

For example, the following Android layout file could be used in a traditional Xamarin project or a native Android project without any changes:


In this case, native technologies are used for creating the views (layouts in Android XML files for Android, and storyboards for iOS). There are two approaches to developing user interfaces with Xamarin:Īpproach 1# In the traditional Xamarin approach, you create a new project for a single platform (Android or iOS). Although Xamarin was originally a paid product, it is available for free to all developers ever since the acquisition. It was developed by a company with the same name which was acquired by Microsoft in 2016. Despite that, Unity or MonoGame might be a better fit in some scenarios. NET ecosystem, Xamarin is the obvious choice when deciding on a framework to develop a mobile application in. This is usually referred to as front-end development. When talking about mobile development, one usually thinks of an application running on a mobile device. Additionally, because mobile applications don’t run natively on the same device as they are being developed, the development experience isn’t as smooth as with desktop applications. Therefore, the tools and frameworks used for application development are different. However, there’s currently no operating system that runs both on desktop and mobile! In many ways Mobile development is like Desktop development.īoth Mobile and Desktop applications run natively on the device and their user interface depends on the operating system they are running on.
