36 ms·

Xamarin Open-Sourced

581 points by fekberg 10y ago

hobarrera 10y ago
Looks like OS X only? (since I get a "download for OS X" link, but no reference to GNU/Linux). Or am I missing something?
seibelj 10y ago
This is amazing! But question - where is RoboVM? Please release to MIT license so it doesn't waste all of the work done so far.
- ZenoArrow 10y ago
  IIRC, RoboVM is being dropped. No further development work. I could be wrong though, I'm half remembering it being discussed on a Reddit AMA with Miguel de Icaza. EDIT: It wasn't in the AMA after all, but it has been dropped: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/death-robovm http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/death-robovm
  - seibelj 10y ago
    Perfect, so open source it so the community can continue, it's still #1 for the moment and libGDX might be better served by it than intel
    - ZenoArrow 10y ago
      Why would Microsoft open source a direct competitor to the Xamarin .NET platform? The best option you're likely to get is to build on top of the older open-source RoboVM release: https://github.com/robovm/robovm https://github.com/robovm/robovm
- sremani 10y ago
  If Xamarin is open sourced and RoboVM is dropped, I can only speculate that Microsoft did not want to touch JVM with a 10-foot pole and chose to not entertain Oracle legal. May be I am wrong, but that is one possibility.
- Aldo_MX 10y ago
  RoboVM was forked, the fork is named BugVM[1], and it's currently maintained. [1] http://bugvm.com/ http://bugvm.com/
  - dminor 10y ago
    There's quite a bit of work that's been done in RoboVM since that was forked.
    - desdiv 10y ago
      That I'm sure, but the project was only forked 6 months ago, so I'm sure BugVM can catch up, especially given that RoboVM is dead and thus a stationary target at this point.
ianleeclark 10y ago
Nice, I've recently been honing my C# chops, so I'm super excited to see this arrive at such an incredible (for me) time.
deleted 10y ago
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Scramblejams 10y ago
So, what does this mean for Unity3D? I'm tired of being limited to .Net(-sorta-ish) 3.5 and a stuttering garbage collector.
- warrenmiller 10y ago
  Unity has moved to IL2CPP so not sure a hell of a lot.
  - Scramblejams 10y ago
    "Moved" might be too strong a word. I know it's used to deploy on 64-bit iOS, any other platforms at the moment?
    - derFunk 10y ago
      Yes, Android, with the use of the NDK.
      - Scramblejams 10y ago
        So, two mobile platforms, no console, no desktop. IL2CPP seems to be a long way from saving us from decrepit .NET versions.
- yedpodtrzitko 10y ago
  See their older blogpost here: http://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/04/01/unity-joins-the-net-foundation/ http://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/04/01/unity-joins-the-net-foun... "For Unity developers, this means making sure the latest .NET APIs, tools, and language features are available to you." – Support for C# 6 – Upgrade Mono Runtime and Class Libraries etc...
  - Scramblejams 10y ago
    I wonder when all that's actually going to drop. Like, when I can set VS's target framework to .NET 4.6.1, I'll be pleased.
ghuntley 10y ago
It has been super exciting watching this all unfold over the last year, for those wondering where to get started in the new world of .NET open source - start here: .NET CLR Managed Runtime - https://gitter.im/dotnet/coreclr https://gitter.im/dotnet/coreclr .NET Framework - https://gitter.im/dotnet/corefx https://gitter.im/dotnet/corefx .NET Compiler as a Service ("Roslyn") - https://gitter.im/dotnet/roslyn https://gitter.im/dotnet/roslyn .NET Orleans Actor Framework - https://gitter.im/dotnet/orleans https://gitter.im/dotnet/orleans Mono Framework - https://gitter.im/mono/mono https://gitter.im/mono/mono Xamarin iOS, Watch, Mac Bindings and Framework - https://gitter.im/xamarin/xamarin-macios https://gitter.im/xamarin/xamarin-macios Xamarin Android Bindings and Framework - https://gitter.im/xamarin/xamarin-android https://gitter.im/xamarin/xamarin-android Everything is licensed under the MIT license w/patent pledges.
- spriggan3 10y ago
  Why do you link to gitter when you should actually like to the repos instead ?
  - ghuntley 10y ago
    Depends on how you learn. Some learn by being around others, social interaction, asking questions and absorbing knowledge. It's clear you fall into the latter category which likes to learn by diving right into the code, so here it is: .NET CLR Managed Runtime - https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr .NET Framework - https://github.com/dotnet/corefx https://github.com/dotnet/corefx .NET Compiler as a Service ("Roslyn") - https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn .NET Orleans Actor Framework - https://github.com/dotnet/orleans https://github.com/dotnet/orleans Mono Framework - https://github.com/mono/mono https://github.com/mono/mono Xamarin iOS, Watch, Mac Bindings and Framework - https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios Xamarin Android Bindings and Framework - https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-android https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-android
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
drudru11 10y ago
Crazy seeing those Novell copyrights in the headers! I totally forgot about them and their relationship to Xamarin.
ywecur 10y ago
Ok, so is there anything NOT being open sourced? Is everything needed to actually be able to use it productively open source now? Is Xamarin Studio open source?
- ashitlerferad 10y ago
  RoboVM will not be open sourced, only killed.
- mandeepj 10y ago
  No, Xamarin Studio is not getting open sourced. For more details, you can listen to this podcast from founders of Xamarin - http://www.dotnetrocks.com/?show=1276 http://www.dotnetrocks.com/?show=1276
  - ywecur 10y ago
    Is it possible to use it without it?
    - misterbwong 10y ago
      I believe you can code in xamarin (for free) using visual studio 2015
    - donniefitz2 10y ago
      With Xamarin, you can use it with both Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio. I believe XS is free now and you can get VS Community for free too.
      - pritambaral 10y ago
        But not under Linux. XS is available only for Mac, and VS is Windows-only (of course).
    - mandeepj 10y ago
      Of course, you can use it. Tools are under products at http://open.xamarin.com/ http://open.xamarin.com/ Microsoft has not open sourced Visual studio (VS) so similarly they will not open source Xamarin. You can also use .net framework without using VS. Just use command line tools
cptskippy 10y ago
I'm glad to see Microsoft embracing Open-Source, C# is such a wonderful language and easy language to use. In light of all the trouble Oracle has been giving Google, I would love to see them embrace it and provide a true alternative to Java on Android.
- pjmlp 10y ago
  Google hasn't anyone to blame but themselves.
  - namelezz 10y ago
    Yep, not buying Sun was their biggest mistake.
    - rpgmaker 10y ago
      It wasn't a mistake at all. Sun was a lot of things besides Java, it just wasn't worth it for them and they were right to take a pass. Even if they end up paying big dollars to Oracle, the amount won't be high enough to retroactively justify buying Sun. Android is big now and it can weather whatever comes from this patent battle.
      - Corrado 10y ago
        I don't know, they basically bought Motorola to stop the patent trolls from getting them. After the purchase they broke up the company and sold the parts they didn't want/need. I could see the same thing happening to a Sun purchase; take the Java stuff and sell off everything else (SunOS, hardware, etc.)
        cptskippy 10y ago
        Sun had a nice patent portfolio too. Some of Google's current initiatives, like being part of the OpenPower Alliance, might have benefited from the hardware acquisition as well with RISC being all the rage again. Having Solaris in their back pocket would have been handy and ZFS might have been re-licensed to be more GPL friendly as well. I'm not sure how much of that Google could directly benefit from but they could have definitely gain a metric fkton of community good will by opening many of the technologies Sun owned that have floundered since the Oracle acquisition.
koyote 10y ago
This is great news! Last time I used it (more than a year ago) it was still felt quite buggy. That being said, has anyone successfully used Xamarin or have an example of a large and successful app built with it?
- miguelrochefort 10y ago
  Rdio.
- vpanyam 10y ago
  Slack and GitHub are mentioned on their customers page. There's a list with some more companies here: https://www.xamarin.com/customers https://www.xamarin.com/customers
  - philwebster 10y ago
    That list is somewhat misleading. Slack, for instance, only uses Xamarin Test Cloud.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- donniefitz2 10y ago
  I'm using it for a few projects. One for a client on the side and one for my primary job. It's really nice to work with. There are issues here and there, but overall, it's a very viable solution and I'm quite happy with it.
- iask 10y ago
  I am also curious. Does anyone know of any good apps done with Xamarin?
  - joemellin 10y ago
    http://storyoapp.com http://storyoapp.com
- 10y ago
oblio 10y ago
Now only if .NET adoption on Linux would pick back up like when Mono was pushing it. .NET is a great environment for developing desktop applications and Linux really needs them.
- snuxoll 10y ago
  GTK# could use some serious love, as much as I enjoy Vala I would much prefer to be able to use Npgsql for database access than deal with the crapshoot that is libgda. Unfortunately after the GTK3 transition it seems nobody has really felt like maintaining GTK# much, meanwhile plain old C and Vala have been getting all the cool stuff (GTK composite templates, in particular).
  - edwinnathaniel 10y ago
    I tried Vala once and didn't really like it. It's me not Vala. I enjoyed proper tooling: SCM (e.g.: maven), test automation (unit-test framework), some form of IDE.
    - snuxoll 10y ago
      GNU Autotools now has vala integration, just specifying .vala files in your source list will have automake run valac to generate the C files, which will then be compiled by GCC automatically. Going one further, the C files get packaged into your distribution tarballs so users don't need valac installed to compile your application. The usual M4 headaches with autotools apply, but as long as you don't have some crazy build (just compiling libraries/binaries, linking with libraries, use pkg-config) it's not too bad. As far as testing, GLib.Test [0] is part of the standard library. Since vala compiles to C at the end of the day there's no easy way to test other than just building a test runner, but it's not too bad to work with. GNOME Builder is finally getting support for Vala in GNOME 3.20, it's still young but hopefully we'll have a first class IDE soon. Still, Builder has a long way to go before it even catches up with MonoDevelop, but progress is good, right? [0]: http://valadoc.org/#!api=glib-2.0/GLib.Test http://valadoc.org/#!api=glib-2.0/GLib.Test
- deleted 10y ago
jeswin 10y ago
Honestly, I am a little tired of all the articles (edit: I meant posts) claiming MS is suddenly in the Open Source camp. To truly support Open Source, they should show a willingness to work against Software Patents. The essence of Open Source is the freedom for anyone with a computer to turn their imagination into code. MS remains one of the biggest obstacles in that path. Instead here is what they do: 1) Directly attack the Linux kernel in Android through patents 2) Sell patents to trolls like Intellectual Ventures, and directly fund them via investments 3) Support the cartel called BSA, which includes other luminaries like Oracle (http://www.bsa.org/about-bsa/bsa-members http://www.bsa.org/about-bsa/bsa-members). Honestly, say what you will about Google, but I can't imagine them ever threatening another software company with software patents.
- Aldo_MX 10y ago
  I honestly disagree with your stance against patents, disregarding dull patents and the issues they bring like patent trolls, I really believe that the industry needs patents to prevent unfair competition. The issue is the length of patents, the Software industry doesn't need 20 year-long patents, it's too much time, at most a patent should be valid for 5 years... And well, we also need mechanisms to punish people who abuse the patent system with dull patents.
  - Tenhundfeld 10y ago
    I don't understand exactly what you mean by "dull patents". Is that a standard term? I'm not well versed in this space, but Google's not returning much for that phrase. I'm guessing you mean overly broad or generic patents, i.e., not sharp and specific. I'm thinking something like a patent for adding an item to a virtual shopping cart. Am I inferring correctly?
    - Aldo_MX 10y ago
      I used `dull patent` as a synonym of `stupid patent`[1], so you are right with the meaning you inferred. [1] https://www.eff.org/issues/stupid-patent-month https://www.eff.org/issues/stupid-patent-month
Cyph0n 10y ago
What I don't understand is why they had to purge the commit history. Did they not use Git internally? Do the commits contain sensitive information? Does it make it easier to clone the repo?
- frostmatthew 10y ago
  > What I don't understand is why they had to purge the commit history. When the team I'm on open sourced an upgrade framework[1] of ours we did the same. There's hundreds of commits over the course of years where the only intended audience was internal, some of those may contain information that wouldn't be appropriate for external consumption (e.g. a reference to non-public information) and others (well most of them really) contain information that would be useless externally (e.g. links to builds or reviews that are accessible only internally, bug numbers, etc). [1] https://github.com/vmware/upgrade-framework https://github.com/vmware/upgrade-framework
- coldtea 10y ago
  >Do the commits contain sensitive information? Very likely.
  - munificent 10y ago
    Or, more likely, no one wants to spend the time to exhaustively prove that they do not contain sensitive information.
dintech 10y ago
Now RoboVM too please. It's almost criminal that they canned it.
- Aldo_MX 10y ago
  There's BugVM[1], a maintained fork of the FOSS RoboVM [1] http://bugvm.com/ http://bugvm.com/
  - badlogic 10y ago
    It's a very bad and broken fork, i'd stay away from it.
tree_of_item 10y ago
Quick question for .NET developers: is there a solution for totally command line driven workflows yet? I really don't want to mess around with .SLN files and IDEs like Visual Studio and MonoDevelop. I'm sure VS is fine for people who like it, but I really want something like `cargo build` or `go build`.
- sago 10y ago
  `mcs` to compile code, rough equivalent of javac `mono` to run it, rough equivalent of java. We code for the Unity game engine, but use command line mono tools for testing and feature development.
- muttech 10y ago
  .NET CORE is exactly this (https://github.com/dotnet/cli https://github.com/dotnet/cli) 'dotnet build' to build it.
  - alexc05 10y ago
    yes and no of course ... yes dotnet cli will be exactly this and it will be GREAT (IMO) but it isn't actually "out" yet (you can get your hands on it but it will be buggy) still, will be 100% fantastic.
    - swalsh 10y ago
      I've been using it on a production project. Life hasn't been smooth, but once Its totally functional.
- ColinDabritz 10y ago
  On the editing experience side, OmniSharp brings a richer text-editing experience to dot net development on many existing platforms and editors, including command line classics like emacs and vim. http://www.omnisharp.net/ http://www.omnisharp.net/
- ZenoArrow 10y ago
  Look into the tooling around F#, you can use most/all of it using the command line and simple text editors. Much of it can be applied to C# too. FAKE is a good place to start: http://fsharp.github.io/FAKE/ http://fsharp.github.io/FAKE/ Forge is also worth checking out: https://github.com/fsprojects/Forge/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/fsprojects/Forge/blob/master/README.md One more suggestion, if you'd like an easy (but simple) all-in-one solution for F#, check out Ionide: http://ionide.io/ http://ionide.io/
greenspot 10y ago
First thought: Xamarin is now open source—great! Second thought: Every time I looked into Xamarin (and I do this every 6 months) there was a lack of killer apps created with Xamarin on both iOS and Android, users' experiences with Xamarin were either rare or negative and in total the community felt non-existent Third thought: Ok got it, they open source to get PR, build a community; I hope that helps and it's not their last resort So, is Xamarin really a viable solution?
- AlwaysBCoding 10y ago
  No, use React Native
  - alexc05 10y ago
    That's an unhelpful answer and misleading. React native has a LOT of attention. It has a lot of support. BUT as of this writing if you are developing in corporate IT (meaning possibly running windows 7 systems) you actually CANNOT run react-native tools on windows easily. I'm currently building an ionic project because I needed a cross-plat mobile app and work with a mix of OSX and windows 7 machines. Now that said, windows 10 systems with the ubuntu emulator should be able to emulate all the calls you need to run react native on windows machines. HOWEVER windows 10 bash has not yet implemented all 350 linux system calls (https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-console-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windo https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-con...) and there is no guarantee that is bug free. I'd hate to be 2 months into development to find there are deep internals that block me from using a critical feature. None of this is to say Xamarin doesn't have its own baggage. The reason I web with cordova/ionic was for the good of the other developers on my team (html+css+javascript over C#) and, at the time, the additional cost of the Xamarin licenses. I would have given XAMARIN a much closer look if it were bundled with a Visual Studio license, and all things considered, if I were looking today, it might beat out React Native. That said, I do agree that react-native MAY be the way forward in the next generation, but, Xamarin does have more than enough upside to make it a reasonable contender.
    - 10y ago
Keats 10y ago
Is linux support for xamarin.android planned?
- Bouncingsoul1 10y ago
  I'm not sure how credible this is but there might be comming something. https://www.reddit.com/r/programmerchat/comments/4dxpcp/i_am_miguel_de_icaza_i_started_xamarin_mono_gnome/d1vdfwz https://www.reddit.com/r/programmerchat/comments/4dxpcp/i_am...
mwcampbell 10y ago
Now my only remaining qualm with Xamarin is this: Having two garbage-collected environments interacting within the same program, as is the case with Xamarin on Android, just seems pathologically complex. Does anyone have enough experience with Xamarin on Android to know if this is ever a problem in practice? Edit: I wonder if the Xamarin.Android developers ever considered compiling CIL to JVM bytecode (which would then be compiled to Dex bytecode), then reimplementing mscorlib on top of the Java standard libraries. So basically, IKVM.NET in reverse. Then there'd be no bridging between two environments.
- ianlevesque 10y ago
  That's what RemObjects does.
  - mwcampbell 10y ago
    Yep, I've thoroughly studied RemObjects Elements and seriously considered using it. But it doesn't have nearly as big a standard library or surrounding ecosystem as .NET and Xamarin.
- ghuntley 10y ago
  Recommended watching for iOS and Android - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJsmrTQWD2k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJsmrTQWD2k simple to identify these problems once you know of them. I keep coming across implementations that make some very fatal mistakes about resource management, notably these problems would potentially also happen when not using Xamarin as well (developers not reading documentation/being careful with allocations) With Android the most common mistake is cross-heap references, putting a large C# array into a java arrayadapter for example will result in objects that live in both worlds which makes it expensive for Java to see the C# object and C# to see the Java object. The objects are effectively being mirrored, the solution is to use C# all the way down. Where the object was created defines ownership, for example ArrayAdapter containing C# objects means owned by Java with overhead for Java to bridge the C# objects.
skrowl 10y ago
With Forms we finally have native FOSS cross platform that we've been waiting for. See ya Cordova / React Native / etc!
davb 10y ago
I just wish they didn't kill RoboVM. I get the warm and fuzzies when something big is open sourced just like everyone else. Then I snap back to reality and remember that it's ultimately the same organisation that close-sourced RoboVM then killed it, screwing over a lot of people depending on it.
- jestar_jokin 10y ago
  Seriously, RoboVM could have been huge. An ingenious way to introduce app development to your existing hordes of Java devs. Great tech, killed because of business decisions...
  - thomasz 10y ago
    it was most likely killed because it was seen as an invitation for a multi-billion lawsuit by oracle.
alashley 10y ago
As an aside, has anyone here created a Xamarin android app using material design? I was recently trying to integrate their component for the design support library, but it seemed horribly buggy.
- m_fayer 10y ago
  Actively working with it now, seems fine to me, maybe you're using an old version of the design support lib?
  - alashley 10y ago
    Hmm, its possible. I tried installing via NuGet and also the component store when that didn't work, but I'll just give it another shot, thanks!
- j_s 10y ago
  There is a Xamarin Evolve 16 session shown free on their live channel starting in a few minutes at 5:30pm ET (Wed Apr 27): "Everyone Can Create Beautiful Apps with Material Design" https://evolve.xamarin.com/live https://evolve.xamarin.com/live
- pier25 10y ago
  I found that too a few weeks ago. I ditched Xamarin and moved to Java.
hugi 10y ago
Cool. Now bring back RoboVM.
dep_b 10y ago
Of course Xamarin was built on top of earlier Open Source work in MonoMac, you still could do OS X applications without actually paying for Xamarin but it wasn't as easy as using Xamarin straight. So this is also partly just giving back from where they took it.
ashitlerferad 10y ago
Now when will they make RoboVM open source?

581 points by fekberg 10y ago

Looks like OS X only? (since I get a "download for OS X" link, but no reference to GNU/Linux). Or am I missing something?

seibelj 10y ago

This is amazing! But question - where is RoboVM? Please release to MIT license so it doesn't waste all of the work done so far.

ZenoArrow 10y ago
IIRC, RoboVM is being dropped. No further development work. I could be wrong though, I'm half remembering it being discussed on a Reddit AMA with Miguel de Icaza. EDIT: It wasn't in the AMA after all, but it has been dropped: http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/death-robovm http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/death-robovm
- seibelj 10y ago
  Perfect, so open source it so the community can continue, it's still #1 for the moment and libGDX might be better served by it than intel
  - ZenoArrow 10y ago
    Why would Microsoft open source a direct competitor to the Xamarin .NET platform? The best option you're likely to get is to build on top of the older open-source RoboVM release: https://github.com/robovm/robovm https://github.com/robovm/robovm
sremani 10y ago
If Xamarin is open sourced and RoboVM is dropped, I can only speculate that Microsoft did not want to touch JVM with a 10-foot pole and chose to not entertain Oracle legal. May be I am wrong, but that is one possibility.
Aldo_MX 10y ago
RoboVM was forked, the fork is named BugVM[1], and it's currently maintained. [1] http://bugvm.com/ http://bugvm.com/
- dminor 10y ago
  There's quite a bit of work that's been done in RoboVM since that was forked.
  - desdiv 10y ago
    That I'm sure, but the project was only forked 6 months ago, so I'm sure BugVM can catch up, especially given that RoboVM is dead and thus a stationary target at this point.

ianleeclark 10y ago

Nice, I've recently been honing my C# chops, so I'm super excited to see this arrive at such an incredible (for me) time.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

Scramblejams 10y ago

So, what does this mean for Unity3D? I'm tired of being limited to .Net(-sorta-ish) 3.5 and a stuttering garbage collector.

warrenmiller 10y ago
Unity has moved to IL2CPP so not sure a hell of a lot.
- Scramblejams 10y ago
  "Moved" might be too strong a word. I know it's used to deploy on 64-bit iOS, any other platforms at the moment?
  - derFunk 10y ago
    Yes, Android, with the use of the NDK.
    - Scramblejams 10y ago
      So, two mobile platforms, no console, no desktop. IL2CPP seems to be a long way from saving us from decrepit .NET versions.
yedpodtrzitko 10y ago
See their older blogpost here: http://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/04/01/unity-joins-the-net-foundation/ http://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/04/01/unity-joins-the-net-foun... "For Unity developers, this means making sure the latest .NET APIs, tools, and language features are available to you." – Support for C# 6 – Upgrade Mono Runtime and Class Libraries etc...
- Scramblejams 10y ago
  I wonder when all that's actually going to drop. Like, when I can set VS's target framework to .NET 4.6.1, I'll be pleased.

ghuntley 10y ago

It has been super exciting watching this all unfold over the last year, for those wondering where to get started in the new world of .NET open source - start here: .NET CLR Managed Runtime - https://gitter.im/dotnet/coreclr https://gitter.im/dotnet/coreclr .NET Framework - https://gitter.im/dotnet/corefx https://gitter.im/dotnet/corefx .NET Compiler as a Service ("Roslyn") - https://gitter.im/dotnet/roslyn https://gitter.im/dotnet/roslyn .NET Orleans Actor Framework - https://gitter.im/dotnet/orleans https://gitter.im/dotnet/orleans Mono Framework - https://gitter.im/mono/mono https://gitter.im/mono/mono Xamarin iOS, Watch, Mac Bindings and Framework - https://gitter.im/xamarin/xamarin-macios https://gitter.im/xamarin/xamarin-macios Xamarin Android Bindings and Framework - https://gitter.im/xamarin/xamarin-android https://gitter.im/xamarin/xamarin-android Everything is licensed under the MIT license w/patent pledges.

spriggan3 10y ago
Why do you link to gitter when you should actually like to the repos instead ?
- ghuntley 10y ago
  Depends on how you learn. Some learn by being around others, social interaction, asking questions and absorbing knowledge. It's clear you fall into the latter category which likes to learn by diving right into the code, so here it is: .NET CLR Managed Runtime - https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr https://github.com/dotnet/coreclr .NET Framework - https://github.com/dotnet/corefx https://github.com/dotnet/corefx .NET Compiler as a Service ("Roslyn") - https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn .NET Orleans Actor Framework - https://github.com/dotnet/orleans https://github.com/dotnet/orleans Mono Framework - https://github.com/mono/mono https://github.com/mono/mono Xamarin iOS, Watch, Mac Bindings and Framework - https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios Xamarin Android Bindings and Framework - https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-android https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-android
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]

drudru11 10y ago

Crazy seeing those Novell copyrights in the headers! I totally forgot about them and their relationship to Xamarin.

ywecur 10y ago

Ok, so is there anything NOT being open sourced? Is everything needed to actually be able to use it productively open source now? Is Xamarin Studio open source?

ashitlerferad 10y ago
RoboVM will not be open sourced, only killed.
mandeepj 10y ago
No, Xamarin Studio is not getting open sourced. For more details, you can listen to this podcast from founders of Xamarin - http://www.dotnetrocks.com/?show=1276 http://www.dotnetrocks.com/?show=1276
- ywecur 10y ago
  Is it possible to use it without it?
  - misterbwong 10y ago
    I believe you can code in xamarin (for free) using visual studio 2015
  - donniefitz2 10y ago
    With Xamarin, you can use it with both Xamarin Studio and Visual Studio. I believe XS is free now and you can get VS Community for free too.
    - pritambaral 10y ago
      But not under Linux. XS is available only for Mac, and VS is Windows-only (of course).
  - mandeepj 10y ago
    Of course, you can use it. Tools are under products at http://open.xamarin.com/ http://open.xamarin.com/ Microsoft has not open sourced Visual studio (VS) so similarly they will not open source Xamarin. You can also use .net framework without using VS. Just use command line tools

cptskippy 10y ago

I'm glad to see Microsoft embracing Open-Source, C# is such a wonderful language and easy language to use. In light of all the trouble Oracle has been giving Google, I would love to see them embrace it and provide a true alternative to Java on Android.

pjmlp 10y ago
Google hasn't anyone to blame but themselves.
- namelezz 10y ago
  Yep, not buying Sun was their biggest mistake.
  - rpgmaker 10y ago
    It wasn't a mistake at all. Sun was a lot of things besides Java, it just wasn't worth it for them and they were right to take a pass. Even if they end up paying big dollars to Oracle, the amount won't be high enough to retroactively justify buying Sun. Android is big now and it can weather whatever comes from this patent battle.
    - Corrado 10y ago
      I don't know, they basically bought Motorola to stop the patent trolls from getting them. After the purchase they broke up the company and sold the parts they didn't want/need. I could see the same thing happening to a Sun purchase; take the Java stuff and sell off everything else (SunOS, hardware, etc.)
      - cptskippy 10y ago
        Sun had a nice patent portfolio too. Some of Google's current initiatives, like being part of the OpenPower Alliance, might have benefited from the hardware acquisition as well with RISC being all the rage again. Having Solaris in their back pocket would have been handy and ZFS might have been re-licensed to be more GPL friendly as well. I'm not sure how much of that Google could directly benefit from but they could have definitely gain a metric fkton of community good will by opening many of the technologies Sun owned that have floundered since the Oracle acquisition.

koyote 10y ago

This is great news! Last time I used it (more than a year ago) it was still felt quite buggy. That being said, has anyone successfully used Xamarin or have an example of a large and successful app built with it?

miguelrochefort 10y ago
Rdio.
vpanyam 10y ago
Slack and GitHub are mentioned on their customers page. There's a list with some more companies here: https://www.xamarin.com/customers https://www.xamarin.com/customers
- philwebster 10y ago
  That list is somewhat misleading. Slack, for instance, only uses Xamarin Test Cloud.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
donniefitz2 10y ago
I'm using it for a few projects. One for a client on the side and one for my primary job. It's really nice to work with. There are issues here and there, but overall, it's a very viable solution and I'm quite happy with it.
iask 10y ago
I am also curious. Does anyone know of any good apps done with Xamarin?
- joemellin 10y ago
  http://storyoapp.com http://storyoapp.com
10y ago

oblio 10y ago

Now only if .NET adoption on Linux would pick back up like when Mono was pushing it. .NET is a great environment for developing desktop applications and Linux really needs them.

snuxoll 10y ago
GTK# could use some serious love, as much as I enjoy Vala I would much prefer to be able to use Npgsql for database access than deal with the crapshoot that is libgda. Unfortunately after the GTK3 transition it seems nobody has really felt like maintaining GTK# much, meanwhile plain old C and Vala have been getting all the cool stuff (GTK composite templates, in particular).
- edwinnathaniel 10y ago
  I tried Vala once and didn't really like it. It's me not Vala. I enjoyed proper tooling: SCM (e.g.: maven), test automation (unit-test framework), some form of IDE.
  - snuxoll 10y ago
    GNU Autotools now has vala integration, just specifying .vala files in your source list will have automake run valac to generate the C files, which will then be compiled by GCC automatically. Going one further, the C files get packaged into your distribution tarballs so users don't need valac installed to compile your application. The usual M4 headaches with autotools apply, but as long as you don't have some crazy build (just compiling libraries/binaries, linking with libraries, use pkg-config) it's not too bad. As far as testing, GLib.Test [0] is part of the standard library. Since vala compiles to C at the end of the day there's no easy way to test other than just building a test runner, but it's not too bad to work with. GNOME Builder is finally getting support for Vala in GNOME 3.20, it's still young but hopefully we'll have a first class IDE soon. Still, Builder has a long way to go before it even catches up with MonoDevelop, but progress is good, right? [0]: http://valadoc.org/#!api=glib-2.0/GLib.Test http://valadoc.org/#!api=glib-2.0/GLib.Test
deleted 10y ago

jeswin 10y ago

Honestly, I am a little tired of all the articles (edit: I meant posts) claiming MS is suddenly in the Open Source camp. To truly support Open Source, they should show a willingness to work against Software Patents. The essence of Open Source is the freedom for anyone with a computer to turn their imagination into code. MS remains one of the biggest obstacles in that path. Instead here is what they do: 1) Directly attack the Linux kernel in Android through patents 2) Sell patents to trolls like Intellectual Ventures, and directly fund them via investments 3) Support the cartel called BSA, which includes other luminaries like Oracle (http://www.bsa.org/about-bsa/bsa-members http://www.bsa.org/about-bsa/bsa-members). Honestly, say what you will about Google, but I can't imagine them ever threatening another software company with software patents.

Aldo_MX 10y ago
I honestly disagree with your stance against patents, disregarding dull patents and the issues they bring like patent trolls, I really believe that the industry needs patents to prevent unfair competition. The issue is the length of patents, the Software industry doesn't need 20 year-long patents, it's too much time, at most a patent should be valid for 5 years... And well, we also need mechanisms to punish people who abuse the patent system with dull patents.
- Tenhundfeld 10y ago
  I don't understand exactly what you mean by "dull patents". Is that a standard term? I'm not well versed in this space, but Google's not returning much for that phrase. I'm guessing you mean overly broad or generic patents, i.e., not sharp and specific. I'm thinking something like a patent for adding an item to a virtual shopping cart. Am I inferring correctly?
  - Aldo_MX 10y ago
    I used `dull patent` as a synonym of `stupid patent`[1], so you are right with the meaning you inferred. [1] https://www.eff.org/issues/stupid-patent-month https://www.eff.org/issues/stupid-patent-month

Cyph0n 10y ago

What I don't understand is why they had to purge the commit history. Did they not use Git internally? Do the commits contain sensitive information? Does it make it easier to clone the repo?

frostmatthew 10y ago
> What I don't understand is why they had to purge the commit history. When the team I'm on open sourced an upgrade framework[1] of ours we did the same. There's hundreds of commits over the course of years where the only intended audience was internal, some of those may contain information that wouldn't be appropriate for external consumption (e.g. a reference to non-public information) and others (well most of them really) contain information that would be useless externally (e.g. links to builds or reviews that are accessible only internally, bug numbers, etc). [1] https://github.com/vmware/upgrade-framework https://github.com/vmware/upgrade-framework
coldtea 10y ago
>Do the commits contain sensitive information? Very likely.
- munificent 10y ago
  Or, more likely, no one wants to spend the time to exhaustively prove that they do not contain sensitive information.

dintech 10y ago

Now RoboVM too please. It's almost criminal that they canned it.

Aldo_MX 10y ago
There's BugVM[1], a maintained fork of the FOSS RoboVM [1] http://bugvm.com/ http://bugvm.com/
- badlogic 10y ago
  It's a very bad and broken fork, i'd stay away from it.

tree_of_item 10y ago

Quick question for .NET developers: is there a solution for totally command line driven workflows yet? I really don't want to mess around with .SLN files and IDEs like Visual Studio and MonoDevelop. I'm sure VS is fine for people who like it, but I really want something like `cargo build` or `go build`.

sago 10y ago
`mcs` to compile code, rough equivalent of javac `mono` to run it, rough equivalent of java. We code for the Unity game engine, but use command line mono tools for testing and feature development.
muttech 10y ago
.NET CORE is exactly this (https://github.com/dotnet/cli https://github.com/dotnet/cli) 'dotnet build' to build it.
- alexc05 10y ago
  yes and no of course ... yes dotnet cli will be exactly this and it will be GREAT (IMO) but it isn't actually "out" yet (you can get your hands on it but it will be buggy) still, will be 100% fantastic.
  - swalsh 10y ago
    I've been using it on a production project. Life hasn't been smooth, but once Its totally functional.
ColinDabritz 10y ago
On the editing experience side, OmniSharp brings a richer text-editing experience to dot net development on many existing platforms and editors, including command line classics like emacs and vim. http://www.omnisharp.net/ http://www.omnisharp.net/
ZenoArrow 10y ago
Look into the tooling around F#, you can use most/all of it using the command line and simple text editors. Much of it can be applied to C# too. FAKE is a good place to start: http://fsharp.github.io/FAKE/ http://fsharp.github.io/FAKE/ Forge is also worth checking out: https://github.com/fsprojects/Forge/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/fsprojects/Forge/blob/master/README.md One more suggestion, if you'd like an easy (but simple) all-in-one solution for F#, check out Ionide: http://ionide.io/ http://ionide.io/

greenspot 10y ago

First thought: Xamarin is now open source—great! Second thought: Every time I looked into Xamarin (and I do this every 6 months) there was a lack of killer apps created with Xamarin on both iOS and Android, users' experiences with Xamarin were either rare or negative and in total the community felt non-existent Third thought: Ok got it, they open source to get PR, build a community; I hope that helps and it's not their last resort So, is Xamarin really a viable solution?

AlwaysBCoding 10y ago
No, use React Native
- alexc05 10y ago
  That's an unhelpful answer and misleading. React native has a LOT of attention. It has a lot of support. BUT as of this writing if you are developing in corporate IT (meaning possibly running windows 7 systems) you actually CANNOT run react-native tools on windows easily. I'm currently building an ionic project because I needed a cross-plat mobile app and work with a mix of OSX and windows 7 machines. Now that said, windows 10 systems with the ubuntu emulator should be able to emulate all the calls you need to run react native on windows machines. HOWEVER windows 10 bash has not yet implemented all 350 linux system calls (https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-console-bash-on-ubuntu-on-windo https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/266908-command-prompt-con...) and there is no guarantee that is bug free. I'd hate to be 2 months into development to find there are deep internals that block me from using a critical feature. None of this is to say Xamarin doesn't have its own baggage. The reason I web with cordova/ionic was for the good of the other developers on my team (html+css+javascript over C#) and, at the time, the additional cost of the Xamarin licenses. I would have given XAMARIN a much closer look if it were bundled with a Visual Studio license, and all things considered, if I were looking today, it might beat out React Native. That said, I do agree that react-native MAY be the way forward in the next generation, but, Xamarin does have more than enough upside to make it a reasonable contender.
  - 10y ago

Keats 10y ago

Is linux support for xamarin.android planned?

Bouncingsoul1 10y ago
I'm not sure how credible this is but there might be comming something. https://www.reddit.com/r/programmerchat/comments/4dxpcp/i_am_miguel_de_icaza_i_started_xamarin_mono_gnome/d1vdfwz https://www.reddit.com/r/programmerchat/comments/4dxpcp/i_am...

mwcampbell 10y ago

Now my only remaining qualm with Xamarin is this: Having two garbage-collected environments interacting within the same program, as is the case with Xamarin on Android, just seems pathologically complex. Does anyone have enough experience with Xamarin on Android to know if this is ever a problem in practice? Edit: I wonder if the Xamarin.Android developers ever considered compiling CIL to JVM bytecode (which would then be compiled to Dex bytecode), then reimplementing mscorlib on top of the Java standard libraries. So basically, IKVM.NET in reverse. Then there'd be no bridging between two environments.

ianlevesque 10y ago
That's what RemObjects does.
- mwcampbell 10y ago
  Yep, I've thoroughly studied RemObjects Elements and seriously considered using it. But it doesn't have nearly as big a standard library or surrounding ecosystem as .NET and Xamarin.
ghuntley 10y ago
Recommended watching for iOS and Android - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJsmrTQWD2k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJsmrTQWD2k simple to identify these problems once you know of them. I keep coming across implementations that make some very fatal mistakes about resource management, notably these problems would potentially also happen when not using Xamarin as well (developers not reading documentation/being careful with allocations) With Android the most common mistake is cross-heap references, putting a large C# array into a java arrayadapter for example will result in objects that live in both worlds which makes it expensive for Java to see the C# object and C# to see the Java object. The objects are effectively being mirrored, the solution is to use C# all the way down. Where the object was created defines ownership, for example ArrayAdapter containing C# objects means owned by Java with overhead for Java to bridge the C# objects.

skrowl 10y ago

With Forms we finally have native FOSS cross platform that we've been waiting for. See ya Cordova / React Native / etc!

davb 10y ago

I just wish they didn't kill RoboVM. I get the warm and fuzzies when something big is open sourced just like everyone else. Then I snap back to reality and remember that it's ultimately the same organisation that close-sourced RoboVM then killed it, screwing over a lot of people depending on it.

jestar_jokin 10y ago
Seriously, RoboVM could have been huge. An ingenious way to introduce app development to your existing hordes of Java devs. Great tech, killed because of business decisions...
- thomasz 10y ago
  it was most likely killed because it was seen as an invitation for a multi-billion lawsuit by oracle.

alashley 10y ago

As an aside, has anyone here created a Xamarin android app using material design? I was recently trying to integrate their component for the design support library, but it seemed horribly buggy.

m_fayer 10y ago
Actively working with it now, seems fine to me, maybe you're using an old version of the design support lib?
- alashley 10y ago
  Hmm, its possible. I tried installing via NuGet and also the component store when that didn't work, but I'll just give it another shot, thanks!
j_s 10y ago
There is a Xamarin Evolve 16 session shown free on their live channel starting in a few minutes at 5:30pm ET (Wed Apr 27): "Everyone Can Create Beautiful Apps with Material Design" https://evolve.xamarin.com/live https://evolve.xamarin.com/live
pier25 10y ago
I found that too a few weeks ago. I ditched Xamarin and moved to Java.

hugi 10y ago

Cool. Now bring back RoboVM.

dep_b 10y ago

Of course Xamarin was built on top of earlier Open Source work in MonoMac, you still could do OS X applications without actually paying for Xamarin but it wasn't as easy as using Xamarin straight. So this is also partly just giving back from where they took it.

ashitlerferad 10y ago

Now when will they make RoboVM open source?