wsloth

Most of my problems often come from constructors. For example, using a custom parametered constructor in an Activity or Fragment seems impossible, so constructor injection is already out of the question. This is valid C#, but will not compile. Hence, I stated that using Xamarin feels like programming Java in C#, which makes me feel like I would actually be happier writing Java code.

Instead, for this example you could subclass Activity/Fragment and use reflection to find properties on the activity to inject services into.

This is only one of countless annoying Xamarin problems I have encountered in my few months of use, and this one was relatively easy to solve. Vague problems also ensue when forgetting to inherit a class from Java.Lang.Object which leads to vague exception messages like "Specified cast invalid".

Sure, sometimes parts can be made faster in C#, but more often than not I spend day(s) debugging extremely vague bugs related to non-documented mappings.

When using Xamarin I always get the feeling I'm writing Java code--but in C#. The cross-platform project is a blessing, it's truly amazing to be able to write code once and use it on all platforms (especially if you use Dependency Injection for even more sharing).

The downside to this is that making a UI seems to even out your gained time--it's extremely messy and even complicated. Code that's valid in C# produces vague underwater bugs in Java code, which makes you keep hacking around until you find a working solution.

Not to mention the docs: some parts of the documentation are completely outdated to the point of not even compiling on an older version of Xamarin. For example, the tutorials on using Google Maps in your Xamarin.Droid application are way out of date, ignoring the fact that the "Google Play Services" component has split off into thirty-or-so components. Some of the most used API's are not documented at all, simply having a "To be added" description.

All in all I find much potential in Xamarin, and I really want to love it, but it's a messy nightmare to use, and it only makes me want to use Java and Swift separately for apps.

I've been using an HP Spectre X360 15" with a 4K touchscreen which is truly amazing. The only downside is that the one USB 3 port is not a thunderbolt port, making it not all that useful unless you get a dongle that allows you to plug in a regular USB cable.

Other than that, I've been enjoying it immensely and it made me stick to Windows at a time at which I really wanted to switch to Linux or MacOS.