Re: [Advice] Xamarin as a next step.
I will one day get off my butt and do a "Silverlight dev to Unity3D" video to show how the two are very very similar in so many ways. One...day.. --- Regards, Scott Barnes http://www.riagenic.com On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 5:19 PM, Greg Keogh wrote: > Go Unity3D... >> > > Wow, wouldn't that be like using a supercollider to recharge your phone > battery? However in these strange times, who knows?! It's worth reading > about Unity3D anyway as general knowledge -- *GK* >
Re: [Advice] Xamarin as a next step.
> or should I start looking for another job? Yes absoultely :) hit me up please On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 3:19 PM, Greg Keogh wrote: > Go Unity3D... >> > > Wow, wouldn't that be like using a supercollider to recharge your phone > battery? However in these strange times, who knows?! It's worth reading > about Unity3D anyway as general knowledge -- *GK* >
Re: [Advice] Xamarin as a next step.
> > Go Unity3D... > Wow, wouldn't that be like using a supercollider to recharge your phone battery? However in these strange times, who knows?! It's worth reading about Unity3D anyway as general knowledge -- *GK*
Re: [Advice] Xamarin as a next step.
meh to Xamarin... you're too constrained imho. Go Unity3D... - You have 100% control over your entire UI without forking projects per "platform" - You can use things like LightningDB instead of SQL Lite (we've got 800k records that we constantly "search" records on and it does in ms speeds) - You also have access to 3D not just 2D (special effects, animations etc). - You work in Frames Per Second instead of 'Event bubbles". - You're one step closer to making games as well as apps - 2D/3D rendering pipeline is amazingly powerful. There are downsides - Its not .NET Framework its C# ..you write C# but bare in mind its not a Silverlight/WPF all in or nothing framework approach. You're attaching "behaviours" to null objects and decorating them which imho is wayy more optimised development. - You work in FPS time... that being said you can hide a lot of calculations in 16ms :) so settle in on a mix of coroutines and threading hand offs should you escalate the power of code. --- Regards, Scott Barnes http://www.riagenic.com On Wed, Mar 15, 2017 at 8:11 AM, David Richards < ausdot...@davidsuniverse.com> wrote: > +1 > (Except it's been 36 years for me) > > I'll add an interesting anecdote... I had a Xamarin Forms application > keep crashing for no obvious reason and no logged error. After about a > week of frustration, I discovered it would crash if you tried to show a > button in a list view item and the button had text. If I removed the text, > it stopped crashing. The customer now has the button text in a label and a > blank button next to it. That was about a year ago so I have no idea if > that would still happen. But I have seen Xamarin bugs that were reported > years ago and have never been fixed. > > David > > "If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes > will fall like a house of cards... checkmate!" > -Zapp Brannigan, Futurama > > On 14 March 2017 at 09:03, Greg Keogh wrote: > >> My manager now wants me to learn Xamarin, but I don't feel confortable >>> doing mobile apps etc. >>> How stable is the technology, should I buckle down and learn it, or >>> should I start looking for another job? >>> >> >> Cough! In the 37 years that I've been writing software, I can tell you >> without a doubt that developing using Xamarin is by a long-shot the most >> abysmal experience I have ever endured. Many times each day my wife will >> hear me scream out the phrase that I plan to have chiselled into my >> gravestone ... "Everything f***ing doesn't work". My bad experience is >> tainted by the fact that I'm using Xamarin Studio on an iMac. >> >> Here's the bad news ... official Xamarin releases may randomly break your >> development completely (satellite assembly resources are currently broken >> for example). Debuggers misbehave or fail in undiagnosable ways. The >> code/XAML editor has weird quirks and insane intellisense. Tiny code or >> XAML mistakes cause crashes in seemingly impossible locations. Breakpoints >> go haywire. The complex dependencies involving the large numbers of >> independent platforms, kits and the 3rd party ecosystem is as fragile as a >> spider's web. App appearance varies in subtly irritating ways on different >> devices. Web searches for help usually produce vast screenloads of outdated >> unresolved arguments and crazy suggestions. And this is the tip of the >> iceberg. >> >> Here's the good news though ... once you learn to live with and avoid >> most of the serious Xamarin quirks and pitfalls (and you'll learn the hard >> way), it's still probably faster than writing Objective-C/Swift and Java to >> produce parallel native apps. I have some basic rules of Xamarin >> development: >> >>- Don't "push it" too hard or you'll dig your own hole. Try to work >>with what the platform can do. >>- Don't write UWP apps, write native ones in Visual Studio and you'll >>get apps that feel "right" on Windows. >>- Avoid 3rd party packages and anything that touches the native >>platforms as much as humanly possible. We've had shocking problems which >>were cured by stripping out "fancy" packages and platform specific code. >>- Don't make too many changes in one go or you'll break something and >>not know what it was, then waste hours trying to backtrack to where you >>were. >>- Write your whole app as a stand-alone controller which behaves like >>a state machine in a portable project. The Xamarin UI is then as thin as >>possible and it just binds to the app controller's properties and calls >> its >>methods. *(This is a sensible design in any case, but do it strictly >>and carefully in Xamarin and you'll be far better off)*. >> >> Good luck! >> >> *GK* >> >> >
Re: [Advice] Xamarin as a next step.
+1 (Except it's been 36 years for me) I'll add an interesting anecdote... I had a Xamarin Forms application keep crashing for no obvious reason and no logged error. After about a week of frustration, I discovered it would crash if you tried to show a button in a list view item and the button had text. If I removed the text, it stopped crashing. The customer now has the button text in a label and a blank button next to it. That was about a year ago so I have no idea if that would still happen. But I have seen Xamarin bugs that were reported years ago and have never been fixed. David "If we can hit that bullseye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards... checkmate!" -Zapp Brannigan, Futurama On 14 March 2017 at 09:03, Greg Keogh wrote: > My manager now wants me to learn Xamarin, but I don't feel confortable >> doing mobile apps etc. >> How stable is the technology, should I buckle down and learn it, or >> should I start looking for another job? >> > > Cough! In the 37 years that I've been writing software, I can tell you > without a doubt that developing using Xamarin is by a long-shot the most > abysmal experience I have ever endured. Many times each day my wife will > hear me scream out the phrase that I plan to have chiselled into my > gravestone ... "Everything f***ing doesn't work". My bad experience is > tainted by the fact that I'm using Xamarin Studio on an iMac. > > Here's the bad news ... official Xamarin releases may randomly break your > development completely (satellite assembly resources are currently broken > for example). Debuggers misbehave or fail in undiagnosable ways. The > code/XAML editor has weird quirks and insane intellisense. Tiny code or > XAML mistakes cause crashes in seemingly impossible locations. Breakpoints > go haywire. The complex dependencies involving the large numbers of > independent platforms, kits and the 3rd party ecosystem is as fragile as a > spider's web. App appearance varies in subtly irritating ways on different > devices. Web searches for help usually produce vast screenloads of outdated > unresolved arguments and crazy suggestions. And this is the tip of the > iceberg. > > Here's the good news though ... once you learn to live with and avoid most > of the serious Xamarin quirks and pitfalls (and you'll learn the hard way), > it's still probably faster than writing Objective-C/Swift and Java to > produce parallel native apps. I have some basic rules of Xamarin > development: > >- Don't "push it" too hard or you'll dig your own hole. Try to work >with what the platform can do. >- Don't write UWP apps, write native ones in Visual Studio and you'll >get apps that feel "right" on Windows. >- Avoid 3rd party packages and anything that touches the native >platforms as much as humanly possible. We've had shocking problems which >were cured by stripping out "fancy" packages and platform specific code. >- Don't make too many changes in one go or you'll break something and >not know what it was, then waste hours trying to backtrack to where you >were. >- Write your whole app as a stand-alone controller which behaves like >a state machine in a portable project. The Xamarin UI is then as thin as >possible and it just binds to the app controller's properties and calls its >methods. *(This is a sensible design in any case, but do it strictly >and carefully in Xamarin and you'll be far better off)*. > > Good luck! > > *GK* > >
Re: [Advice] Xamarin as a next step.
> > My manager now wants me to learn Xamarin, but I don't feel confortable > doing mobile apps etc. > How stable is the technology, should I buckle down and learn it, or should > I start looking for another job? > Cough! In the 37 years that I've been writing software, I can tell you without a doubt that developing using Xamarin is by a long-shot the most abysmal experience I have ever endured. Many times each day my wife will hear me scream out the phrase that I plan to have chiselled into my gravestone ... "Everything f***ing doesn't work". My bad experience is tainted by the fact that I'm using Xamarin Studio on an iMac. Here's the bad news ... official Xamarin releases may randomly break your development completely (satellite assembly resources are currently broken for example). Debuggers misbehave or fail in undiagnosable ways. The code/XAML editor has weird quirks and insane intellisense. Tiny code or XAML mistakes cause crashes in seemingly impossible locations. Breakpoints go haywire. The complex dependencies involving the large numbers of independent platforms, kits and the 3rd party ecosystem is as fragile as a spider's web. App appearance varies in subtly irritating ways on different devices. Web searches for help usually produce vast screenloads of outdated unresolved arguments and crazy suggestions. And this is the tip of the iceberg. Here's the good news though ... once you learn to live with and avoid most of the serious Xamarin quirks and pitfalls (and you'll learn the hard way), it's still probably faster than writing Objective-C/Swift and Java to produce parallel native apps. I have some basic rules of Xamarin development: - Don't "push it" too hard or you'll dig your own hole. Try to work with what the platform can do. - Don't write UWP apps, write native ones in Visual Studio and you'll get apps that feel "right" on Windows. - Avoid 3rd party packages and anything that touches the native platforms as much as humanly possible. We've had shocking problems which were cured by stripping out "fancy" packages and platform specific code. - Don't make too many changes in one go or you'll break something and not know what it was, then waste hours trying to backtrack to where you were. - Write your whole app as a stand-alone controller which behaves like a state machine in a portable project. The Xamarin UI is then as thin as possible and it just binds to the app controller's properties and calls its methods. *(This is a sensible design in any case, but do it strictly and carefully in Xamarin and you'll be far better off)*. Good luck! *GK*
Re: [Advice] Xamarin as a next step.
They're all unstable except for c# and sql lol. I'd accept the challenge On Tuesday, 14 March 2017, David Rhys Jones wrote: > Hi, > > I'm currently working on Web aps, using javascript / angular / c# back > ends with sql. > > I've been doing c# since it was in beta 1, javascript since the last > centurary and angular since monday ;-) > > My manager now wants me to learn Xamarin, but I don't feel confortable > doing mobile apps etc. > > How stable is the technology, should I buckle down and learn it, or should > I start looking for another job? > > Thanks. > > Davy > > *... .. / --- -.-. / .-.. . --. . .-. . / ... -.-. .. ... / -. .. -- > .. ..- -- / . .-. ..- -.. .. - .. --- -. .. ... / .- -... . ... .-.-.-* > >
[Advice] Xamarin as a next step.
Hi, I'm currently working on Web aps, using javascript / angular / c# back ends with sql. I've been doing c# since it was in beta 1, javascript since the last centurary and angular since monday ;-) My manager now wants me to learn Xamarin, but I don't feel confortable doing mobile apps etc. How stable is the technology, should I buckle down and learn it, or should I start looking for another job? Thanks. Davy *... .. / --- -.-. / .-.. . --. . .-. . / ... -.-. .. ... / -. .. -- .. ..- -- / . .-. ..- -.. .. - .. --- -. .. ... / .- -... . ... .-.-.-*
