Sep 16 2012 No Comment by buli

Windows 8 Modern UI apps beta exams (71-484, 71-485)

Posted in Bez kategorii

Last week I took two Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 beta exams on creating Windows 8 style apps in XAML and C#, namely:

It was quite a challenge since all the technology is still brand new, there are no Microsoft Press (or any other) books on programming Metro apps in C# yet available, and very few blog posts on the subject. All I could use to prepare for the exams was therefore:

  • BUILD 2011 Conference videos: although while the conference was held, Wnidows 8 was just in Developer Preview state, it was the best source of information when it comes to Metro apps architectrure, UI philosophy, and new .NET 4.5 multithreading features. I usually consider tutorial videos a waste of time, but those are absolutely worth your time.
  • Microsoft Press’ book Programming Windows 8 Apps with HTML, CSS and JavaScript (currently only Second Preview with some 13 chapters is available). I took the C# path, not JS, but this book gives great overview on Windows Store apps’ architecture, clarifies what WinRT is and how it is possible to write applications in both C#/XAML and JS/HTML. Also, whole metro apps philosophy is well explained in my opinion.
  • MSDN articles give well explained guidelines, overviews of some areas, especially UI design principles, but there are also articles whick are laconic and unclear. I hope it will improve in the future.
  • Visual Studio 2012 and plenty of coffee. This one gave me the most 😉

Exams will be released at the end of October 2012 and only then I will know my results. The 70-484 was harder than I expected, while 70-485 seemed quite easy. Knowledge of .NET 4 was useful, but definitely not enough to pass – practically all the questions were about the new .NET 4.5 features. I did my best, but it’s hard to say whether some questions were easy or just tricky. Wish me some good luck 😉

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