What is MonoTouch?

MonoTouch allows developers to create iPhone applications using C# and the .NET framework, instead of Apple’s official development environment and the Objective C language. It is based on the Mono framework, which is an open source project now lead by Xamarin (an Infragistics partner). Mono was first released in 2004 with the initial aim of providing C# development tools for Linux machines. This quickly turned into a larger ambition of providing a cross-platform runtime for .NET applications.

One crucial difference between MonoTouch and Mono is that applications created using
the former are compiled down to machine code. Mono is different; it is a Just-in-time (JIT) compiler. This means that code is only compiled into native code just before it runs. Apple does not allow that kind of execution on the iPhone, so MonoTouch apps are “proper” iPhone apps.

Even though it produces native iPhone apps, the future of MonoTouch looked bleak a few years back. Apple decreed that apps had to be developed in a pure Apple development environment, with no layers of abstraction or third party tool sets allowed. Only a pretty fierce public backlash caused Apple to rethink this policy, and since then MonoTouch has risen in popularity.

Now renamed Xamarin.iOS, the platform allows developers to easily share code between iOS, Android, and Windows devices. On the iPhone it supports all the APIs of the latest iOS (version 6) and has an impressive client base.

Here at Infragistics we have an iOS toolset that works brilliantly with Xamarin.iOS to help you create state of the art, totally native, iPhone applications. NucliOS provides powerful controls for data visualization and analysis, including 20 different chart types.

NucliOS also comes with the great support you’d expect from an Infragistics product. Our support staff is available 24 hours a day, 5 days a week, via phone, email, or chat. On top of that we also give you access to our community of developers, currently standing at over 850,000 members. Get started here, and see how easy it is to create powerful beautiful iOS applications.