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A comment on Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test their apps on Windows.

Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by pgoggijr on Thursday May 11, 2017 @03:13PM (#14318702)
Are there any examples of solid, stable, cross-platform apps developed with Xamarin? I tried looking at their website, but it doesn't seem possible to tell the difference between apps being tested using Xamarin Test Cloud, and apps developed using the Xamarin Platform.
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by dreeri on Thursday May 11, 2017 @05:43PM (#14319794)
We have done several high profile cross-platform applications with Xamarin. As a user you can't really see the difference while using it. The most noticeable difference is that the app startup time is couple of seconds slower and the application bundle steals at least 10MB of app size. As a programmer the Developer Experience™ is a little rough around the edges with casual bugs. But hey you get to write your core business logic only once and in C#.

Here are some of the more visually appealing apps we've made with Xamarin:

[1] http://valopilkkutaksi.fi/briefly-in-english/

[2] http://www.upmmetsani.fi/

[3] http://fair.online/

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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by hart_russell on Thursday May 11, 2017 @03:34PM (#14318814)
I've worked on a number of Xamarin apps. You can definitely make stable cross platform apps, it's just very tedious; sometimes it requires more effort than developing 2 separate native apps.
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by stevenwoo on Thursday May 11, 2017 @03:39PM (#14318839)
re:more effort Did you have the freedom to recommend going native or was Xamarin a requirement or was it too late to switch?
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by UK-AL on Thursday May 11, 2017 @03:43PM (#14318873)
I would imagine xamarin is faster when you have a complicated domain.
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by jacobush on Thursday May 11, 2017 @05:27PM (#14319686)
I imagine it goes faster to make the domain complicated with Xamarin. Make of that what you will...
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by UK-AL on Thursday May 11, 2017 @06:40PM (#14320105)
You can't make a domain more complicated by technology choices.

You can make it more technically complicated.

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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by joshjje on Thursday May 11, 2017 @09:16PM (#14320783)
Not sure I follow. Are you being pedantic about the definition of domain? (real question)
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by UK-AL on Friday May 12, 2017 @04:29AM (#14322285)
A domain is the business area you are trying to fix problems in. This is the standard definition.

The technology you used can not make that harder or easier.

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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by mmargerum on Friday May 12, 2017 @09:58AM (#14323970)
My experience as well. I gave up on it and just used Native tools.
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by pianoben on Thursday May 11, 2017 @04:45PM (#14319355)
rdio had award-winning iOS, Android, and Windows Phone apps based on Xamarin, with around 70% of the code shared across all platforms. The remainder was all platform-specific code, but still in C#.

Sadly, they went bankrupt, though not because of their app quality!

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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by mmargerum on Friday May 12, 2017 @09:56AM (#14323956)
Their mobile app was terrible. God awful UI, Constant stuttering, App crashes. So bad it made me switch to Google Play.
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by maxxxxx on Thursday May 11, 2017 @04:28PM (#14319217)
We have a team that wanted to use Xamarin but it seems after working on it for half a year they seem to prefer native.
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by CodeCube on Thursday May 11, 2017 @08:42PM (#14320651)
https://www.xamarin.com/customers

Each example across multiple industries says whether they're using test cloud, or the app was developed with the platform :)

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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by jesseryoung on Thursday May 11, 2017 @03:41PM (#14318853)
Probably most notably the Slack App: https://www.xamarin.com/customers/tech
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Re:Microsoft now lets iOS developers deploy, run and test th... by Nelkins on Thursday May 11, 2017 @03:47PM (#14318907)
There's nothing in that description that indicates the Slack app is written using Xamarin. From that link:

"Slack's friendly, easy to use messaging platform is the future of work. Given its preeminence in the enterprise and among mobile workforces, mobile is critical to Slack’s success. Over three million daily users rely on Slack to communicate with their teams, and Xamarin Test Cloud helps Slack make sure customers are productive in all scenarios. Its mobile quality engineers view test reports to see how features look and behave on devices — and can quickly solve customer issues."

Sounds like they just use Xamarin Test Cloud.

Here's a list of decent looking Xamarin apps:

- BitWarden (it's made the rounds recently on HN)[1]

- Microsoft Pix [2]

- A bunch of games that look pretty slick (I've downloaded a few and flipped through some of the screens) [3]

[1] https://github.com/bitwarden/mobile

[2] http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/product/microsoftpix...

[3] https://www.xamarin.com/customers/gaming

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