Preface

There are a number of options available for the developer who wants to create cross-platform mobile applications. The most obvious solution is to go native and develop on the platform directly, and this approach has some very significant advantages. For one, nothing is going to run as fast and efficiently as a native app. Also, your applications will have full access to everything the OS and hardware have to offer. However, cross-platform native development presents a serious complication—multiple platforms mean multiple applications written in multiple languages, possibly even by multiple development teams.

This was painfully true a few years ago, but not any longer. Now we have Xamarin Studio that allows us to use one technology to create native applications for multiple platforms. All of our work can be built using .NET, so there's no need to learn Objective-C or Java, or have multiple applications and development teams.

As is the case with any new tool or technology, installing and integrating Xamarin Studio into your workflow takes time. The purpose of this book is to remove the guesswork from that process by walking through the most complex and confusing portions. We'll begin with a detailed walkthrough of installing and configuring Xamarin Studio. This walkthrough will include integrating third-party software and tools, setting up your developer accounts, setting up simulators and emulators, and preparing your physical devices for testing. Next, we'll take a detailed look at the IDE itself including basic functionality, environment variables, and user preferences. Finally, we'll look at how to use Xamarin Studio to deploy your applications. This will include a review of the various testing tools available in Xamarin Studio, and a walkthrough of the actual deployment process to several application marketplaces.

So, for the moment, please ignore the fanatics who insist that C, memory pointers, and manual memory management are the tools that define a "real" programmer. Your average users (paying customers) don't care what language or technology you built the app on; they care about more practical things. Does the app have a clean UI with a user friendly workflow? Is the app consistent and reliable? Is the app fast? Does the app meet my needs at a fair price? Apps built with Xamarin Studio can answer yes to all of these questions just as readily as an app built using a native language.