A guide to cross-platform development with .NET

Introduction

Software developers must prioritize cross-platform development in today's technology ecosystem. Users access programs from a variety of devices and platforms, therefore it's crucial to make sure they work smoothly in all of those settings.

When it comes to developing applications that can operate on more than one platform, .NET development solutions are a top choice because of the powerful tools and libraries they provide. In 2022, around 25.3 percent of respondents used the .NET framework.

This article will take you deep into .NET cross-platform development, covering everything from the language's advantages to its tools, best practices, and real-world examples.

Understanding .NET

.NET is a Microsoft framework that is cross-platform, free, and open-source. Applications for the web, desktop, mobile, cloud, and the Internet of Things (IoT) can be built with the help of its programming model, large libraries, and tools.

Developers have options and freedom with .NET because it supports various languages. Some of these languages include Visual Basic, C#, and F#. The popularity of the .NET framework has increased from 34.2% to 34.55% to become the most popular framework.

Components of .NET

The various components of asp.net development company are as follows:

1. .NET Runtime (CoreCLR): .NET Runtime (CoreCLR), executes the code. It has an entire set of parts which include a just-in-time (JIT) compiler.
2. .NET standard: A formal specification of .NET APIs (Application Programming Interface) that will guarantee uniformity in the difference .NET implementations. It means the code can run anywhere.
3. ASP.NET core: It is the most durable, cross-platform framework for writing APIs and web apps.
4. Entity framework core: For .NET programs EF Core undertakes the task of making data access simple. It becomes an ORM framework.
5. Xamarin: A .NET framework to build native apps for the Windows, Android, and iOS platforms.
6. ML.NET: It's a free, open-source, and cross-platform machine learning framework created by Microsoft for the .NET developer platform.

Benefits of cross-platform development with .NET

The various benefits of cross-platform app development services are mentioned below:

1. Reach: Developers can satisfy more users who own different peripherals and software with a multiplatform approach that uses one codebase.
2. Cost-effectiveness: By eliminating the need to make and manage separate codebases for each platform, cross-platform development contributes to saving up software maintenance costs.
3. Consistency: The developer can achieve code structure, design patterns, and development workflows in different platforms by deploying .NET for cross-platform development makes development an easy task.
4. Performance: .NET provides libraries and runtimes that are tailored for cross-platform programs and they deliver optimized execution.
5. Community and ecosystem: The global community has a sizable and vibrant .NET framework that is used for building cross-platform applications.

Tools for cross-platform development with .NET

The various tools for cross-platform app development companies are:

1. Visual Studio: Visual Studio features include a myriad of development tools like project templates, code editing capabilities, debugging tools, and support for version control systems.
2. Visual Studio code: Visual Studio Code, which is an open-source code editor, is both lightweight and .NET framework-ready; it comes with extensions for languages like C# and F#, and so on. Examples such as IntelliSense, debugging and Git integration are included in the highly tunable Visual Studio Code.
3. NET CLI (Command Line Interface): .NET Command Line Interface (CLI) is a tool that will allow users to code, build and run programs using the command line. Of all the platforms, Windows, macOS, and Linux are the ones supported by this.
4. Xamarin.Forms: A toolkit for the cross-platform interface that offers the developers the convenience to use the common one. The forms can help the developers to create adaptive and visually appealing user interfaces that span across the device and platforms.
5. Azure DevOps: Azure DevOps turns out to be the best platform. It is a compendium of software development project management instruments, such as collaboration and delivery tools.

Best practices for cross-platform development with .NET

The best practices for cross-platform development with .NET are as follows:

1. Use .NET standard: Take care to make sure that all such libraries and reusable components are compatible with each other .NET implementations by targeting. The use of .NET Standard is an advantage when designing them for cross-platform usage.
2. Follow platform-specific guidelines: Nevertheless, .NET provides an infrastructure that covers different platforms, hence there are specifications that need to be followed when designing for user interfaces and user experiences and also when considering performance optimization.
3. Test across platforms: Carefully and regularly check that your app operates smoothly on different devices and operating systems.
4. Optimize for performance: Leverage platform-specific optimizations and reduce memory consumption with performance optimization strategies such as network latency decrease.
5. Leverage platform-specific features: With a view to delivering native user experience while leveraging each platform’s features and APIs, we should use the platform’s toolkits.

Practical examples

The practical examples of asp.net development services are mentioned below:

1. Building a cross-platform mobile app with xamarin.forms: Use Xamarin to create a cross-platform mobile app for Windows, iOS, and Android.Data forms. Make use of platform-specific capabilities to create native user experiences while sharing code for business logic and UI components across platforms.
2. Creating a cross-platform web API with ASP.NET core: Develop an ASP.NET Core RESTful web API that can be used by cross-platform web, mobile, and desktop apps.
3. Developing a cross-platform desktop application with avalonia: Create a native-looking desktop program that works on Windows, macOS, and Linux with the help of Avalonia, a .NET cross-platform XAML framework.
4. Integrating machine learning into a cross-platform application with ML.NET: Augment a cross-platform software with bespoke machine learning models to deliver intelligent features and tailored user experiences across several platforms.