What is .NET Maui?
What is Maui?
“.NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) is a cross-platform framework for creating native mobile and desktop apps with C# and XAML. Using .NET MAUI, you can develop apps that can run on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows from a single shared code-base. .NET MAUI is open-source and is the evolution of Xamarin.Forms, extended from mobile to desktop scenarios, with UI controls rebuilt from the ground up for performance and extensibility. “
~ Microsoft Docs
I have seen mention of this project for quite a while and wanted to dive a bit deeper and see what its all about. I don’t spend as much time in the native application side as I do the web app side, but its still interesting to learn about.
What’s in the MAUI Framework?
.NET MAUI provides a collection of controls that can be used to display data, initiate actions, indicate activity, display collections, pick data, and more. In addition to a collection of controls, .NET MAUI also provides:
- An elaborate layout engine for designing pages.
- Multiple page types for creating rich navigation types, like drawers.
- Support for data-binding, for more elegant and maintainable development patterns.
- The ability to customize handlers to enhance the way in which UI elements are presented.
- Essential cross-platform APIs for accessing native device features. These APIs enable apps to access things like the GPS, the accelerometer, and battery and network states. For more information, see .NET MAUI essentials.
- A cross-platform graphics library, that provides a common API to target multiple platforms, which enables you to share your 2D drawing code between platforms, or mix and match graphics implementations with a single app.
- A single project system that uses multi-targeting to target Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. For more information, see .NET MAUI Single project.
- .NET hot reload, so that you can modify both your XAML and your managed source code while the app is running, then observe the result of your modifications without rebuilding the app. For more information, see .NET hot reload.
Sample MAUI Program
