[quote=160426:@Michel Bujardet]
That said, my PC does not have touch yet ;)[/quote]
There are places where it works well and others where its doesn’t
Tablets, table tops & other devices where you tend to have the screen right close so touching it isn’t an exercise in “move hands from keyboard or mouse, touch screen, move back to keyboard or mouse” and repeating that all day.
The resulting syndrome affectionately known as gorilla arms
I don’t feel that really represents what is “native.” Microsoft would like Metro to replace win32 eventually. So the fact that they do not add additional stuff to win32 is not surprising. Also Metro operates mostly as an embedded javascript interpreter. Win32 would not be able to directly create controls without an abstraction layer that manages the javascript layer. That is however doable as I do that with Xojo today and a HTMLViewer.
What I consider “native” is whatever comes out of the box on an operating system. Flash is not native because it needs to be installed. Xojo runs without .NET needing to be present so it “only uses native.” If Xojo were to create Metro apps with controls that have a 1:1 relationship with what we have today and it required no additional frameworks or runtimes then I’d consider it native. How the operating system renders that code isn’t really relevant to me.
Native = your customers not having to take extra steps to use your software.
That is just my World view.
Not as bad as the massive neck issues younger generations are going to have years from now from craning over and looking down at their little screens. I read that it puts an additional 60 lbs of strain on the neck when the user does that. Me…I merely have to worry about what all those years in front of CRTs did to my brain cells!
Add VB. NET and C++ to the cocktail. My apps are in VB . NET, and indeed they are a mix of XML and VB.
That said, one should not think new API is only icons and HTML-Like navigation. In VB, all traditional controls are available, with the very same look as what Xojo provides. So one could design an app as old fashion as desktop apps, except for the use of windows.
All the trick is to use them sparingly where they are needed, and use in priority icons and revamped buttons for navigation, using a browser page based metaphor. Which is possible with a Xojo app, if one knows the design rules for Metro apps.
I am from the keyboard and mouse generation. When I see people going touch on 21" screens, I feel cramps in the arm. It is not natural at all.
But on 10" or even 15" tablets (soon on your lap), touch is quite natural.
Exactly.
Sun tan !
Heck you might glow when they bury you.
I know I will as I used to have a set up that had 3 x 24" CRT’s on a IIfx
Thank god for steel desks 
Exactly why I said
We’ve got one of my wife’s coworkers staying with us and she has a MS Surface & it weird to use in “laptop mode”.
We all go looking for the track pad etc & using it this way gets tedious moving hands between the keyboard & screen to touch something.
But when used as a tablet it feels much more natural since you use your hands for everything on it anyways.
I’ve watched people in various computer stores trying to test out touch screen desktops (like the all in ones)
Even kids eventually use the mouse 
[quote=160703:@Norman Palardy]I’ve watched people in various computer stores trying to test out touch screen desktops (like the all in ones)
Even kids eventually use the mouse :P[/quote]
I find myself reaching for the mouse when I use the iPad with the physical keyboard 
I have a plethora of tablets from different manufacturers - including the MS Surface family. I have keyboards and mice for all of them. There are still too many interactions that are simply not touch-friendly.
I may be shortsighted and a bit “old skool”, but a tablet is a tablet and a desktop is a desktop. Maybe if I’d grown up on tablets I’d feel differently, but for now, I just can’t get comfortable doing what I would call real work on a tablet.
[quote=160729:@Tim Jones]I have a plethora of tablets from different manufacturers - including the MS Surface family. I have keyboards and mice for all of them. There are still too many interactions that are simply not touch-friendly.
I may be shortsighted and a bit “old skool”, but a tablet is a tablet and a desktop is a desktop. Maybe if I’d grown up on tablets I’d feel differently, but for now, I just can’t get comfortable doing what I would call real work on a tablet.[/quote]
Android and Windows 8 are rather friendly when it comes to mice and trackpad. They nicely work with a cursor, and even take left and right click. An Android tablet with mouse and physical keyboard feels like a notebook.
iDevices are specifically made not to recognize anything that looks like a mouse of a trackpad. Probably some Steve Job whim, akin to refusing two button mice for the longest time. Now with a whole new generation of “transformers” and Surface tablets that come with keyboard and trackpad, that will feel increasingly awkward.
My main beef with touch only is the huge virtual keyboard, especially on tablets, that eats up half the screen real estate. I would love being able to have a virtual keyboard no bigger than on a phone.
In effect, in touch mode, a tablet has an effective screen size of 3 x 7 1/2 ". That reminds me of the Tandy 100 before 1990…
Difficult to cram a productivity app in such a tiny space.
But since I have seen my son typing an entire letter on a phone, I know the new generation does not mind…
[quote=160729:@Tim Jones]I have a plethora of tablets from different manufacturers - including the MS Surface family. I have keyboards and mice for all of them. There are still too many interactions that are simply not touch-friendly.
I may be shortsighted and a bit “old skool”, but a tablet is a tablet and a desktop is a desktop. Maybe if I’d grown up on tablets I’d feel differently, but for now, I just can’t get comfortable doing what I would call real work on a tablet.[/quote]
My six year old daughter agrees with you.
[quote=160729:@Tim Jones]I have a plethora of tablets from different manufacturers - including the MS Surface family. I have keyboards and mice for all of them. There are still too many interactions that are simply not touch-friendly.
I may be shortsighted and a bit “old skool”, but a tablet is a tablet and a desktop is a desktop. Maybe if I’d grown up on tablets I’d feel differently, but for now, I just can’t get comfortable doing what I would call real work on a tablet.[/quote]
Apps definitely need to be rethought to be touch friendly
You cant just take a desktop app and plop it on a tablet & say “We’re done !”
I’ve used apple iApps on both the desktop & my iPad & they’re not bad - they’ve spent time thinking about how to make it so it “feels right” on a tablet - but its not perfect. There are still things that are not quite there but they’re pretty functional
I cant see myself writing a novel on my iPad mini but my wifes larger iPad 2 I can certainly work on
Not sure I could do it full time
[quote=160747:@Norman Palardy]I cant see myself writing a novel on my iPad mini but my wifes larger iPad 2 I can certainly work on
Not sure I could do it full time[/quote]
The preposterous thing is that virtual keyboard. In portrait mode, you would type your novel in a 5 1/" x 3 1/2 " screen. Any serious typing still requires a physical keyboard.
Always remember to add “IMHO” as I tend to disagree
I can type quite nicely on the keyboard on the iPad - not quite touch typing but it works quite well.
As does speech to text
Not to be THAT guy but IS there a future for Windows desktop apps? 
[quote=160771:@Norman Palardy]Always remember to add “IMHO” as I tend to disagree
I can type quite nicely on the keyboard on the iPad - not quite touch typing but it works quite well.
As does speech to text[/quote]
The keyboard itself is OK. But ending up with such a small screen is ridiculous. It may be OK for twitter, but certainly not for larger text. The preposterous is ending up with a gameboy-like screen.
I would be extremely surprised if corporate workstations turned into tablets. That is the future of Windows desktop apps, mostly. But PC tablets and transformers may play an important role in maintaining Windows desktop alive for personal use.