Announcing Xamarin 3 • Hacker News Board

I'm the co-founder of Avocarrot (http://www.avocarrot.com/) and we were wondering for a while whether to build a dedicated plugin for Xamarin. How easily can you integrate an native Android or iOS SDK with your Xamarin apps? Would it make a big difference for you if a Xamarin plugin was available?

Re: Announcing Xamarin 3

#23

Post by gum_ina_package » Wed, May 28, 2014, 3:41 PM UTC

Now all they have to do is make it free. Seriously though, as a student I can't shell out $299 for a license and even at the $99/year student rate (with proof of relevant course work), I can't see myself paying $99/year to write/maintain apps I've built. Especially considering the $99/year Apple app store fee.

Please, Xamarin, show us young C# devs some love!

update: not really sure why the down votes. I'm big fan of Xamarin and C# in general. All I was doing was pointing out that there's no way I can afford/am willing to buy their software and that I think I speak for the majority of student developers.

Re: Announcing Xamarin 3

#24

Post by bigdubs » Wed, May 28, 2014, 3:43 PM UTC

Can I show two files open at once vertically split yet?

Follow Up: The answer is no. This is a pretty big productivity killer, and the ticket to implement this feature has been around forever. This is the last major gripe that is keeping me from using Xamarin Studio in lieu of VS2k12.

Re: Announcing Xamarin 3

#25

Post by revelation » Wed, May 28, 2014, 3:47 PM UTC

Awesome work! I wonder how responsive the UIs created are? The workflow looks a lot like Windows Forms (dropping elements in the editor and resize to match), and there it wasn't exactly easy to produce interfaces that could scale or even adapt.

So, in short: is this more Forms or WPF?

(I've looked at the subpage for Forms now, and the widgets presented there tend to lean heavily towards WPF.. so yay!)

Re: Announcing Xamarin 3

#26

Post by hamstu » Wed, May 28, 2014, 3:49 PM UTC

This is cool. I didn't know about Xamarin until now. I use Rdio a lot, and it's generally a very good, smooth-running app on my Nexus 4. Didn't realize it was built cross-platform like this!

Re: Announcing Xamarin 3

#27

Post by jedahan » Wed, May 28, 2014, 3:50 PM UTC

Looks cool, but why translate to native UI elements at run-time as opposed to compile-time? Does it help with debugging?

Forgive my ignorance as I have not used Xamarin.

Re: Announcing Xamarin 3

#28

Post by runjake » Wed, May 28, 2014, 3:51 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #18

martinald wrote: post #7

This looks amazing. Especially Xamarin forms. Surely Microsoft will acquire them soon? They'd be totally nuts not to.

What benefit would Microsoft get by buying them?

Ownership of a high-quality, viable, cross-platform mobile environment with its own UI frameworks. They could essentially stage a development platform coup on the leading mobile platforms.

Re: Announcing Xamarin 3

#29

Post by untog » Wed, May 28, 2014, 3:51 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #18

martinald wrote: post #7

This looks amazing. Especially Xamarin forms. Surely Microsoft will acquire them soon? They'd be totally nuts not to.

What benefit would Microsoft get by buying them?

A key position in iOS development. They could further the cause of C#-based apps significantly - and while it might look initially like they wouldn't want to encourage iOS development that moment has already passed. If they managed to make it much easier to develop for iOS and Windows simultaneously it could be a big win.

Re: Announcing Xamarin 3

#30

Post by masivemunkey » Wed, May 28, 2014, 3:51 PM UTC

gum_ina_package wrote: post #23

Now all they have to do is make it free. Seriously though, as a student I can't shell out $299 for a license and even at the $99/year student rate (with proof of relevant course work), I can't see myself paying $99/year to write/maintain apps I've built. Especially considering the $99/year Apple app store fee. Please, Xamarin, show us young C# devs some love! update: not really sure why the down votes. I'm big fan of…

I agree. It's a great product, but $300 per year is cost prohibitive for me.