Today we announced that over 1 million unique developers have downloaded Xamarin since we started shipping C# for iOS and Android in July 2011. In addition to passing this major milestone, we are excited to announce some amazing new features that you can get today.
Xamarin.Forms for Windows
Xamarin.Forms for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1
This March, we released Xamarin.Forms for Windows and Windows Phone Preview with a very positive response from developers. Today, we are pleased to announce the general availability of support for these platforms, enabling developers to build and ship Xamarin.Forms apps targeting all of the major mobile platforms from a single code base. Xamarin.Forms for Windows and Windows.Phone will be available to install via NuGet later today.
Availability of Private Previews of Xamarin.Forms for Windows 10 UAP
In addition to the stable release of Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, we’re also announcing the start of a private preview of Xamarin.Forms for the Windows 10 Universal App Platform, enabling developers that build apps for all Windows platforms to share even more code. This is a very early preview and we’ll be making the Xamarin.Forms for Windows 10 pre-release packages available to small batches of developers over the coming weeks. If you’re interested in joining our preview program, please sign up here.
New Visual Studio Features
Code Completion for Xamarin.Forms XAML
Declarative UI development in Visual Studio gets even more powerful with code completion for Xamarin.Forms. Now you can easily explore Xamarin.Forms user interface APIs, quickly build complex screens, and avoid typos and other common mistakes while creating UIs in XAML.
Microsoft Visual C++ Debugger Integration
We’ve worked with the Visual C++ team at Microsoft to make it easy to reference and debug C++ libraries in Xamarin.Android apps. In the Visual Studio 2015 Release Candidate, you will now find a new option to pick which debugger you would like to use when running your Xamarin.Android apps from the project’s property window. Simply choose Microsoft and you will be able to debug through your native C++ library with all of the debug features you know and love, including expression evaluation, watch window, and auto window.
Enhanced WatchKit Support
Our iOS designer in Visual Studio is now fully enabled for editing Apple Watch storyboards. Drag interface controllers and UI controls onto the storyboard from the Visual Studio Toolbox and configure properties on the Properties pad and use control + drag to move buttons, tables, or interface controllers onto another interface controller to create segues.
iOS Binding Projects
When developing iOS projects in Visual Studio, you might encounter cases where you want to consume a third-party Objective-C library. In those situations, you can now use Xamarin.iOS Binding Projects in Visual Studio to create a C# binding that will allow you to consume the library in your Xamarin.iOS apps.
Get Started With Xamarin Today
Join over 1 million developers by downloading your free trial of Xamarin to build native iOS, Android, Mac, and Windows apps today. Then, head over to our developer portal where you’ll find samples, documentation, and upcoming events to help you get started with Xamarin.
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