Developing Mobile applications with Xamarin and F#

Onorio is going to teach us all how to build mobile (Android specifically, but the same can be done with iOS) applications with F#!

Xamarin Studio (http://xamarin.com/)

Detroit Labs (http://detroitlabs.com/)

Please make sure to have Xamarin studio installed (either Windows or OS X) before arriving to help speed up the process. As per usual this is a coding session, which means hands on keyboards. You don't have to own an Android device to participate, and if you can't get Xamarin installed on a laptop that's ok too (you can pair with someone who has it running)!

Onorio will be leading a hands-on session on building an Android app with F#. Some of you may say to yourselves: F#? Why would I want to use F# to build an Android app?

1.) Tired of having apps crash because you forgot a null check? In F# you can get rid of null checks (yes, that’s right. No more having to check for null all the time). 2.) Dreading trying to figure out how to write asynchronous code for Android? Worrying about the novel ways that your code can fail when you introduce asynchronous behaviors and trying to figure out how to debug async code? Well F# has supported async code from day 1 and it’s a lot simpler than the story for either Java or C#. 3.) Learn to use Observables to use Linq on events. That’s right, now you can have the ease of Linq in dealing with events in .Net. And F# makes this easier too.

Combine the coolness of Xamarin which allows a developer to build both iOS and Android apps with C# with the sweet spot of F# and functional programming and you have one heck of a powerful way to build a mobile app. As we say, the session will be hands on—even if you’re not interested in Android, but rather iOS, you will leave with your machine set up to explore Xamarin further and a handy dose of F# to go with it.