[DUG] Opinion wanted - is the upgrade from XE5 to XE6 worthwhile

[Jolyon Smith]

Leigh, the potential issue is specifically one of licensing in commercial
applications that rely on Mono, not viability of the platform:

https://xamarin.com/licensing

Note that licensing of Mono is necessarily required.  As I understand it,
it is a potential issue only in some deployment situations, but the
potential does exist - ignoring it won't make it go away.  At the very
least someone needs to understand the potential implications before they
can decide whether it is relevant to them.


As for the viability of Mono, some might say that Xamarin/Mono had better
prospects on non-Microsoft platforms before MS got involved.  I do have to
wonder how it is in Microsoft's interests to attract and support developers
for what are after all competitor platforms ?

I can't help but recall that it was Microsoft, after all, that coined the
phrase "Embrace.  Extend.  Extinguish"  ?  ;)


On the technical front, the fact remains that a Xamarin app relies on Mono.
 Just as a FireMonkey app has the FireMonkey runtime bundled in with every
app, every Xamarin app has a built-in copy of the Mono VM, which is why
"Hello World" in those solutions require you to set your units of
measurement to MBs.

As developers we have become very used to VAST amounts of storage at our
disposal.  1GB for an app ?  Pah.  Who cares ?  Get a bigger HDD if you
need one and stop complaining. :)

But mobile devices are a different kettle of fish.  User storage is often
not freely expandable and if you are thinking of targeting "wearables" or
the internet of things in the future, the amount of storage in future
devices is likely going to be even more limited in those cases.


Meanwhile, the production version of my battery widget for Android
(developed using RemObjects Oxygene) weighs in at a hefty, eye-watering, SD
card straining   .....  37 KB.  And I wasn't even *trying* to save space
when I wrote it.  :)

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nz.co.deltics.batterywidget

Unfortunately it's impossible to compare with a FireMonkey version of the
same thing since it's impossible to *create* such a thing using FireMonkey.
 ;)

However, I believe it is possible with Xamarin, and it could be interesting
to make that comparison one day.


On 11 July 2014 14:42, Leigh Wanstead <leigh.wanstead at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Jolyon,
>
> What you said is not an issue related to Mono. Xamarin becomes a partner
> with Microsoft.
>
> http://xamarin.com/pr/xamarin-microsoft-partner
>
>
> .net developer has a better future on Mono than microsoft :-)
>
> Regards
> Leigh
>
>
>
> On 11 July 2014 13:59, Jolyon Smith <jsmith at deltics.co.nz> wrote:
>
>> Xamarin relies on Mono, with potential licensing and runtime implications
>> for commercial developers.
>>
>>
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