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Interesting to see all the recent activity on HN about cross platform development. Seems like, as far as native code solutions go, C#/.NET is our best bet. As a

Interesting to see all the recent activity on HN about cross platform development. Seems like, as far as native code solutions go, C#/.NET is our best bet. As a C# junkie I'm excited about this, but also kinda sad that HTML5 cross platform development never really took off. Edit: When I said "native code", I meant that Mono allows you to wrap native libraries with greater ease than anything else I've ever encountered.

rplnt 12y ago
What about Qt? With python, C++, whatever...
JasonFruit 12y ago
I'm confused — how is C#.NET a "native code solution"? And what makes you say it's "our best bet"? I've been pretty pleased with PyGTK/PyQT cross-platform development, or, for that matter, Free Pascal LCL applications, if you want actual native code; I find them much less touchy to get working across platforms (though that could be just my relative level of experience with them).
- leafartist 12y ago
  Have you tired c#.Net recently?
  - JasonFruit 12y ago
    It's been a couple of years; I've been writing for my own satisfaction, and C#, for all its inarguable advantages, is not that much fun.
Touche 12y ago
.NET isn't native code.
- visualR 12y ago
  No but you can wrap native UI libraries, the most critical piece that needs to be native. Contrast this with an HTML CSS UI.
  - Touche 12y ago
    You can wrap native UI libraries with just about every language in existence. That's not what people usually mean when they say "native" though. I think they mean precompiled to a binary for a specific architecture.
    - visualR 12y ago
      yeah you can. The whole native vs non native is about whether the UI is native and directly integrates with the platform, not the language or whether there is a runtime.
      - Touche 12y ago
        Err, well the article is about using Mono with GTK, which is not native outside of Gnome.
        visualR 12y ago
        That's why you'd use monomac, mono touch or wpf on osx,iOS and windows, respectively. Xamarin also has a solution for android.
- cwyers 12y ago
  There are multiple native compilers for .NET. Xamarin uses one for iOS and Android apps (well, in the case of Android, you're compiling to Dalvik bytecode, but it's just as native as any other Android app).
  - sochinochi 12y ago
    Xamarin.Android apps do not compile to Dalvik bytecode. Every app ships with MonoVM which runs side-by-side with Dalvik.
adamors 12y ago
.NET is definitely not our best bet, because once its out of Windows land, the quality falls sharply. Mono is seriously lacking [1] so does Monodevelop etc. [1] http://mono-project.com/WPF http://mono-project.com/WPF
CmonDev 12y ago
It really does feel like the best bet.

rplnt 12y ago

What about Qt? With python, C++, whatever...

JasonFruit 12y ago

I'm confused — how is C#.NET a "native code solution"? And what makes you say it's "our best bet"? I've been pretty pleased with PyGTK/PyQT cross-platform development, or, for that matter, Free Pascal LCL applications, if you want actual native code; I find them much less touchy to get working across platforms (though that could be just my relative level of experience with them).

leafartist 12y ago
Have you tired c#.Net recently?
- JasonFruit 12y ago
  It's been a couple of years; I've been writing for my own satisfaction, and C#, for all its inarguable advantages, is not that much fun.

Touche 12y ago

.NET isn't native code.

visualR 12y ago
No but you can wrap native UI libraries, the most critical piece that needs to be native. Contrast this with an HTML CSS UI.
- Touche 12y ago
  You can wrap native UI libraries with just about every language in existence. That's not what people usually mean when they say "native" though. I think they mean precompiled to a binary for a specific architecture.
  - visualR 12y ago
    yeah you can. The whole native vs non native is about whether the UI is native and directly integrates with the platform, not the language or whether there is a runtime.
    - Touche 12y ago
      Err, well the article is about using Mono with GTK, which is not native outside of Gnome.
      - visualR 12y ago
        That's why you'd use monomac, mono touch or wpf on osx,iOS and windows, respectively. Xamarin also has a solution for android.
cwyers 12y ago
There are multiple native compilers for .NET. Xamarin uses one for iOS and Android apps (well, in the case of Android, you're compiling to Dalvik bytecode, but it's just as native as any other Android app).
- sochinochi 12y ago
  Xamarin.Android apps do not compile to Dalvik bytecode. Every app ships with MonoVM which runs side-by-side with Dalvik.

adamors 12y ago

.NET is definitely not our best bet, because once its out of Windows land, the quality falls sharply. Mono is seriously lacking [1] so does Monodevelop etc. [1] http://mono-project.com/WPF http://mono-project.com/WPF

CmonDev 12y ago

It really does feel like the best bet.