Is it possible to create Windows Form apps on Mac OS? - c#

I'm studying Informatics Engineering, and my teacher uses a Windows PC to teach us Windows Forms. My question is: Can I do my Windows Forms homework on my mac? I'll install Visual Studio of course.

Can you do the Windows Forms homework on your Mac? Maybe.
As mentioned, Mono has an implementation of Windows Forms. There has been recent activity in this area (early 2018).
Visual Studio for Mac is not actually regular Visual Studio. It's a re-branding of MonoDevelop.
Should you try to do the Windows Forms homework on your Mac? Probably not.
The Mono version is a different implementation of Forms and you're going to run into bugs, missing features, etc.
You're going to end up debugging environment differences. Mono/OSX vs Windows, VS for Mac vs VS proper, etc.
You'll end up in more trouble if they provide bat/powershell scripts, require another Windows-only library, etc.
The end result being either you'll spend a lot of time trying to use things you receive from someone else, or (even worse) they won't be able to run what you turn in.
Alternatives:
As has also been mentioned, you can run Windows in a VM like virtualbox, Parallels, or VMWare Fusion. Visual Studio Community is free.
Use a computer lab at your school with Windows machines
Work remotely via: Microsoft Remote Desktop, Apple Remote Desktop, VNC, etc.

Related

Can apps be developed, installed, and debugged onto an actual iPad Pro using ONLY Visual Studio & Xamarin on Windows 10 computer WITHOUT using a Mac?

Can a C# app prototype be developed on my iPad Pro by using ONLY Visual Studio with Xamarin, on my Windows 10 Pro computer without buying (ie. using) a Mac?
Initially, for rapid development of non-distribution prototype, I want to use only VS 2017 Pro & Xamarin on Windows 10 to develop and test an app on my iPad Pro 12.9".
App will talk to other system components by WiFi, and utilize new iPad Pro features like pen and its high quality screen, for augmented reality.
Can get Mac later, in order to deploy on Apple store.
Can I truly develop, deploy onto actual iPad, and debug 100% with only VS & Xamarin, and without Mac and Xcode?
This Microsoft article about its Xamarin Live Player is confusing to me because it reads "the source code is interpreted" which I don't want, and later it reads "The app runs right on your phone or tablet." is I want.
Yes, a mac is required to build and debug iOS apps.
However, VSTS does allow you access to a mac build host which can build and deploy to TestFlight and the AppStore, if required (and if configured correctly). This won't allow you to debug and step through your code on a device or in the iOS Simulator, however. For that you need the Mac with High Sierra and the latest XCode installed.
Xamarin Live Player is in preview only and is only really useful for simple apps at the moment.
So, the answer is the company needs to buy me a new Mac. Yum.
The bad news is that it's back to using Xcode again. Two years ago, the star rating of Xcode on Apple Store was a mere 2-stars. It would be nice if the tool to develop on iOS was as easy to use as iOS. But, that's what Stackoverflow is for, I guess. :)
Whilst the existing answers/comments are correct I thought I'd add my own experience with this
If, like me, you won't use the mac for anything other than a build server for xamarin, I can say that a mac mini is fine for this, and will allow you to build apps. Just make sure you connect visual studio on your PC to the mac.
It's also worth noting, that more recently Visual studio team services has started using a hosted macOS build host. I haven't used this myself as I bought a mac mini, but in theory, if you use VSTS you might be able to build and deploy your iOS apps. I would suggest that you check it out.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/vsts/pipelines/apps/mobile/xamarin?view=vsts&tabs=vsts
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/devops/2017/11/16/cloud-hosted-mac-agents-for-ci-cd-pipelines/
Sadly this has always been the case with xamarin and it's the way apple licensing works.

How to compile and run a C# Windows Forms application without visual studio

I'd like to run a windows form application, programmed in visual studio, but I need to be able to run this program from a machine they does not have VS installed at all. I'm a computer science student so I've attained a lot of software for free through the university I attend, unfortunately I do not believe I am able to download more than one copy, but I've created a small program that needs to be able to run on a machine without any programming environments installed.
so my questions are:
Is this possible?
would I need to change settings on the form or on my VS?
if it is completely not possible, I will just need to work around this some other way. Any insight would be great, thank you.
if you install framework 4.0,4.5 etc, you can run it

Is it possible to develop applications on Windows using MonoTouch/Xamarin?

I know I need a mac to deploy but can I at least use my PC to develop the application? It would really help me a lot if I can develop on Windows where I can focus on writing the app.
This answer covers only Xamarin 2.0. Unfortunately I don't know MonoTouch.
Take a look at this statement about Xamarin 2.0:
Xamarin 2.0 bundles the company's Android, iOS and Mac development
tools in a single affordable package aimed at all tiers of developers.
The free Starter edition includes the Xamarin Studio IDE enables
developers to create Android, iOS and Mac apps using C#. However, the
free edition doesn't allow developers to exceed 32k of compiled IL
code and it cannot import or call upon any third-party libraries. The
$299 Indie edition removes this restriction. Things start getting
really interesting for .NET developers with Xamarin Studio's $999
Business edition. This version adds the ability to code iOS
applications within Visual Studio. Yes, you read correctly — code
iOS applications in Visual Studio! Granted, you still need a Mac to
compile and deploy the application to iOS devices (more on that
later), but the fact that you can use a familiar IDE to develop iOS
applications is a game changer.
To make it short: Yes you will need a mac to deploy your application and
yes you can develop on windows using Visual Studio.
Source: http://www.drdobbs.com/tools/xamarin-20-review/240150634
No you don't need the 1 k version to compile on windows. When you want to deploy your app you need to buy it! If u are making a app for windows 8 or whatever you dont need to pay. Monogame is a open source project. For the deployment to the phones your paying to the xamarin project.
"This means that your Xamarin iOS for Visual Studio installation requires a networked Mac OS-X computer to perform these tasks for you. Once configured, Xamarin’s tools will make the process as seamless as possible, but the fact remains that a Mac is required in addition to the Windows computer running Visual Studio."
So still need to hook up my mac and perform all the installations and configurations. Will take time but not a deal breaker I guess.
It is possible to use cloud build services for such a task. One such service worth giving a try is http://ship.io - they offer a free plan to get started.

Is it possible to develop Windows Phone 7 apps without a Windows machine?

I don't have a Windows machine, just a Mac and a Linux box. Windows it pretty expensive, and I don't want to pirate it either.
Is it possible to develop Windows Phone 7 apps in Mac OS X or Linux? Is Visual Studio required?
If you want an affordable and legal copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, a system builder license is available for $99.
There are countless reports of this running great in virtualization software on Mac OS X and Linux.
I personally ran Windows 7 in VirtualBox on Ubuntu 10.10 and it was a great experience. Definitely a practical environment to develop Windows applications in.
Once you've got Windows 7, all the development tools you need (including the phone emulator) are free from Microsoft.
No.
That being said maybe it is possible to run Visual Studio for Windows Phone (which is free) on Linux via Wine but I doubt it.
You can do some Silverlight development on Linux and learn some of the XAML and C# concepts and apply them later on Windows Phone but you won't be able to write a real WP app without a Windows machine.
Is Visual Studio required?
Your profile says you're 16 years old. You more than likely qualify for Microsoft's DreamSpark program. Even homeschooled kids qualify. This means you have legal free access to Visual Studio 2010 Professional.
I haven't tried this myself, but I think you can do this using PhoneGap and their PhoneGap Build service.
However I imagine its a pretty painful debug cycle without the emulator (which I understand you need Windows for).

How to test app for Vista

I've written an app that connects to websites APIs and does some things there. It is a app written in C#, .NET 3.5 on a XP OS.
Now I have a problem. Some people reported that this application hangs on Vista, and not on the more new version of Windows (what was the name?)
So I do not have Vista and do not have money to buy this system only to test this one, freeware application. Is there any other way to test my app if it is valid for Vista or is there other way to make sure it will be working? I'm in a blind spot here and do not know what to do next.
Update: I use Visual C# Express 2008
Use a trial version of Vista?
On one of my small projects, I've worked out some miscellaneous bugs by connecting to users over Remote Assistance before. At least Visual Studio Shell Edition (free) will let you attach to an existing process, and probably C# Express Edition (free) as well.
(This was an obvious choice for me, since my program is a Visual Studio extension, therefore all of my users have Visual Studio installed.)

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