Objective C and ManifoldJS: Will Windows 10 app conversion be as "super easy" as it looks?

'Every app is different' says Microsoft

A key takeaway from today's second day Microsoft Build conference keynote was the reveal of ManifoldJS - an open-source tool that allows cross-platform native applications to be built using Apache Cordova's standard Manifest specification.

Delegates watched as, with a few command line parameters, packaged Android, iOS, Windows and even Firefox web apps were spun out of a single codebase.

Coupled with yesterday's reveals of Objective C - for iOS development - and Android-centric Java and C++ support appearing in Visual Studio, it feels like Microsoft is setting up a real powerhouse of cross-platform app development, not to mention teeing up a way to rebuild its mistrusted app store by appealing to talented cross-platform developers.

Demos shown during this morning's keynote seemed seamless, quick and painless. But as anybody who uses the likes of Appcelerator, Kony or even Microsoft's own Xamarin environments will know, the reality of cross-platform development can still be a coding headache.

Sitting down with senior director of Windows developer marketing Emilio Salvador Prieto, Computing asked just how seamless an app conversion process developers can expect using Microsoft's new tools.

"It's like any app porting technology you've seen in the past - every app is different," admitted Prieto.

"It depends how much that app takes advantage of the underlying OS - how complex that application is and how much of that application is code you run on your client, versus the cloud.

"So it's hard to say that it's going to be super easy or super complicated. We've seen cases where it's pretty straightforward, but others where it's not that easy."

Plenty of fence-sitting here, then. But Prieto was keen to impress that aiming for a strong shared core, rather than catering for all the frills of every platform, was the main aim.

"I think what we see more and more with companies is that cross-platform - we see that more and more with iOS, Android and Windows - they've got to deal with three, four or five different platforms and try to organise the code in such a way that they maintain a shared core that runs across multiple devices."

"Our goal is to make sure that that shared core works really well on Windows as well."

It could conceivably be all Windows 10 needs to get by - if ManifoldJS and Visual Studio can provide a solid base for conversion, pushing apps to the Windows Store should become the kind of no-brainer that Microsoft is going to need to start attracting developers to a store that, on Windows 8, has felt redundant at best and extremely unattractive at worst.

And on top, Prieto said that Microsoft is also committed to pushing those unique qualities only Windows 10 will bring to the table.

"[While we] give developers the tools they need, [we can also] enhance experiences with the unique capabilities we have on Windows that we believe nobody else has," said Prieto.

"So if you think about Cortana or even holograms - something that will only exist on Windows and nowhere else - we want to develop that and spend the time enhancing those experiences."

It's also important not to forget the Windows Store itself, which is now to receive its own enterprise-driven flavour with Windows 10, in which developers can more directly control payment and rollout parameters. Prieto seems to believe this could also be a huge game-changer for a store that enterprises generally ignore altogether, often in favour of setting up their own in-house app stores as side-loaded Windows software.

"I think the question is, 'What is your app about? Is it about reaching more customers, or making money through the application?' Every app is different," said Prieto.

"And when you start embracing Universal Apps, it's one core, one binary and it brings them all together. It's a key piece of our strategy moving forward."