Windows 8 and LOB Apps

Question

What is the recommended approach for building line of business apps for Windows 8? e.g. complex bespoke finance application

They clearly don\'t fit into the Metro style

Answer 1

Suppose you stick with WPF as your target.

Then you could try to keep as much as possible of your code within the intersection of WinRT, Silverlight, and WPF. Maintain two (or three) projects and make sure that both (all) of them compile. Eventually you'll probably have to use something that's platform-specific to WPF. Simply stub it out for WinRT/Silverlight.

This gives you maximum flexibility no matter what Microsoft does with Windows 9, and allows you to keep track of how much of your code can be ported directly over. If they bring WinRT XAML to the desktop, you're covered. If they improve the Metro/desktop integration (a richer task switcher, say), you're also covered. If nothing happens, then you've only incurred a small development tax.

WPF will still be around after version 4.5. May not get many flashy new features that don't appear first in Silverlight or WinRT, but WPF is close to a mature technology anyway. Visual Studio, Expression Blend, and AutoCAD should be enough to secure its future support.