.Net 6 and C# 10 on MacOS Monterey

Question

Dear community,

I want to learn C# and .Net 6 for backend development with ASP .Net 6 and frontend with Blazor. As database, I'm using MySQL and PostgreSQL. Also, in the future , mobile development with .Net MAUI. I'm using a MacBook Pro M1 with Monterey operating system. Is Macbook Pro M1 adequate to develop these applications ? Does .Net 6 fully support Monterey (ASP .Net, Blazor, MAUI) ? I use Visual Studio Code as IDE with plugins .

Sincerely yours,
Claudiu Alex

Answer 1

Yes, a m1 with Monterey is fully supported and a m1 pro has plenty of power for dev work. There are apple silicon native versions of MySql, PostgreSql and the dotnet 6 tools. also on a Mac, you have android and iOS emulators for mobile development.

if you want to use SqlServer, then you can use the Azure Sqlserver (SQL Edge) docker image.

https://hub.docker.com/_/microsoft-azure-sql-edge

while visual studio code is adequate for asp.net development, if you want to do mobile apps, you may want to also use visual studio for Mac 2022 (in preview), It will help with project templates, code signing, and debugging in the simulators. Its also probably helpful with Blazor apps.

https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/mac/preview/

with vs 2022 you can create native macOS and iOS apps using C# and UIKit (requires an Xcode install to edit story boards and UI) instead of using Xamarin forms or Maui.

Answer 2

Dear Mr. Bruce,

Thanks' very much for detailed reply. I like modern programming and .Net. I use Macbook Pro M1 because is very powerful for programming. One more question : if I develop .Net apps using Visual Studio for Mac, în the future, can I develop the same app on Windows without modifications?

Sincerely yours,

Claudiu Alex

Answer 3

it depends on if you used cross platform libraries. If you wrote a MacOs desktop app with UIKit, it would only work on a Mac. If you used .net 6 & Maui the same app would run on windows.

If you meant can you work on the IOS app on windows, it still requires a support Mac. On windows, Visual Studio supports Mac and iOS development by having a separate Mac that does the compiles and other work.. the windows visual studio communicates with visual studio / Xcode installed the support Mac. azure DevOPs and GitHub both support MacOs build machine. I have never developed IOS on windows (always used a Mac), but I believe you can plug an iOS device into the windows dev machine to debug the code from Visual Studio.

As windows supports native android development, you can use the same .net android (or android studio) projects on both windows and Mac.

You should be able to share projects and run console apps, Blazor apps, asp.net core apps and Maui apps.

Answer 4

Thanks' again for reply, Mr. Bruce.

So, Visual Studio for Mac 2022, except Windows platform specific apps, is the same as Visual Studio for Windows.

Can you recommend some documentations about development of IOS native apps using C# and about ASP .net ?

I've bought the book :."C# 10 and .NET 6 – Modern Cross-Platform Development: Build apps, websites, and services with ASP.NET Core 6, Blazor, and EF Core 6 using Visual Studio 2022 and Visual Studio Code, 6th Edition" By Michael J Price. Is a very good book covering many aspects of.Net 6 framework.

And about Blazor : can it be a substitute for Javascript ?

Sincerely yours,

Claudiu Alex

I'm deaf, I'm about 40 years old, system enginneer, married and the programming is the future for me.