Xamarin Forms (XF) is Microsoft's cross-platform environment for Visual Studio/C# developers.
I thought it might interest B4A users to see a comparison of build statistics.
The comparison is based upon a test app created in XF that simply creates/uses a SQLite database
and presents the data in a scrollable list view. The B4A app is the DButilsDemo available here.
Both apps are very skeletal and the data set is tiny for both. In short, they're very, very similar.
The build was done to the same Android phone connected via USB to the same development PC.
I am acutely aware that these kinds of comparisons are imperfect to say the least, but the winner
here is abundantly clear. It takes forever to build in XF and its almost instant in B4A. The size of
the created app is very large in Xamarin but trivial in B4A. The all important cold start time is also
significantly better in B4A. Both offer good warm starts but B4A still has the edge.
(I know this isn't a question but I couldn't decide where these comments should go if not here).
I thought it might interest B4A users to see a comparison of build statistics.
The comparison is based upon a test app created in XF that simply creates/uses a SQLite database
and presents the data in a scrollable list view. The B4A app is the DButilsDemo available here.
Both apps are very skeletal and the data set is tiny for both. In short, they're very, very similar.
XF vs B4A:
Xamarin Forms B4A (DButilsDemo)
Release build time 1m 35s 8 s
Footprint 56Mb 3 Mb
Cold start 1484 ms 624 ms
Warm start 386 ms 186 ms
The build was done to the same Android phone connected via USB to the same development PC.
I am acutely aware that these kinds of comparisons are imperfect to say the least, but the winner
here is abundantly clear. It takes forever to build in XF and its almost instant in B4A. The size of
the created app is very large in Xamarin but trivial in B4A. The all important cold start time is also
significantly better in B4A. Both offer good warm starts but B4A still has the edge.
(I know this isn't a question but I couldn't decide where these comments should go if not here).
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