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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-25T15:28:04+00:00

Like most .NET developers I was watching the keynote for the Build Event in

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Like most .NET developers I was watching the keynote for the Build Event in Anaheim, Cali and had a questions about the new support for building applications for Windows 8 using JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3.

They showed quite a few examples and even said the new Windows 8 marketplace was written using these technologies. The only thing that kind of has me guessing is when they put JavaScript in the same category of C#, in the sense that you could program your windows apps (have access to .NET directly) using JavaScript.

Obviously being a web developer this was pretty awesome news considering some of the applications I’ve built using JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS3.

The question I have is whether or not the applications we build for Windows 8 are truly web compliant? Can we build apps for Windows 8 and turn around and launch them on the web? Can web applications that are currently online access some of the features they demoed?

Like I said this would be an awesome advancement. Not to put down Silverlight, which I have written quite a few applications for, and the way it works in blend rocks. And the thought of replacing JavaScript with some of my apps that are written in C# is not even an option.

Is this just to get “web” based developers to develop for Windows or is this a cross platform solution for building applications?

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  1. Editorial Team

    Slight clarification, the Javascript/HTML5/CSS3 windows programs run on a new layer called WinRT (Windows Runtime), not .Net. All of the new Windows Metro style apps will be built on top of this layer rather than the older .Net. If your app utilizes the WinRT features, obviously you would need Windows to run the app. It is your choice if you want to integrate those features. (Obviously it depends on what you are trying to do with your app) I believe you can build an all standards compliant app and have it run on the system just fine – you just won’t be using any MS specific features. In that sense, it would be like a webpage that you launch as an app.

    Other notes:

    • MSIE currently uses some -ms specific prefixes until those features are accepted by W3C and given official cross browser names. Not unlike -webkit-border-radius,-moz-border-radius and border-radius.

    • The HTML5 uses some features such as grids that are not yet implemented in most browsers.

    • Microsoft includes a lot of Javascript libraries to make it easy to build apps. Many of these are jQuery based. Some are Windows specific. Not sure what the licensing is to use them elsewhere. I assume the jQuery is allowed to be portable whereas the Windows ones, wouldn’t make sense to use outside of WinRT.

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