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10 Things You Should Know About Xamarin

Sebastián Pérez

Xamarin is used to create amazing cross-platform mobile applications! Did you know that cross-platform means you can actually share classes across .NET platforms?

Our colleague Seba takes center-stage to explain 10 different things you should know about Xamarin. He shares some core definitions for Xamarin, as well as how to use it in practice: 

Here is a summary of the ten points Seba described:

  1. You can create amazing applications using .NET as a platform. You can write C# code, as well as F# code. Basically, you can write everything you want using .NET as a platform.
  2. Creating a library with Xamarin using .Net Standard, means you can share this library with other platforms, such as .NET core. Therefore, you can reuse your libraries.
  3. The combination of the .NET environment and Visual Studio means you can write your application on both Windows and Mac machines.
  4. Xamarin is cross-platform! You can share modals, classes and logic functionality across all the platforms, such as Android, iOS and Windows. In practice, you can share 75% of your code!
  5. Xamarin will compile your application as native: there is no additional layer between Xamarin and your application. Your application will have native controls and native performance! Also, this allows you to use all the functionalities your devices offer.
  6. In the traditional approach, you will have different projects with different views for each platform. However, Xamarin.Forms actually does allow you to share views across platforms as well. In Xamarin.Forms, you can write XAML views. It will still include native controls in the different platforms. Tip: take a look at Xamarin.Forms if you want to work with Xamarin for the first time.
  7. Xamarin Essentials allows you to add device functionality, such as GPS, to your Xamarin.Forms projects. Xamarin Essentials is included with the Visual Studio application you need to install to start working with Xamarin.
  8. Xamarin is open-source: you can find all the code in GitHub! There are more than 60.000 contributors: a real big and active community which we cherish at Xablu a lot!
  9. There is a great community working with Xamarin. There are a lot of videos, blogs and youtube channels to find the information to learn about using Xamarin.
  10. Xamarin is free! It has no licenses for commercial use! If you want to publish your apps, you do have to pay the platform subscription, such as for Apple or Android, but you never have to pay a fee for using Xamarin.

What is your favourite point on this list?