Table of Contents
The latest stable release of .NET MAUI in .NET 8 represents a significant advancement in cross-platform application development. This third major release in 18 months underscores Microsoft's dedication to unifying and improving the Xamarin platform within the .NET ecosystem, providing developers with an expanded set of tools for building applications on Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.
Core Improvements and Features
Enhanced Quality and Performance
The .NET 8 release has seen substantial improvements in quality and performance:
- A remarkable increase in pull requests merged, and bug issues resolved, indicating a focused effort on enhancing the stability and robustness of the platform.
- Significant work has been done to fix high-impact bugs, resolve memory leaks, and improve the accuracy and reliability of hot reload, which is crucial for developers upgrading from Xamarin
New Features in dotNet MAUI
- Keyboard Accelerators: This release introduces keyboard accelerators, enhancing desktop application development by allowing shortcuts for menu items like copy, paste, and cut.
- Pointer Gesture Enhancements: Enhancements to pointer gestures include new PointerPressed and PointerReleased events, providing more detailed information about the pointer's position, and enhancing the user interface experience across multiple platforms.
- Drag and Drop Gesture Enhancements: The drag and drop experience has been improved with new APIs, including custom glyphs and captions for Windows, and enhanced drag and drop features for iOS and Mac Catalyst
Conclusion
The .NET MAUI in .NET 8 release represents a significant stride in cross-platform application development, offering developers an array of enhanced features and tools. With its focus on quality, performance, and user experience, .NET MAUI continues to push the boundaries of what is possible in the realm of multi-platform app development. This release not only caters to the current needs of developers but also sets a solid foundation for future innovations in the .NET ecosystem.