The following is a short interview with Succinctly series author Alessandro del Sole, whose latest book, Xamarin.Forms for macOS Succinctly, was published recently. You can download the book here.
What should people know about Xamarin.Forms? Why is it important?
Xamarin.Forms is becoming more and more important because it allows you to create mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows 10 (mobile and desktop), macOS, and tvOS from a single, shared C# codebase. Because a Mac machine is necessary to build apps for iOS and macOS, Microsoft has brought to Mac all the well-known tools that developers need to build mobile apps for multiple platforms by re-using their existing C# and .NET background. Not limited to this, developers with experience with Swift and Apple tools can now get started with the Microsoft tools and open themselves to new business opportunities.
When did you first become interested in this subject?
Two years ago, I got started with Xamarin.Forms because a customer wanted to build a mobile app for iOS devices. As a long-time .NET developer with no time at all to learn Apple’s native tools, I immediately understood that Xamarin.Forms could be my savior. So I worked on this project and, as I was learning more about Xamarin, I also started delivering courses on this topic.
By writing this e-book, did you learn anything new yourself?
Absolutely. I had a chance to take a closer and different look at Visual Studio for Mac, which I’m also using in my daily job.
How will this subject change over the next few years?
There’s a tremendous interest in Xamarin.Forms and the platform is continuously evolving. I expect many new features, improvements, target platforms, and tools in the near future.
Do you see the subject as part of a larger trend in software development?
Current trends in software development are related to cloud services and artificial intelligence (like Microsoft Cognitive Services). Mobile devices, and consequently mobile apps, can consume both in many ways. Xamarin.Forms perfectly fits into these opportunities, giving developers an option to build intelligent, cloud-based, and cross-platform apps in C#. This is really amazing.
What other books or resources on this topic do you recommend?
I would recommend Beginning Visual Studio for Mac, a book I recently wrote that leverages VS for Mac from the IDE perspective, providing deeper knowledge of all the integrated tools offered by the development environment.