Slashdot Mirror
Visual Studio 2015 Can Target Linux; Android Apps Anywhere Chrome Can Run
jones_supa writes Phoronix has noticed that the Visual Studio 2015 product page mentions that the new IDE can target Linux out of the box. Specifically the page says "Build for iOS, Android, Windows devices, Windows Server or Linux". What this actually means is not completely certain at this point, but it certainly laces nicely with the company opening up the .NET Framework. And speaking of cross-platform software: new submitter mccrew writes Google has released a tool that lets Android apps run on any machine that can run its Chrome browser. Called Arc Welder, the tool acts as a wrapper around Android apps so they can run on Windows, OS X and Linux machines. The software expands the places that Android apps can run and might make it easier for developers to get code working on different machines.
Looks like C# is closing in for the kill. I've read that a starter version Xamarin/mono is going to be integrated into VS.
All of the CTP and preview releases have been shipping with Apache Cordova and an Android build target using mono for the underlying .Net implementation. Been like this for the past several months, targetting Android has been well known amongst .Net developers following VS2015.
I think it will be helpful to everybody if they can get .Net code to compile for iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux. It will make cross platform development so much easier. It will probably help out to get more stuff on the Windows App store as well. Just being able to do iOS and Android in the same language will be a huge help to mobile developers. And if it takes minimal effort to also get the app to working on Windows Phone and Windows app store, then I could see a lot of developers switching to doing things this way.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Or perhaps it's rather a reading comprehension failure on your part. Visual Studio 2013 has a Community edition, but this is talking about 2015, which isn't out yet.
People who want cross-platform on iOS and Android have had it since day 1. Write your logic in C or C++. Its how cross-platform has been done for decades. Then write a wrapper in whatever language the platform uses for the UI.
If your complaint is that you want cross-platform Ui code as well- no you really don't. The two platforms are so different that you'll never get an app with a good look and field without writing 2 separate UIs. Unless you want to release an Android like UI for Apple (which will get hatred from users) or an iOS like UI for Android (which will get hatred from users).
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
People who want cross-platform on iOS and Android have had it since day 1. Write your logic in C or C++. Its how cross-platform has been done for decades. Then write a wrapper in whatever language the platform uses for the UI.
The problem is that most phone applications are typically 95%+ UI code. If you do that, you're not exactly going to save much time and effort.
Somehow it's hard to take Delphi seriously......
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Write your logic in C or C++. Its how cross-platform has been done for decades.
Yep... just like people keep talking about this "car" gizmo when we've had decent horse-and-buggy technology for centuries! I don't understand why anybody would want to cross the country in this proprietary Ford nonsense when--with just a little knowledge of horsemanship, veterinary science, metal-working, carpentry, wilderness survival, food preservation, hunting, and gunsmithing--they could take the slow, dangerous, proven approach!
-1, Too Many Layers Of Abstraction
It is not just a "wrapper for the UI code" there is a shitton of stuff, just for starters there are all the sensors (gyroscope, gps, camera), permission handling, packaging the app, interaction between apps, background services and a lot more stuff that differs from one platform to the next.
Yes you can share much of your application logic between each platform using C/C++, but:
1) You need to write it in C/C++
2) If your app mostly just talks to a server there is not much application logic in the mobile device, so most of your code will not be portable at all.
There is a reason mostly only games share significant codebases between each platform. Their application logic is already usually written in C++ and they don't often have to deal with the stuff I mentioned before.
I think you missed the point. People want cross-platform GUIs, where the compiler/assembler/linker will automatically reshape the UI to fit the target device's HIG. More like saying "we've been using the internal combustion engine for decades in cars and motorcycles. If you want to increase horsepower, improve the fuel injection that's used in both." If someone comes up with an electric engine replacement, that's still not going to make a new car dashboard suddenly make sense on a kawasaki.
People have been walking using shoes for decades. Neither a horse nor a car helps you walk better; they just enable you to do less of it, in different ways.
The word "target" in this context refers to the runtime operating environment for which the executable is being built. This is common usage for compilers, which may be able to "target" multiple processors, or variants on architecture.
what a mishmash of broken garbage these stacks are now.. no wonder nothing's secure and simple program logic that was fine with 66mhz and half a meg of ram now needs a 3ghz cpu and 2gb to run acceptably.
None of that makes sense if performance is of any concern (it should be), along with seamless integration into the environment.