Hi all,
I'm trying to determine what the right technical approach is for my situation. I'm constructing an application that must run on iOS and Win 7 (WPF) with the possibility of adding Android later on. I want to use a PCL Core and MVVM for both. I originally thought I would use an MVVM framework like MvvmCross or MVVM Light, but in learning about Xamarin.Forms and seeing some discussions, I'm not sure if they should be mixed. Here are what I feel are my options:
Option 1 - Xamarin.Forms + No MVVM Framework:
Pros
- Allows me to create the mobile UI using all the cool features of XF
- Almost portable to Android (should we want to)
Cons
(Assuming there's not a way for WPF app to automatically leverage the PCL Core as XF does. If there is, please let me know)
- No framework for WPF app. My concerns are bootstrapping to the PCL Core and being able to seamlessly reuse ViewModels and Services.
- Will have to add View Locator, IoC, Commanding, and other concepts manually to support WPF MVVM.
Option 2 - Xamarin.iOS + MVVM Framework (probably Mvx)
Pros
- Reusable PCL Core out-of-the-box. Both iOS and WPF apps bootstrap and operate in a similar, predictable way.
Cons
- Have to write platform specific UI for iOS and Android (potentially).
Thank you for bearing with me. This is my first Xamarin application. Any help will be much appreciated!