>>>>> - Are there any plans to support the specific libraries in this
>>>>> respect
>>>>> (something like C++/CX extensions or COM metadata files)?
>>>>
>>>> What exactly do you need?
>>>
>>> WinRT is an evolution of COM with a .NET feel to the API.
>>>
>>> Basically it is COM where objects also need to implement a new
>>> interface, IInspectable, and .NET metadata stored in .winmd files is
>>> used instead of COM type libraries.
>>>
>>> In a way WinRT is the return of Ext-VOS, the original idea behind .NET.
>>> Most likely caused by the Longhorn failure to write everything in .NET,
>>> as most new Windows APIs have been introduced as COM components since
>>> Vista.
>>>
>>> So any language targeting WinRT, or Universal Apps as they are now
>>> known, needs to to support COM alongside the required interfaces for
>>> interoperability between languages and be able to consume/produce .NET
>>> metadata files.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Paulo
>>
>> D already supports COM.
>> For .winmd, you should be good to go for -m32mscoff and -m64! Just add
>> LFLAGS="/winmd"
>>
>> Although this really really needs to be tested.
>
> As far as I am aware D supports old style COM, not COM with WinRT
> improvements.
>
> I don't get your hint with LFLAGS.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj157268.aspx
So unless this isn't doing what I think it is doing, then yes it is 
relevant.
No guarantees about what it requires for input info regarding e.g. 
symbols however.

> Are you aware what are .NET metadata files?

I can't say anything about that. Again try the flag. If it doesn't do 
what I'm expecting it does, no harm. It's just a feature that definitely 
isn't implemented or supported by the toolchain.

Of course, just because it generates the file, doesn't mean that there 
will be anything of use within it.


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