With last week's developer news streams intertwined with announcements from the likes of Intel, SAP, Sybase, and some of the more vocal voices within the open source community, even comparatively large software companies (possibly headquartered in Redmond, Washington state) might have found it hard to gain a share of voice.
So it was at last week's BUILD conference that Microsoft introduced a new Windows Runtime for building XAML and HTML5 apps. While this has thrown up much talk of "key inflection points" and "a new age of innovation", this new model does appear to hold a wealth of opportunity for software developers in the form of emerging technologies, changing design paradigms, and unexplored markets. Time for the partner vendors to align their toolsets.
Telerik is set apart by its almost endearingly grandiose claims of being "the industry's premier provider of intuitive, top-quality tools and components" for developers. Whether programmers choose to continue using established platforms like WinForms, WPF, and Silverlight, or Microsoft's new Metro style apps with XAML and HTML5, Telerik says its toolbox provides complete coverage.
Marketing-speak aside, Telerik is already actively doing two things to embrace the new Metro style app model introduced by Microsoft. The company's XAML tools (which include high-performance grids, data visualizations, and rich text editors) are being updated to work with Windows Runtime and Metro style app development. Telerik is also reportedly building a new jQuery-based framework for professional HTML5 and JavaScript development (currently in beta), suited for Windows 8 HTML5 apps and immersive experiences.
Telerik states that its engineers will now work closely with their long-term Microsoft counterparts to ensure Telerik solutions are perfectly aligned with Metro style development as it evolves past the current developer preview.
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