Metropolis or Windows 8 through the eyes of Delphi programmers

What is truth?

Truth - the first page of the search engine on request. A company can struggle and force itself with all its marketing forces, trying to “sell” technology to the masses of workers, but the first 10 references (+ Wikipedia) are a mechanism for weighing a specific decision. But while it’s too early to talk about decisions, they must be preceded by impressions. Armed with links selected from the floor, let's talk about the “Windows 8 interface design”.

Hey, why is it so one-sided? Why only interface? Applied development, above all, is based on programming in components. A big misconception is the opinion that we use a programming language. Of course not. We use the component language to manually generate the required functional with varying degrees of variability relative to the predefined patterns for building the system. Our users are accustomed to reasoning in terms of interface functionality such as “Petrovich, dear, add me a button, when clicked, a window should appear in which I will see contracts whose counterparties have lost their conscience ...”.

Microsoft has been spoiling developers for a long (very long) time with carefully cultivated interface stability (it looks like designers have cut off their hands). But with the massive advent of tablets, the stumps began to move, and the world (almost) had a new Windows. Aesthetically dormant crowds of Delphi developers have stirred up with varying degrees of intensity. What is this new OS, where did the Start button go, can you use Delphi for development under Windows 8? It would seem that the questions are purely rhetorical, but they require some explanation.
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The voice of the developer - the voice of God

A developer (programmer, developer) is a creator, and a creator is like a god. Therefore, it would be useful to start with the survey results. My data says that from 30 to 50% of Delphi programmers have already exploded Windows 8 with different levels of post-response positivity (otkhodnyak, in Russian). The general emotional background can be described in one word - “inevitability”. And if the inevitability is not avoided, then you need to relax and have fun. Especially since there are a lot of reasons for this. But about this - a little later, for good enjoyment you need a good foreplay.

Yes, being on habrahabr.ru one cannot but refer to the conducted research . On the one hand, the results are predictable. On the other - useless. No, for a sense of self-worth, seeing your 0.02% contribution to public opinion is cool. But the utility of such numbers = 0 with any degree of accuracy. Well, the new Windows 8 interface is not aimed at the tastes of the developers, not you, my dears. But I would still write off such dead indicators not on the incompatibility of a person programming with a new metaphor, but in the shy manner of a well-known corporation to convince.

How to sell a masterpiece

Let's look at the source. Here we have at least one interesting video . For this virus (1 000 000), he did not reach, but the elements are present.

• 33 seconds - almost cut the carrot on the tablet (this was a similar movie with the “ipad”)
• 46 second - the boy was poked into his eyes
• 47 seconds - my uncle was stripped in the teeth (although not in the neck)

The amusing music reminded me of Africa, which symbolizes the region of the fastest growing IT market. For many, Windows 8 will be the first OS, so there will be nothing to compare with (for those who have forgotten what Windows 1 looks like).

I don’t know about you, but for the 2nd month I can’t forget my fat finger. I hope that the huge money for advertising Windows 8 will somehow be used to compensate for the moral damage caused to me - I love children, what's wrong with that? By the way, the above document is used in the Embarcadero company as a textbook under the heading "How to scold competitors" (joke).

But the masterpiece of Windows 8 is more than offset by the lack of imagination in its description. Often it seems that the speaker, telling about Windows 8, in a backpack which is honestly bought iPad, and even Macbook Air. So I would ask you not to trust the evangelicals and, especially, the search engines. Not that you are trying to spend. Simply, they are bound by certain corporate principles, but I am not. That's the strength of Delphi - the absence of a hard dependency on a particular platform. But in general - the impression is lethargic. If the Impressionists had been “selling” this way, Manet would have been considered a typo by Monet, and Renoir would be advised to wash the nozzles on the inkjet cartridge to increase the image clarity.

Demotivator

The lack of rational justification is the strongest demotivator. You can constantly repeat yourself mantra "5 principles of modern design for Windows." Here, by the way, there is an error. This Embarcadero can write "5 principles of modern design for Windows", because even for Windows XP, you can reproduce the “modern design” described. But in the original article should have been called "5 principles of design for modern Windows." Well, let's not be a flea detector, better we will sign up for the “summer school” (at least, counselors).

The classic Windows interface specifically bothered everyone. Change it - as wallpaper re-stick (reluctant, but we must ... easier than to get a divorce). As a woman, change hair color. How do you - buy a new car. Let it be the same Opel Astra, but only new. Of course, the corporation could also give up on the boring faces of consumers, but a protest wave arose. In MacOS X, there are also some ergonomic holes. Those. speaking directly, it is no better than Windows 7. But the people ran to snapping "apples", because this is clearly not Windows. Our grown-up children transferred the “fathers - children” conflict to the plane of a purely consumer choice of “non-father's OS”. It was easier for us to fight MS-DOS grandfather, but the new generation chooses outdated “windows-in-IT-space”.

What to do? If the people need a “no-view”, then it remains only to lead this “anti-window” movement. And if MacOS is slightly different from Windows 7, then Windows 8 is not at all. It was simply impossible to create a more non-Windows OS, but Microsoft did the impossible. No sarcasm, great corporation made a great product. “Metro” is the apotheosis of the quality of electronic design (and not because I carry a trophy phone with Windows Phone 7 on board with me).
I will prove it now.

Let's start from the beginning (we'll end it)

The start screen of Windows 8 - well, finally, mankind has made an effort over itself! The rationality of using the classic "desktop" is easy to calculate by dividing the total effective area of ​​labels by the product of the width and height of the screen. Most of the screen deals with the exposure of visual images in the form of wallpaper (often according to Freud). I have the gaping emptiness of the universe. But I want to improve. And do not talk here about bauhaus, typography and look for sources of inspiration. No need to freak out the guide in the hall of contemporary art, reciting template texts and nabaltyvaya "what I see, I sing." You just need to say: the stupid, irrational, static-dead "desktop" was initially bad, and Microsoft fixed this error. You can scold her, but for the “time delay” when the score is 1-0 in favor of stagnation, not for Windows 8. You need to mentally take the desktop icons and maximize their size before contact with their neighbors (this is just TRIZ, not art history) . We get the statics of the Windows 8 start screen. Can we add dynamics? Complex issue.

Start, RIP

Imagine you made an application with the main menu, and there is one item - “File” (or “Start”), and all the functionality is embedded in an infinite tree. So if it was removed correctly? Hey, no, they didn't remove her because of her unpopularity. Removed for ideological reasons.

The “Start” button symbolized the driving force of the user's desires, his active, leading role in the man-OS-computer system. Information and functionality (to get information) was the result of an informed choice of the operator against the background of the static readiness of a robot-like creature.

"Live Tiles" forever

The paradigm has changed - “live tiles” asynchronously create information fields, exposing the user's brain to its effects. The information space through the valves of living tiles penetrates into us, passes through us, being in a state of passive assimilation. The activation of consciousness occurs at the moments when we focus on a specific transmission channel (“live tile”), without changing the principle of asynchronous work, but choosing an information outlet for recharging. Previously it was thought that the system should be strictly driven (up to software delays that ensure micro-lag), now the OS and applications have become more equal to humans. Yes, we strategically define our informational (still flat) space, but then it takes control, loading its part into us.

Therefore, discard the longing for the “Start” button, which is more appropriate when you drop the Macbook Pro 17 on the floor.

What does Delphi have to do with it?

Starting with the release of XE3, you can create stylized applications. Not being WinRT applications, executable modules emulate the style of Windows 8. You can, of course, laugh it off, for the sake of a new metaphor, Microsoft created a new OS, and Embarcadero - a new style for classic applications. But more correctly, we can call the thesis that at this stage of prevalence of Windows 8, Embarcadero made the most effective decision from the point of view of applied Delphi-programmers. Specialized Metropolis technology is now available to quickly bring non-WinRT applications (that is, traditional ones) to the Windows 8 look.

This is based on the FireMonkey and VCL styling mechanism. Even if the primary task is not to create applications in the style of Windows 8, such opportunities are a sure way to master Windows 8. You can install and click on it, you can get a phone with a similar interface, and you can practice creating an Enterprise Line of Business Apps for Windows 8. The latter alternative is more consistent with the spirit of programmers - active cognition through development.

On a virtual machine when installing Windows 8, I had problems with "drive A", I had to remember what this means.

Since we are talking about styling, and not using the new API, applications created using Metropolis will run (in addition to Windows 8) on Windows 7, Windows Vista (what is this?), Windows XP. But it will not be possible to stylize a MacOS application under Windows 8, since Both groups of zealots of these platforms will not experience much happiness from contemplating Windows 8 on a Mac.

Conclusion

We are standing in Volgograd after the seminar, next to me are two experienced developers:
- Well, Che, men, how do you like Windiows 8? Feeling - like in the cockpit, but instead of devices - live tiles?
- Yes, somewhere like that ... We just bought a Windows 7 corporation, so let's wait a bit.

Alt + F4

- Not stuck. I have my iPad / Android, which I would not trade for a “Windows” tablet for any ergonomics.
- It is logical. Android and iOS - surrealism, and Windows 8 - abstraction / constructivism. Just you from another folder on the hard drive of world history of painting.