The Parallel Patterns Library (PPL) provides a task-based asynchrony model that can make working with asynchronous APIs much easier for C++ programmers. Asynchronous APIs are pervasive in the "Windows 8" Windows Runtime (WinRT). Potentially long-running operations—like file and network I/O—are typically exposed through some asynchronous pattern.



Here, we meet software engineer and ConCRT/PPL team member Genevieve Fernandes and ConCRT/PPL team member Rahul Patil (lead program manager—you've met him before). The goal here is to explain how this stuff works and why it's designed the way it is. This conversation includes whiteboarding and a code demo. You'll see how you can use C++/CX plus PPL Tasks to produce asynchronous operations that JavaScript or C#/VB can consume in very natural ways (from their perspectives) on "Windows 8." Watch and learn!

Get the latest PPL to experiment with writing asynchronous code for "Windows 8" Metro style applications. Don't forget to provide feedback to the PPL team! They want to hear from you, so please write some code and see if you find this comfortable/useful/etc.



See the BUILD sessions on WinRT to get more information about asynchrony in "Windows 8."