06 January 2011, 12:55

MonoDroid opens Android for .NET code

Having fixed the "embarrassing bugs" in their Mono .NET clone for Android, the Mono developers have now made a preview of MonoDroid available to anyone who's interested. While the preview includes Mono's full virtual machine, the developers have removed various libraries they say are not necessary on mobile devices, for instance the System.Configuration framework.

MonoDroid is said to contain C# bindings for the entire set of Android Dalvik APIs. However, this ".NETification" of the Java libraries is still incomplete. The Mono developers have also adapted the configuration files (Android uses the XML format for these files) to C# conventions by using data properties. As Android, unlike Apple's iOS, permits Just-In-Time (JIT) compilations on a device, .NET developers can use MonoDroid to create classes and types at runtime.

Also new is the support for Mac developers, who can now use the MonoDevelop platform to create Mono applications for Android. Under Windows, programmers should use VisualStudio. Unlike Mono itself, MonoDroid is not free software, but a commercial project similar to MonoTouch for iOS.

(crve)

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