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You can check out Xamarin visual studio tool. It will enable you to develop cross-platform applications: Android, Windows Phone and iOS.
http://xamarin.com/[^]
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I would also suggest Xamarin, especially if you want to stick with VS. However, it isn't all roses. Aside from the licensing & hardware costs (if you want to do iOS work but normally run Windows on a PC), I have found Xamarin Forms to be buggy and deficient in terms of features. There are lots of weird issues with the tools, particularly things like VS randomly losing it's connection to the mac build host (if you aren't running VS on the mac itself) and so on. Xamarin upgrades usually break everything, at least until you find the magical reboot order.
Right now I have an existing published app, but Apple have just changed the rules (at least a couple of months ago) so all apps must soon have 64 bit versions. Xamarin have only just released their non-alpha update for 'unified API' support, and because I work in VS and not Xamarin Studio on a mac the upgrade process for my project was very manual. I also encountered some weird issues during the upgrade that I couldn't find solutions for on the internet, but eventually managed to work through on my own. Unfortunately I'm using a couple of open source libraries to handle things Xamarin Forms doesn't do well cross-platform (access to contacts/camera and image manipulation), and those libraries haven't been converted, so I can't finish converting my app. I'm now trying to decide whether to update those libraries myself (ugh), or wait to see if the authors are successful in time for the two deadlines published by Apple. None of this is actually helping me with my app, and if I had written natively for Apple I would still have had some work to do, but could have started sooner and wouldn't have the x-platform issues to worry about.
I know you said Android (so Google, not Apple), but I just wanted to point out some of the pitfalls of Xamarin. Also don't be fooled by 'Xamarin imposes no performance hit' - there are lots of known issues with the Xamarin Forms ListView integration, and even a few with the label control (!). Even without Xamarin Forms, if you aren't careful on Android specifically, you can end up with memory/performance problems because two different GC's start fighting each other.
I am persevering with Xamarin, but a few devs I know from Twitter have given up and gone on to use the native tools for each platform because Xamarin was just too frustrating for them.
Which is not to say Xamarin doesn't have it's good parts, the fact it works at all is astounding. I'm just saying don't believe all the marketing hype.
As far as books go, I think Amazon has a newish one (or pre-release version) of a Xamarin Forms book by Charles Petzold (now working for Xamarin). If you want something entry level, particularly for XF, that's a good place to start... sorry, I don't have the title handy but if you search for Xamarin and Charles Petzold you'll probably find it.
What I would actually recommend if you go the Xamarin route, is to join the Xamarin University for a year. Yes, it costs more $$$, but you can do as many courses as you can squeeze in, and you get real instructors you can ask questions of. Many of the courses are pretty basic if you're familiar with C#, but the platform specific ones, or the ones that are about Xamarin Form etc. can be very useful. You can even book half hour one on one sessions with the instructors if you need help with an actual project.
Good luck.
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Its a rough job, but at least it isn't boring!
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I see what you did there...
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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DaveAuld wrote: I don't think I would want to be a fisherman!
I agree. My hat's off to them.
However, don't you work on an oil rig? That can be dangerous too, correct?
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Yes I do, but that's a walk in the park by comparison!
(and I'm on a platform, it is fixed to the seabed, a rig floats)
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Its not the rig that would worry me but the 3 million incompatible parts flying in close formation that you use to get there
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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What, you do not fear the highly volatile pressure cooker that you eat, sleep and work on!
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that might kill you, but wont actively try to destroy itself
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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Great images, would scare the poop outta me.
I hit a typhoon one time, we were in a big flat bottomed boat(LST) and I didn't get sick but it was scarey as hell.
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0
There's a fine line between crazy and free spirited and it's usually a prescription.
I'm currently unsupervised, I know it freaks me out too but the possibilities are endless.
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The draft on that fishing boat is extraordinary. And it is good to know the difference between a rig and a platform. I want my world to be solid and stable, I get terrified in a level 4 earthquake (once).
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Right now (for my take over the world project) I needed to find a distance to a Bezier segment.
Which required me to implement a Polynomial class, with a FindRoots method and static method to create Polynomial for said Bezier.
Quite handy!
But I googled first! (on the WWW, on CodeProject, on GitHub, on CodePlex) and couldn't find an already made simple C# answer to my question..
So me think I should share my test/research mini-project (Polynomial.cs, Complex.cs, Program.cs (include tests)) somewhere...
What would be the most hassle free, maximum impact location?
CodeProject tips? (don't want to write an article, or tip for quick and good article please)
GitHup?
CodePlex?
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Super Lloyd wrote: CodeProject tips?
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Make it a CP article... Lately, there is hardly any difference between tips and articles.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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I might go for very simple article then...
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How about all of them, including stack overflow.
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As Slacker007 said, all of them.
Write a short article here on CP (as it was also said, there's little difference between tip and article, throw in a nice Bezier curve graphic and it will make everyone happy), put the project on GitHub (well, forget CodePlex, it's being rapidly deprecated by GitHub) and if you have a blog, blog about it, or let me know when you've published it, and I'll blog about it.
Marc
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Hey, thanks Marc!
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Well Marc, if you feel like it, you can blog about it, it's all working now!
The GitHub version also use BCL Complex struct instead of my homebrew one now!
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http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/14/hard-work-can-drive-you-to-drink-say-researchers[^]
In other news, so can working 40 hours/week, working less than 40 hours/week, or being unemployed.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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