Saturday, February 9, 2013

MonoDevelop Develop Mobile native application with C#

Many developer are aware with mono project i.e. developing .net application for linux.

xamarin has worked on same concept and introduce  Monodevelop a platform which helps .net  developer to develop native application for iPhone, Android and Mac application.

Developer can download the Mono-Develop (IDE) from the internet and start development.

To run application on Mobile device developer has to buy license from xamarin.
Pricing:
MonoTouch for iPhone application
  • Enterprise : $999
  • Personal   : $399
MonoDroid for android application
  • Enterprise : $999
  • Personal   : $399
Don't worry you can run mono application on simulator without parching licence.

Mono convert C# code into native code.This is not as simple as it looks Xamarin has written wrapper classes for C# code in native.
         For developing application in mono developer not only require C# knowledge but they should require some basic knowledge of iOS/Android application development.
         In Mono application screen can be designed same as it is develop in iOS/Android. for iOS it screen development developer should aware with xcode designer and for android screen design developer should aware with XML design.
         Even when you are developing application you should aware with native controls, classes, property, methods and events. It is never easy for C#/.net developer to jump in native application development.
        For developing android application you can download monodevelop for windows but for developing iOS application you should require MAC machine.

After reading all this you may think what are the benefit for the individual or  companies get by using mono.

  • In current market it is very difficult to find iOS developer or Android developer, but with training it is easy to convert C# developer to mono developer.
  • Most of the customer want to develop different application for iOS and Android application. For this type of application business logic remain same(or using same web service), developer can develop this code once and use in both application.
Now let's take a look of drawback :
  • Developer should have basic knowledge of iOS/Android application.
  • It may happen some new feature introduce by OS are not supported in mono(it is already supporting iOS 6.0 and android 4.0 's feature).
  • Individual / Company has to purchase licence.  

Please share you thoughts on this...