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janaFlag for United States of America

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Advice in Xamarin

Hi,

Please advice on Xamarin.  We have a programmer in  VB6 and is learning VB; we were considering turning to Xojo and was advice on Xamarin.

How is the learning curve for a VB6 programmer? (stick to VB.net or make the change)
Any conversion VB6-Xamarin?

Thank you.
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YZlat
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I don't think you can use VB6 with Xamarin. But Xamarin does come for free with VS 2015 and you could use VB.NET
If you want to do Xamarin, you want to develop a mobile application?

There is no converter from VB6 to Xamarin.

If you program VB.Net (but I would really recommend C#), you will recognize some structures and keywords but since .Net is fully Object-Oriented (and VB6 only really Procedural), your code should be very different.
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Mobile and desktop apps.

How is the learning curve for a VB6 programmer to learn Xamarin?
Xamarin is mainly a platform. You program in C# (no support for VB.Net). check https://www.xamarin.com/platform

You fist need to learn C#, and OOP, and mobile, and ... This is a great new world if all you have done is VB6!
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So that means that the learning curve for a VB6 programmer is too great; due to first learn c# means another process of learning making the curve much longer.
open the samples of Xamarin and see if you can modify them and that will give you an idea of the level.
if you want a free ebook, check fro "Creating Mobile Apps with Xamarin.Forms" from https://mva.microsoft.com/ebooks?MC=WinServer&MC=DataMgmt&MC=Windows&MC=MSAzure&MC=SQL
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Hi,

Read your profile and noticed you are a senior Consultant for .Net VB and mainly do client/server applications programming using VB.Net and C#.  That said, and going back to our question, for a VB6 programmer what do EE consider is the learning curve for this type of programmer getting into Xamarin?

(or like our question asks, should  the VB6 programmer forget Xamarin and stick to VB.net?)
You should use Xamarin only if you want to develop multi-platform (IOS / Android) applications. Is that your case?
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yes.
If you want to go mobile, you need to learn C#/Xamarin/Mobile/.... From VB6, you should consider throwing much of what you have learned away because it is completely different. Programming mobile apps is a different paradigm. For example, your application does not connect to a database, it goes through a service.

But that being said, even if the learning curve is a very good one, if you can get some training on the subject or get a consultant to help you start with the project, I am pretty sure you will be able to go through!
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What do you mean 'the learning curve is a very good one'?
(we just clicked on your your profile and says you are senior Consultant for .Net VB & C# developer and mainly do client/server applications programming using VB.Net and C#; seems you can provide us a good answer to our question).  FYI, we have been googling with this question and have come with lots of info hard o make a decision on.  When this happens, we turn to EE for a more direct answer.

That said, what is your opinion to our question:

Hi,

Please advice on Xamarin.  We have a programmer in  VB6 and is learning VB; we were considering turning to Xojo and was advice on Xamarin.

How is the learning curve for a VB6 programmer?
(stick to VB.net or make the change)

Thank you.

The part "Any conversion VB6-Xamarin?" had already been answered; there is none.
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Éric Moreau
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From driving a car to flying a Boeing 747, wow, that is  a long curve for learning Xamarin.  Our findings also pointed to a long of learning c#/Xamarin, 8 to 14 months at least.

With your comment, our best option for the programmer is to keep on the learning vb.net as our question states.
but if your programmer learns vb.net, he won't be able to build Xamarin app. Isn't it the goal in your scenario?
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We are planning for mobile apps but also windows apps; we thought that with Xamarin we can develop also for windows apps besides the mobile.
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Since we are heading out vb6 we thought of using a platform that we can develop for both windows apps and mobile.

Xamarin cannot be used for windows apps?
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Ok, thanx.
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Thanx! Great Info! Hope other .Net newbies members see this entry!