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I have noticed that Xamarin appears to be quite a favoured topic for Articles, Blogs and Tips at the moment.
I haven't used it, I have had a look at the website, sounds / looks good, but the question is: Is it really? Does it justify its price?
Just curious.........
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DaveAuld wrote: Does it justify its price?
Not to me, it doesn't.
And I still want to use C# on OpenVMS.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
modified 27-Jun-14 18:55pm.
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It depends on how lazy you are. I'm working on a project and I don't want to be bothered to learn Java/Eclipse. Xamarin has been easy and seems to work great.
Hogan
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snorkie wrote: I don't want to be bothered to learn Java/Eclipse
I gave up after about ten minutes.
Xamarin might be something I could use, but as I only use free development tools (VS Express, SQL Server Express, etc.) I may never know.
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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There is a free version but it is very limited in usefulness
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This has been something on my mind as well. I have been looking into it as well it seems great from what I have read and seen.
However, it can be a bit pricey which is why I am currently weighing my options before I make the plunge.
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We looked at it for our projects....
We are not using it for our projects.
'Nuff said.
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The MonoDevelop IDE changed to "Xamarin Studio" after an update. It updated onto the C:, whilst the app was installed under D:. If I doubleclick on the icon on the desktop, the version on the D drive is started, and starts the download again.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Xamarin is powerful technology. I'm evaluating it at work. It's not cheap, but the benefits (in my case) far outweigh the cost. Note that Xamarin doesn't allow you to do away with having to know how Android or iOS works. You still need to be fluent in the native APIs to use Xamarin. What Xamarin gives you is the power of C#, the ability to share non-UI specfic code (Xamarin Forms lets you share some UI code) and of course a world class IDE (VS).
Xamarin and MS have a deep partnership. I wouldn't be surprised if it's acquired by MS and becomes part of Visual Studio.
/ravi
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Ravi Bhavnani wrote: if it's acquired by MS and
abandons it in two years.
FTFY
You'll never get very far if all you do is follow instructions.
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Probably right...
Still, could be worse: acquired by Corel and filled chock-full of bugs?
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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DaveAuld wrote: sounds / looks good, but the question is: Is it really? Does it justify its price?
It does have a nice look and feel to it. If I were doing open source C# or .Net development this would definitely be the tool I would want to grab since I only run Linux and OS X on my home machines now.
If I were going to do it for my IOS app development only then no the price is not justified.
I get XCode for free and only have to pay $100 for the right to publish my apps in the app store. Also learning ObjectiveC was not an issue (just another language) for me.
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I did a fairly extensive evaluation of cross platform frameworks last fall. Xamarin looked great at first. The more I looked into it, the less impressed I became. The first shock was the price (they charge $1000 a year per developer per platform.) What you get for that price falls short. I wasn't impressed with the support nor the maturity of Xamarin itself--there's too much "lead you up to the edge of the cliff and then leave."
A lot has changed in the last nine months, so your mileage may vary.
(FYI, I chose to go with Qt. I found it more mature and it gave us the performance we needed. Unfortunately, that project has since been cancelled, so it was all for naught.)
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DaveAuld wrote: Does it justify its price?
And what about performance?
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Don't ask me!
Performance is part of the justification of the price!
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Performance as in "The application is lightning fast" or as in "The developper is lightning fast" ?
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That depends on what matters to you.......choose your own metrics!
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Static linking to .NET makes for big footprints. No-one likes bloat.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Go for Qt. The offer the same capabilities, only that it's in ol' fashioned C++ and you can use it for free as long as you publish the product under the GPL.
The console is a black place
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I looked into it and read a lot about it last fall...
You still need to know how the platforms works, you still need to know how to make the different userinterfaces for android and IOS, and you need a mac in order to develop and debug IOS apps.
I read about a lot of problems with debugging IOS apps, from the Xamarin IDE.
I went with ADK (Eclipse) and Xcode and have never looked back. Objective-C kan be a bitch to learn, but once you get the hang of it, it's an okay language. Java is quite easy when you are used to C#.
- Anders
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Writhing time[^]
Well done France (did not see that coming) and Honduras.
TTFN - Kent
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Allez les bleus, Allez les bleus !!!!
For you non francophile, to have a "bleu" is to have a bruising)
I'd rather be phishing!
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For you non francophile, to be a "bleu" is to be a novice
entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
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