The power and flexibility of C++ or why you should write C++ apps for Windows 8 and beyond :-)

Last Friday, the C++ team in Redmond released source code for “Project Austin” a skunk works project that is essentially a note taking app. Check out the team’s announcement blog here.

This app is one great example of the power of C++ allowing you to code in a largely ISO-C++ code base and then interface with the Windows Runtime API. The app uses the XAML-DX SwapChainBackgroundPanel type and uses XAML to layer UI elements over the “main Window”. It also uses C++AMP and extensively uses DirectX and all of the native goodness that is present in C++ and Windows 8.

I could go on and on but I would defer you to the blog post above. And yes, all this goodness in graphics, performance, inking etc without the overhead of GC.

Enjoy!