I just downloaded and installed Xamarin for VS2015, including VS2015 SP2 and a host of other stuff. I created a "hello world!" app and got targets for iOS, Android, Universal Windows, Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1.
I am new to developing for Android and iOS and know that if I want an iOS solution I'll need to purchase a Mac to do that. I have a couple of Windows Phone apps that I might convert to android and iOS apps, so a Mac seems inevitable.
However, my question is can I use the (now) free Xamarin for VS2015 to create and build C# apps that will run on OS X (not iOS), or do I have to learn Objective-C to do that?
There has been a ton of confusion over the new licensing schemes for Xamarin and Visual Studio so one of my coworkers (Amy Burns) put together this great, interactive guide: Licensing Options.
Just follow through the "options" from the top to the bottom by clicking on the appropriate links in a "choose your own adventure" style.
The short story is this: if you meet the requirements of the license, you can use the Community Edition of Visual Studio or Xamarin Studio to code in Xamarin.iOS (this includes watchOS and tvOS), Xamarin.Android and Xamarin.Mac.
If you don't meet the free license requirements you can purchase Visual Studio standalone or MSDN versions Professional or Enterprise (which includes extra features such as discounts on Test Cloud for Enterprise). Visual Studio Professional and Enterprise both include Xamarin Studio on Mac of the same level for free (see the Visual Studio Comparison Chart).
Any Apple OS (iOS, watchOS, tvOS or OS X) requires a physical Mac with the latest version of Xcode and Xamarin Studio installed. For all Apple OSes (excluding OS X), the Mac can be networked to a Windows machine running Visual Studio and development done from there. Mac OS X development in Xamarin.Mac must be done in Xamarin Studio on a physical Mac. These are Apple's restrictions, not Xamarin or Microsofts.
Yes, it is possible to create and build MAC OS apps with Xamarin and C#. Here you have the official Getting Started guide, where you'll find the requirements, such as:
A Mac computer running Mac OS X Yosemite(10.10) or greater.
Xcode 7 and above
Xamarin.Mac and Xamarin Studio
Correct me if I'm wrong, but Visual Studio is free in Mac OS only for MSDN subscribers. However, Xamarin Studio is free.
Xamarin provides Xamarin.Mac which consists of a set of OS-X API bindings (which in the Unified API version contain many of the same APIs as Xamarin.iOS as 64-bit iOS and OS-X share many of the same Frameworks, in name, function and parameters).
That said, you will need to use Xamarin Studio Community Edition on a Mac to do that C#/F# development as Xamarin.Mac is not supported within the Windows/Visual Studio environment.
From Xamarin's FAQ:
Can I still develop Xamarin.Mac apps?
Yes! All Xamarin Studio developers on Mac now have the ability to create Mac apps with Xamarin.Mac, in addition to iOS (and tvOS and watchOS).
Ref: https://www.xamarin.com/faq#xpq9
Related
Does anyone know how I could fix this?
Shell support is only provided for Android and iOS at this time.
I need to create a mac app how I can do that?
MSFT provide document that make xamarin.mac app, and here is xamarin.mac startup. the following are default requirements
Xamarin.Mac application development requires:
A Mac computer running macOS High Sierra (10.13) or higher.
Xcode 10 or higher.
The latest version of Xamarin.Mac and Visual Studio for Mac.
To run an application built with Xamarin.Mac, you will need:
A Mac computer running macOS 10.7 or greater
I am developing app in cross platform using xamarin.forms. I tried to take buid for ios by connecting mac agent from windows visual studio community 2017 using windows pro OS machine. But i cant connect machine and SSH fingerprint error. i need to know can connect mac via Visual studio community 2017 for take build or any restriction for IOS development. To resolve this, are we need to use Visual studio Enterprises 2017?? pls guide me to solve this issues.
Setup Details:
OS - Windows Pro
Tool - Windows Visual Studio Community 2017
Platform - Xamarin.Forms(Cross Platform)
Mac System - Advanced Version
Been searching the web and stackoverflow for 3 days, and I can't find an answer for what I need. I am a C# developer, not a Pro one but I am pretty good with developing Windows (desktop) software.
Now I want to port a windows software to Mac, but I simply can't find a guide on how to do this.
I installed VS coomunity 2015 with xamarin, but I didn't find any tutorials or guide on how to port a desktop software to mac os X (not to ios/windows phone).
I know that using Mono will help do that, but I simply have no clue where to start. I installed vmware with elcapitan, have everything set-up but I have no clue what to do next.
So knowing that I developed a C# .net app, that uses only the default .net libs that are supported in MONO, what should I do to port it on mac os X?
How can I compile in VS 2015 and simply run on Mac OS X?
Thanks a lot!
Vlad
Developing a Xamarin.Mac app is currently not supported in Visual Studio and requires Xamarin Studio running on a Mac with the latest version of Xcode installed.
Windows Forms and Windows APIs are not supported in Xamarin.Mac so you will need to port your UI to NSWindows, NSViewControllers and NSViews. However, you can share the back end code across platforms such as your data models and business level classes. A typical app can share up to 80% of the code across platform.
I would suggest starting with our Hello, Mac documentation as it gives a needed base required for the rest of the Mac documentation.
I have already developed android app using xamarin and now i want to do same for iOS. As per xamarin's official documentation, i need to have MAC machine to compile my C# code, but i dont have MAC. Is there any workaround or alternative so that i can build ios app using xamarin without need of MAC.
No. The underlying SDK and build tools, including the iOS simulator, are provided by Apple and will only run on OSX.
You can use Cloud Mac service Macincloud which supports Xamarin remote build from Visual Studio. You will not be able to build iOS Apps without a Mac so Macincloud is your best alternative.
As standard Xcode only runs on UNIX/OSX.
However it IS possible to run Mac OSX, in order to develop iOS apps, with software such as VMWare and Parallels - But I won't recommend it in any way.
Yesterday at the xamarin webinar I asked if it was possible to install xamarin studio for IOS development on a windows machine and was given the answer that it was possible but developers usually went for visual studio. Today I've tried to find info about how to do this but can only find posts that it can only be done via Visual Studio. Most of the posts are a couple of months old though so which is the correct answer?
Unfortunately, I think your fears are true. Another post talks a little about this:
How to develop iOS app using Xamarin Studio on Windows?
The official Xamarin documentation also says pretty clearly that you need Visual Studio to do iOS development in Windows. On top of that, you also need a Mac on the network to compile the iOS project.
Using Mac build Host you can do but you'll need the networked mac
for developing and debugging too.
or else you can use Xamarin Live Player using which you can
debug,develop and deploy the app completely in windows without the
help of any Apple system but to sign and release the app to appstore
you will need Apple System though
You can access Xamarin Studio from a Windows machine by accessing a remote Mac from services such as MacinCloud.com. Although you are not running Xamarin Studio directly on your Windows machine, the ability to access a Mac server for development allows you to run Xamarin Studio, and other Mac-only tools easily.