Author news: Charles Petzold interviewed by Sara Faatz

Greetings. Sara Faatz just published an interview with Charles, and it begins like this:

SF: As the author of the new book, Programming Windows, 6th Edition , you probably have more insight into Windows 8 and WinRT than anyone out there. What has surprised you, disturbed you, and pleased you the most about Windows 8 in general and WinRT specifically?

CP: I like the mix of continuity and innovation. For programmers who have worked with C# and XAML (or with HTML 5 and JavaScript), a lot of WinRT is familiar territory. But in particular I've been impressed by two aspects of WinRT: The first is that touch, mouse, and pen input have been consolidated into a uniform collection of events, so it's no longer necessary to add touch to an existing mouse application, or add mouse support to a program optimized for touch. You're working with all three forms of input at the same time, but you can also distinguish between them if you need to.

(Here’s a small sample from Programming Windows, Sixth Edition.)