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Is there a machine-readable version of the WinRT API?

I'm looking for something like a WebIDL, a classic IDL, or any other machine-readable format that would list all the classes, constants, methods, etc. for the WinRT that is accessible in JavaScript.

If it included one-liner descriptions for each of the above entries, and/or links to the relevant MSDN documentation page, that would be even better of course :-)

edit:

  • Windows.winmd contains descriptions, but not the rules when applying the IL for JavaScript, any official spec on that? for type conversions and naming?
  • What about the WinJS namespace? (it's not in Windows.winmd)
    • Eric Grange
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    • About windows.winmd files: I was hoping for something a little more standardized and specific to JS, AFAIK winmd are .Net IL, and so mostly relevant for C#/C++. I'm not sure f.i. how everything will translate in the JS world, f.i. for all the base types (Integer vs Number, Date vs DateTime, etc.) – Eric Grange Jun 01 '12 at 05:34
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      Btw, there is absolutely no (zero) il in the windows.winmd file - it's a metadata-only assembly. This is important because winmd files only describe structure, they don't contain code (note that the C# compiler can produce hybrid winmd files that also contain some code, this was to support certain C# scenarios) – Larry Osterman Jun 01 '12 at 13:38

    1 Answers1

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    The windows.winmd file contains the API definitions for the winrt APIs - these are directly applicable to all three languages, and they are machine readable.

    As you mentioned in your comment, there are some slight differences based on how the language projection treats the types, but those transformations are strictly mechanical. For example, for Javascript, the projection changes are straightforward:

    1. Numeric types (int, float, double, etc) are projected as Number
    2. Strings are projected as String
    3. DateTime is projected as Date()
    4. Events are promoted as addEventListener("(event name)", eventHandler);
    5. If a method has multiple out parameters, the method returns an object whose property names match the names of the parameters to the method.

    There are undoubtedly other Javascript mappings that I've missed, but those are the most important ones. The other currently supported languages (C++, C#, low level C++) have similar mechanical transformations that are applied to the metadata.

    Larry Osterman
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    • Is there a complete spec somewhere for those mechanical changes? There are other changes like different names (like lowercase for the first character), but when browsing the spec, I remember encountering some identifiers that weren't changed (doc error or spec?) Also some namespaces in the doc have JS snippets, but others don't, even though they appear to be supported in JS (but are they all?) – Eric Grange Jun 01 '12 at 06:31
    • Any ideas for the WinJS namespace? that one is not in Windows.winmd – Eric Grange Jun 01 '12 at 06:36
    • For projected types, do they get extended in the JS side? For instance if I were to use the winmd as reference, there is a DateTime.UniversalTime, is the Date prototype extended to support that? – Eric Grange Jun 01 '12 at 06:49
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      I don't believe that there is a public spec for the mechanical transforms (yet). WinJS is pure JS code and I don't know about it, just winmd files. I don't know if the JS team has extended the Date prototype for Windows 8. – Larry Osterman Jun 01 '12 at 13:37
    • Thanks for the info! I don't know if placing a few good words might have any impact, but if a WebIDL version (http://www.w3.org/TR/WebIDL/) was available for everything WinRT/Metro that would really simplify things, and it would fall neatly with the rest of the web DOM and APIs. – Eric Grange Jun 01 '12 at 15:34
    • If webidl is interesting, it's probably not too hard to write a winmd->webidl mapping tool. Fwiw, there already is a WINMD->MIDL mapping tool in the sdk (winmdidl.exe), that's how the windows runtime ABI .idl files in the SDK were generated. FWIW, I do *not* consider IDL files to be "machine readable" because their content is not particularly regular. – Larry Osterman Jun 02 '12 at 05:34