One of the buzzwords floating around Microsoft’s BUILD developer conference this week is “WinRT.” WinRT will replace Win32 as the core API for building apps for the Windows 8 Metro interface. WinRT will support a variety of languages: JavaScript, C, C++, C# and VB. However, only the “Classic” desktop interface half of Windows 8 will support Silverlight.
The next version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio will include templates for creating Metro apps. It will also be fairly easy to convert Windows Phone apps into Metro apps. Both Metro and desktop apps will be available for purchase through an app store.