Windows Phone 7.5 to Windows 8 app porting possible with 90% code reuse

A developer has ported a Windows Phone game that he wrote to Windows 8. In the process, he claims to have reused some 90% of the original code. It has leaked that later editions of Windows Phone, beginning with the ‘Apollo’ update, will officially support the activity.

It is surprising that porting is currently feasible, given that Microsoft will not support it for months. It should be noted the current version of Windows Phone, and apps designed for it, are not exceptionally simple to port to Windows 8, even if they do share extensive code; the process is clunky, and will likely remain so until Windows and Windows Phone 8 are both firmly in place.

As NeoWin notes, the two versions of the game “share scoreboard and leaderboard info,” allowing for the comparing of scores from both “Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7 users.” If this is possible now, we expect that such integration will be all the more prevalent when this sort of activity is expressly allowed. Check the clip, and we’ll circle back right afterwards:

Just so that things are plain, here’s what Windows Phone 8 will pack in regards to its getting along with Windows 8:

One detail that excites us quite a bit is that Microsoft will be taking application interoperability much more seriously, allowing data and features to be shared between applications. Attention is also being given to making it easy to port code from other platforms like iOS and Android. Support for native code will make that possible.

Windows 8 integration is obviously also a huge priority for Microsoft, and it will focus on allowing developers to re-use code from Windows 8 applications when porting them to the mobile OS. There will also be a new syncing client based on ActiveSync, rather than using the Zune software to do so.

So that’s the future. Some people are working to get the ball rolling early, and it can’t hurt to have  more developers eyes pinned on the still young mobile line.

Ps. The app up there in the video is called AlphaDrops – if you are on a Windows Phone, you can find it here.