Windows developers can use the Surface Dial as a debugging tool

The Surface Dial came out of nowhere during Microsoft’s event last month. We were all expecting a new mouse, keyboard and device, but most were caught off guard by the introduction of a new kind of peripheral. The Dial almost seems like it came right out of a science fiction novel, letting us interact with our Surface devices in countless ways with just a few simple gestures.

In an effort to add to the peripheral’s laundry list of uses, a Windows Platform Developer has written up a program that takes advantage of the Surface Dial API to turn it into a debugging tool. The interface is actually pretty simple, and you can see it in action in the video below. Turn the Dial clockwise to Step-Over, turn the dial counter-clockwise to Step-Into.

This was written up by Nico, of the Nico’s Digital Footprint blog. Nico’s blog post shows the step-by-step process to how he managed to pull this off, and could make for a fun project for aspiring developers who want to play around with the Dial. If you decide that you want to do it, you’re going to need a Surface Dial (obviously), Visual Studio 2015, and the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (or any update more recent than that.)