I don't know how more clearly I can say this: I know that the command prompt and DOS are not the same. I have always know this. I understand that my original comment was unclear on this, but my first reply should have cleared it up. I know that they are not the same; that they are was not my point.
My point is, was always, that the functionality of the dos command prompt, the very API, was not abandoned, and exists even to this day. Here are a list of Windows commands: http://ss64.com/nt/ Most of these were taken from, and have the exact same API as the old dos commands.
What I was saying -- and I don't understand how this isn't clear -- is that the functionality the desktop provides, like the functionality the dos prompt provided, will not be abandoned going forward (as some others believe it will).
You seem to be the one confused here, as you stated that Metro for Desktop is an exchange of UIs, but that is not the case, the runtime is entirely different. There is a whole set of functionality not possible on WinRT. For example, one cannot write a memory profiler like this in Metro: http://memprofiler.com/. If it were merely a UI swap that would be possible and your comments would be correct.
My point is that things like memory profilers will continue to be useful on Windows and that... just as they did with the transition away from dos, Microsoft will continue to provide a way for those things to happen. It might not be binary compatible with all existing Win32 programs, but it will exist, and it will not be Metro.
> My point is, was always, that the functionality of the dos command prompt, the very API, was not abandoned, and exists even to this day. Here are a list of Windows commands: http://ss64.com/nt/ Most of these were taken from, and have the exact same API as the old dos commands.
The majority of that list are applications provided by the standard installation. Those commands are not features of the command line interpreter. A comparison to other OSs would be BusyBox, GNU coreutils, OSX command line developer tools, etc. As for the API remaining stable, not really, here is a comparison: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/batchcommands.php
> There is a whole set of functionality not possible on WinRT. For example, one cannot write a memory profiler like this in Metro: http://memprofiler.com/.
You can actually, it just wouldn't pass MS's review process and make it into the app store. That isn't a software change its a policy change.
> It might not be binary compatible with all existing Win32 programs, but it will exist, and it will not be Metro.
It would be binary compatible (assuming compilation for the same architecture). The executable format hasn't changed, they are just in-acting policies regarding what API's can be used via their app store review procedure just like apple does in its app store. Note that this is not the case between DOS programs and win32 programs, there is a complete binary compatibility break there.
My point is, was always, that the functionality of the dos command prompt, the very API, was not abandoned, and exists even to this day. Here are a list of Windows commands: http://ss64.com/nt/ Most of these were taken from, and have the exact same API as the old dos commands.
What I was saying -- and I don't understand how this isn't clear -- is that the functionality the desktop provides, like the functionality the dos prompt provided, will not be abandoned going forward (as some others believe it will).
You seem to be the one confused here, as you stated that Metro for Desktop is an exchange of UIs, but that is not the case, the runtime is entirely different. There is a whole set of functionality not possible on WinRT. For example, one cannot write a memory profiler like this in Metro: http://memprofiler.com/. If it were merely a UI swap that would be possible and your comments would be correct.
My point is that things like memory profilers will continue to be useful on Windows and that... just as they did with the transition away from dos, Microsoft will continue to provide a way for those things to happen. It might not be binary compatible with all existing Win32 programs, but it will exist, and it will not be Metro.