Microsoft merge Windows Phone and Windows 8 developer resources

One day the Windows Phone and Windows 8 platform will merge, and to help prepare developers Microsoft has already started merging the developer resources for both platforms.

The new site will house education materials, guidance, code samples, and reference documentation for Windows Store and Windows Phone, hopefully inspiring developers to develop more universal apps, which will boost both app stores.

The updated site features:

Unified documentation: You will now see a comprehensive, combined documentation set to help you learn how to build apps for Windows devices (phone, tablet and PC), with API and feature distinctions clearly called out. Documentation is now available in 11 languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

Single location for code samples: The code samples for Windows Phone and Windows Store apps, as well as for universal Windows apps, continue to be published in the MSDN code gallery. The difference is that they are now easily accessible directly from one Dev Center page.

Single location for developer forums: The Windows Store apps and Windows Phone developer forums have been merged into one streamlined set of forums. The dashboard forums have been combined so that they appear together in one location, while the technical forums remain specialized for each form factor.

Microsoft is also adding 21 new pay-out markets, bringing the count to 149. New locations where developers can receive payment include:

Albania, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Comoros, Dominica, Fiji Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Monaco, Mongolia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tajikistan, Tonga, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

See the new site at dev.windows.com.

Via The Next Web