The Rise of Xamarin: Mobile Development in C#

MonoTouch and Mono for Android empower C# applications targeting iOS and Android respectively.

1. The Rise of Xamarin: Mobile Development in C# Friday, August 24, 12
2. David Ortinau @davidortinau http://davidortinau.com 16 yrs web, interactive, mobile. Flash, iPhone, Android, WP7 BA English, Maryville University Friday, August 24, 12
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4. I Don’t Hate Objective-C Friday, August 24, 12
5. I Don’t Hate JavaScript Or HTML5 Or HTML6 Or HTML7 Or HTML8 Or HTML9 Friday, August 24, 12
6. Let’s Talk About • Cross Platform Holy Grail • What is Mono? • Who is Xamarin? • Why C#? • The World According to Xamarin Friday, August 24, 12
7. Write Once Run Anywhere Friday, August 24, 12
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9. Write Once Run Anywhere • Do you hate users?* • Most cross-platform solutions benefit developers and customers, but rarely value users and user experience. * kidding, of course you don’t. Users are cuddly. Friday, August 24, 12
10. Either/Or • Concessions are made to afford faster development and less code to target multiple platforms. • Typically you must learn a new, custom way of coding for the middle framework in order to use it and target multiple platforms. *learning new stuff is not bad. Embrace it. Then decide the best path. Friday, August 24, 12
11. iOS Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide “An aspiring iOS developer faces three basic hurdles: You must learn the Objective-C language...You must master the big ideas... You must master the frameworks.” Friday, August 24, 12
12. Both/And • How can we achieve broad reach across platforms while: • reusing as much code as possible • not sacrificing user experience • not sacrificing performance • not sacrificing features Friday, August 24, 12
13. What is Mono? Friday, August 24, 12
14. Mono Overview • Run .Net code across multiple platforms • Project began in 2001 • Novell “held” project for years • Mono “died” when Novell was acquired April 2011 • Xamarin founded May 2011 Friday, August 24, 12
15. Key Parts • open source implementation of Microsoft's .Net Framework based on the Ecma standards for C# and the Common Language Runtime • Mono's C# compiler is feature complete for C# 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 (Ecma) • The runtime implements the Ecma Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). The runtime provides a Just-in-Time (JIT) compiler, an Ahead- of-Time compiler (AOT), a library loader, the garbage collector, a threading system and interoperability functionality. Friday, August 24, 12
16. Supported Platforms • Linux • Android • Mac OS X • iOS • BSD • Sun Solaris • Unix • Microsoft Windows • Nintendo Wii • Sony PlayStation 3 • XBox Friday, August 24, 12
17. Who is Xamarin? Friday, August 24, 12
18. Xamarin Rising • Miguel de Icaza & Nat Friedman • 20+ Members from the Mono team • Self funded • Selling • MonoTouch for iOS • Mono for Android • Support Contracts • Other projects include MonoGame Friday, August 24, 12
19. XobotOS • Android Ported to C# • Sharpen - code conversion tool • http://blog.xamarin.com/2012/05/01/android- in-c-sharp/ • https://github.com/xamarin/XobotOS • https://github.com/xamarin/XobotOS/tree/ master/sharpen Friday, August 24, 12
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21. Miguel “A project that we started because we thought it would be fun to do has turned out to yield some serious benefits for our products. It’s important for a startup to stay focused, but sometimes you have to try something crazy to make progress. And who knows, maybe Google will thank us some day.” Friday, August 24, 12
22. Why C#? Friday, August 24, 12
23. Mature Language Features • Generics • LINQ • Events • Lambda Expressions • Reflection • Garbage Collection • Thread Pooling • Asynchronous Programming Features Friday, August 24, 12
24. Broad Reach • Desktop • Windows • OS X • Linux • Mobile • iPhone • Android • Windows Phone • Gaming • Unity3D • Wii • PS3 • XBox • Embedded • Web and Server Friday, August 24, 12
25. N A T I V E Friday, August 24, 12
26. Tools • Visual Studio • ReSharper • Blend Studio • MonoDevelop Friday, August 24, 12
27. The World According to Xamarin Friday, August 24, 12
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29. UI# C## Run)me# Pla/orm# Silverlight# Business#Logic# .NET# WP7# iOS# Mono# Android# MonoTouch# Mono#for# Android# Friday, August 24, 12
30. Requirements • MonoTouch • Mac OS X • MonoDevelop • Mono for Android • Mac OS X or Windows • MonoDevelop or Visual Studio 2010 • Windows Phone • Windows • Visual Studio 2010 Friday, August 24, 12
31. Runtime • Mono provides a superset of the Silverlight .Net profile • Still less than full .Net removing pieces either too bulky or unnecessary on mobile Friday, August 24, 12
32. Compiling • Apple doesn’t allow runtime compilation so MonoTouch provides Ahead-of-Time compilation • Publish directly to TestFlight • Android allows it, so Mono for Android employs Just-in-Time compilation Friday, August 24, 12
33. Bindings • Follow the conventions of the native platform • UIViewController • UITableViewController • Create custom Bindings for 3rd party libraries Friday, August 24, 12
34. Memory Management • Obj-C is retain count* • MonoTouch abstracts this adding Garbage Collection • Most classes expose a Dispose() method *newer iOS provides Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) that makes this less of a burden Friday, August 24, 12
35. Delegates • Obj-C makes heavy use of delegation • C# provides delegation methods • C# replaces most with events Friday, August 24, 12
36. Code Sharing • View code is platform specific • Business logic can be shared across all platforms using • Shared Libraries • Linked Files • Other methods • Partial Classes • Conditional Compilation • Default platform symbols provided Friday, August 24, 12
37. Persistence • Isolated Storage • Read/Write from file using XMLSerializer • Database • Sql Server Compact Edition - WP7 • sqlite - iOS and Android • For WP7 • C#-SQLite - APIs http://code.google.com/p/csharp-sqlite/ • sqlite-net - ORM https://github.com/praeclarum/sqlite-net Friday, August 24, 12
38. Testing • NUnitLite http://www.nunitlite.com/ • Friday, August 24, 12
39. Popular Libraries • TinyMessenger http://hg.grumpydev.com/tinyioc/wiki/TinyMessenger • TinyIoC http://hg.grumpydev.com/tinyioc/wiki/Home • RestSharp http://restsharp.org/ • MonoCross http://code.google.com/p/monocross/ • MvvmCross https://github.com/slodge/MvvmCross • MvvmLight http://www.galasoft.ch/mvvm/ • C#-SQLite http://code.google.com/p/csharp-sqlite/ • sqlite-net https://github.com/praeclarum/sqlite-net Friday, August 24, 12
40. More Links • MWC 2012 App https://github.com/xamarin/mobile-samples/tree/master/MWC • NYC Code Camp 6 App https://github.com/gshackles/NycCodeCamp6 • Mobile Development in C# http://amzn.com/1449320236 Friday, August 24, 12
41. Thanks! @davidortinau http://davidortinau.com dave@davidortinau.com Friday, August 24, 12