You're a c# developer, so you're probably used to relatively good documentation, an IDE that doesn't suck much, good tools like Resharper/Productivity Power Tools, and the confidence that what you write will likely work when deployed. You don't get much of that with monotouch. Medium to large sized projects will lag on startup on the device, .5-5 seconds depending on the speed of the processor on the device, enough to make your users wonder if the app crashed. Since there's no JIT on the phone, you'll find that you have to do some minor hackage to get relatively simple LINQ stuff to work. Oh and getting native libraries to work is a frustrating experience. If everything's not 'right' the import/library tool fails with no useful output "Mtouch failed with exit code 1" - friggin' lovely. For a FOSS IDE, MonoDevelop is a nice bit of work, but it's buggy and tempermental, the last thing you want to deal with when trying to meet deadlines (well other than having your development platform pulled out from under you 2 weeks before a major POC release by a bunch of copraphagic corporate-types). While it's amazing that they got the on-device debugging to work at all, it too was not a great experience. Compared to the ease of adding outlets and actions in Xcode 4, the XIB editing experience in MonoDevelop/Touch is a big slowdown in your development workflow.
I was a strong proponent of leveraging my skills in c# (and that of the other developers where I work) by using MonoTouch - fought some battles to get it accepted at my place of employment - and jumped in headfirst. Asstachmate only proved that the FUD of the native-only crowd was right. Don't rely on toys when money is on the line - someone can take them away from you with no notice. $399 is a lot of money to spend on a development curiosity. If you're just wanting to mess around with iOS+C#, wait until the new version comes out from Orangutangarama or whatever the new company's name is. Even if it's still toylike, at least the money will go to some deserving people and not donkey-smegma-gobbling-money-stealing bastards like those who can be found at Attachmate. Did anyone else out there get screwed by spending $$$ on MonoDroid? On 6/2/11 8:55 PM, "Dennis" <[email protected]> wrote: >Hmmm.. I was just getting ready to buy MonoTouch but when I read that it >interfaces with Interface Builder I got confused as this is no integrated >into xcode. So I checked the forums and found this posting! > >I take it monoTouch has been purchased by Novell? Is this worth buying >now >since you folks are complaining about it? $399 isn't a lot of cash but it >is to me! and also for the Andriod version.. From reading your posts the >android version isn't working? > >Sorry for the questions.. Been trying to learn objective-c and thought >I'd >look into this since I'm already a C# developer.. > >Dennis > >-- >View this message in context: >http://monotouch.2284126.n4.nabble.com/Time-for-action-tp3566783p3569745.h >tml >Sent from the MonoTouch mailing list archive at Nabble.com. >_______________________________________________ >MonoTouch mailing list >[email protected] >http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monotouch _______________________________________________ MonoTouch mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monotouch
