5 ms·

I've talked to lots of people ranging from investors to developers, for whom "C#" is a dirty word because of its relationship with Microsoft (which, at its most

by depoll 12y ago

I've talked to lots of people ranging from investors to developers, for whom "C#" is a dirty word because of its relationship with Microsoft (which, at its most benign, is viewed as stodgy, old, and slow by these folks). In my humble opinion, it's a shame, because their developer products are fantastic, and Xamarin has done a great job of bringing those tools to new and highly relevant platforms.

gress 12y ago
It's funny - I have the opposite view having worked in C# years ago and appreciated that it was a lot more flexible and pragmatic than Java (as a language - libraries and platform aside). To me the problem is that it's not native to either Android or iOS, and so good as it is, there is always some impedance mismatch. Are there any great apps developed using Xamarin that feel fully native?
- keithwarren 12y ago
  I think 'feel fully native' is a misnomer. They are fully native. When you build for iOS you use xib or storyboard for layout (or native code adding views/subviews directly) and the same for Android, you use layout files. There are lots of great apps out there, Rdio was one of the more prominent early ones and it is also interesting to note that Unity3D games run on the same underlying framework (mono) http://unity3d.com/showcase/gallery http://unity3d.com/showcase/gallery
  - gress 12y ago
    I note that you didn't provide an example.
    - brajkovic 12y ago
      He did--he called out Rdio (http://rdio.com http://rdio.com) as an example.
      - gress 12y ago
        Presumably that is the only one. Xamarin features it, but everything else they feature is an in-house corporate line of business app. If there are 'lots of great apps' out there, you'd think they'd tell us. Not encouraging.
        a-saleh 12y ago
        Well, right now I have just built two "in-house corporate line of business apps" and so far, the pay was reasonable and time-savings due to underlying framework huge :)
        gress 12y ago
        That's fine - the point is that in those cases the end-user is not the customer, so cost-savings trump user-experience.
    - mikeblue 12y ago
      There are some case studies here: http://xamarin.com/customers http://xamarin.com/customers
- nbevans 12y ago
  Screw C#. Xamarin's party trick is F#. It's basically Swift, on steroids, which lets you write a single codebase to target Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
  - gress 12y ago
    Has anyone actually done this?
    - bratsche 12y ago
      Yes. I don't know of any big apps like Rdio that you would recognize yet, because Xamarin hasn't supported F# that long, but there are cross-platform apps being written in F# now.
      - gress 12y ago
        Actual consumer apps, or in-house line of business apps for corporations?
        profquail 12y ago
        I believe Tachyus (http://tachyus.com http://tachyus.com) is using Xamarin + F# for their product.
        gress 12y ago
        So, no. Not a consumer app.
  - CmonDev 12y ago
    "...F#. It's basically Swift..." - that slow after compilation???
tluyben2 12y ago
What I hear in the market is that people are scared of a (already rumoured earlier this year) takeover by MS. Because it's not totally open source, that is a very real danger and companies need to take that into account. I love Xamarin and how it works but experiences from the past after acquisitions does make us cautious in going all in on it.

by depoll 12y ago

gress 12y ago

It's funny - I have the opposite view having worked in C# years ago and appreciated that it was a lot more flexible and pragmatic than Java (as a language - libraries and platform aside). To me the problem is that it's not native to either Android or iOS, and so good as it is, there is always some impedance mismatch. Are there any great apps developed using Xamarin that feel fully native?

keithwarren 12y ago
I think 'feel fully native' is a misnomer. They are fully native. When you build for iOS you use xib or storyboard for layout (or native code adding views/subviews directly) and the same for Android, you use layout files. There are lots of great apps out there, Rdio was one of the more prominent early ones and it is also interesting to note that Unity3D games run on the same underlying framework (mono) http://unity3d.com/showcase/gallery http://unity3d.com/showcase/gallery
- gress 12y ago
  I note that you didn't provide an example.
  - brajkovic 12y ago
    He did--he called out Rdio (http://rdio.com http://rdio.com) as an example.
    - gress 12y ago
      Presumably that is the only one. Xamarin features it, but everything else they feature is an in-house corporate line of business app. If there are 'lots of great apps' out there, you'd think they'd tell us. Not encouraging.
      - a-saleh 12y ago
        Well, right now I have just built two "in-house corporate line of business apps" and so far, the pay was reasonable and time-savings due to underlying framework huge :)
        gress 12y ago
        That's fine - the point is that in those cases the end-user is not the customer, so cost-savings trump user-experience.
  - mikeblue 12y ago
    There are some case studies here: http://xamarin.com/customers http://xamarin.com/customers
nbevans 12y ago
Screw C#. Xamarin's party trick is F#. It's basically Swift, on steroids, which lets you write a single codebase to target Android, iOS and Windows Phone.
- gress 12y ago
  Has anyone actually done this?
  - bratsche 12y ago
    Yes. I don't know of any big apps like Rdio that you would recognize yet, because Xamarin hasn't supported F# that long, but there are cross-platform apps being written in F# now.
    - gress 12y ago
      Actual consumer apps, or in-house line of business apps for corporations?
      - profquail 12y ago
        I believe Tachyus (http://tachyus.com http://tachyus.com) is using Xamarin + F# for their product.
        gress 12y ago
        So, no. Not a consumer app.
- CmonDev 12y ago
  "...F#. It's basically Swift..." - that slow after compilation???

tluyben2 12y ago

What I hear in the market is that people are scared of a (already rumoured earlier this year) takeover by MS. Because it's not totally open source, that is a very real danger and companies need to take that into account. I love Xamarin and how it works but experiences from the past after acquisitions does make us cautious in going all in on it.