Question or issue on macOS:
I’m a .NET developer and want to write an IOS & Android app in C#. I’ve had a read around Xamarin for Visual Studio which looks interesting if not a tad expensive!
Do you need a Mac to debug your code? Do you just need a networked Mac to actually deploy the app to the Store?
Is the best option just to buy a Mac and run Windows with VS in a VM or can I just use my windows machine, write & debug the code in Windows then just hook up to a networked Mac for final deployment?
Xamarin Android Player is described as 'has deep integration with Visual Studio and Xamarin Studio and a native user interface on both Mac & Windows' and is an app in the Development category. There are more than 10 alternatives to Xamarin Android Player for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and Android Tablet. As of Android SDK Tools version 26.0.1 and later, Google has removed support for existing AVD/SDK managers in favor of their new CLI (Command Line Interface) tools. Because of this deprecation change, Xamarin SDK/Device Managers are now used instead of Google SDK/Device Managers for Android Tools 26.0.1 and l.
How to solve this problem?
Solution no. 1:
Yes, you must have a Mac to do Xamarin.iOS development. The Mac is required for building as well as running the iOS simulator. You can either use it as a build server, and actually do your development in Visual Studio (either in a standalone PC, or on a VM running on your Mac), or you can do your development directly on the Mac using Xamarin Studio as your IDE.
Solution no. 2:
From May 2017, you can develop app without MAC.
Microsoft Xamarin introduce a Live Player. With Live Player, iOS apps can be deployed directly onto an iPhone or other iDevice from a PC running Visual Studio, where the code can then be tested and debugged.
WARNING The Xamarin Live Player Preview has ended. See discussion
See this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awgZDL1a3YI
this is Live Player Get start section: Live Player
Note: The final build and submission to the App Store will still require a Mac
Device Requirements
The Xamarin Live Player app supports the following devices:
iOS
- iOS 9.0 or later.
- ARM64 processor.
- Check the App Store for a list of supported devices.
Android
- Android 4.2 or later.
- ARM-v7a, ARM-v8a, ARM64-v8a, x86, or x86_64 processor.
Limitations
There are some limitations on the things Xamarin Live Player can run, including the items below:
- Android user interfaces designed with AXML files are not currently supported.
- Some iOS storyboard features are not supported.
- iOS XIB files are not supported.
- Custom Renderers are not supported.
- Xamarin.Forms Effects are not supported.
- Embedded resources are not supported (ie. embedding images or other resources in a PCL).
- Limited support for reflection (currently affects some popular NuGets, like SQLite and Json.NET). Other NuGets are still supported.
- Some system classes cannot be overridden (for example, you cannot implement a subclass).
- Some platform features that require provisioning can’t work in the Xamarin Live Player app (however it has been configured for common operations like camera access).
- Custom targets and build steps are ignored. For example, tools like Fody cannot be incorporated.
Solution no. 3:
You can use Xamarin Studio instead of Visual Studio and build iOS application by C#.
First install VMware Workstation and then download OS X image and run it by VMware.
Then Install tools on it and enjoy.
Tools :
EDIT : The following links are out dated, You must install Mac OS 10.10 in order to be able to install XCode 6.
iOS Tools that you need:
1) Mac OS X image for Windows
Note: Max OS X Installation Help:
http://www.sysprobs.com/easily-run-mac-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-retail-on-pc-with-vmware-image
2) Mono:
http://download.xamarin.com/MonoFrameworkMDK/Macx86/MonoFramework-MDK-3.2.4.macos10.xamarin.x86.pkg
3) Xamarin Studio:
http://download.xamarin.com/studio/Mac/XamarinStudio-4.2.1-1.dmg
4) MonoTouch:
http://download.xamarin.com/MonoTouch/Mac/monotouch-7.0.4.209.pkg
5) Xcode
Solution no. 4:
Xamarin Android Player Mac Download
Update 2018
Install VirtualBox
https://www.virtualbox.org/
Install MacOs 10.13 on VirtualBox
https://techsviewer.com/install-macos-high-sierra-virtualbox-windows/
Create or login with an apple account on the mac
Install XCode 9.0
https://download.developer.apple.com/Developer_Tools/Xcode_9/Xcode_9.xip
Enable Remote Login
System Preferences > Sharing > Remote Login > Enable for All Users
Configure VirtualBox with an additional network adaptor (host-only)
In Windows > Visual Studio (Xamarin Project) > Pair with mac
Enter the IPaddress of the second network adaptor
Let Visual studio install Xamarin IOS, IOS SDK, additional tools on the Mac
All set up.
Solution no. 5:
An option is to use a remote service to do this.
For example:
http://www.macincloud.com
Solution no. 6:
Anybody know that a Virtual-Machine is the solution! but when you want to have an OSX on windows it’s not really easy as you just talked about it.
it’s very important to find best OS ROM.
Xamarin Android Player Mac Free
check it out here.
and you have to know that limitation is Apple’s doing, not Xamarin’s.