Quote:
Originally Posted by John F
Could you define what an app is? I thought that they were different: a native x86 app/exe would not be able to execute on RT?
|
ARM is a different type of CPU than the x86 (and, later, x64) CPUs you've been used to. A native x86 app only runs on an x64 OS because of magic (WOW64, etc). For an ARM device to host a native x86 app would require something similar. (This is not a new problem -- I had similar issues with old Atari software after a model change).
WinRT doesn't allow native app installation beyond the pre-install (which answers an earlier speculation about Calibre -- I think it would need to be specifically re-written to run on the ARM machines, which means a Windows Store/"Modern" app).
Now writing for ARM and x86 and x64 is not that much of a problem -- Visual Studio supports that, and the Store helps with the distribution, with no difference in the source code. Writing Windows Store apps lends itself well to CPU agnosticism, since unless you're looking for the pain that is managing memory under C++ (and some people have compelling reasons for doing so) you're going to be using .NET or JavaScript where you have to work hard to make something chip-specific (including a native component like SQLite is one way to do so).
(FWIW, I'm a dev on one of the teams that wrote pre-installed apps for Win8/WinRT. I'm happy to provide advice on using Win8 and developing apps -- I would love to see Calibre in the Store -- but obviously I'm trying to stay within the terms of my employment, in addition to the fact that there were some things that were kept at arm's length -- note the earlier disclaimer that I've not been allowed to *touch* a Surface yet.)