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Xamarin seems to be a nice choice of cross-platform development to me.However, there are starter and indie licenses. The major difference is that:

Xamarin Starter allows developer to build and publish simple apps, which contain no more than 32k of compiled user code (IL)

I am wondering, is 32K of IL a very restrictive bottleneck? What can I get from 32K code?

If you have tried Xamarin starter version, has the size limit been a problem to you and what kind of app do you develop?

Community
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Fermat's Little Student
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    The problem is that this edition just became available a week ago so there may not be very many people who have already created an app with it. Since it *is* free, why not just download it and create a hello world app and see what the size is? – valdetero Mar 06 '13 at 16:58

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Update (2016/03/31): that limit does NOT exists anymore using Xamarin.iOS 9.6.1

As of Xamarin.iOS 9.8.1 there is no Starter edition anymore and the new Community edition that replace it has no size limit.

Update: the limit was increased to 128KB in Xamarin.iOS 8.4

Update: the limit was increased to 64KB in Xamarin.iOS 6.2

Remember that it is 32KB of user code.

You get all the .NET class libraries (BCL), the iOS API, MonoTouch.Dialog (for UI), web services, Data (e.g. sqlite) ... and even unit testing code at your disposal. None of it counts as user code (so they are not part of the 32KB limit).

E.g. an hello world app (not a great benchmark, it will be mostly generated code) will take about 4KB.

A better way to see what's possible and learn about C# development on iOS is to look at the samples available on github. Most of them fits under this limit.

poupou
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  • Few true cross platform apps will fit under this limit. A good example is their own "Field Service" app. Wasn't able to build it unless I removed alternate platforms (trying for WP8.) It seemed that the iOS build did fit under the limit. – Jason Benson Apr 22 '13 at 19:58
  • That limitation is per-platform (.app for iOS). IOW only the code needed for iOS counts for the limit, other assemblies (if not referenced from the project do not count). OTOH the sample uses a few components (like SignaturePad and Xamarin.Mobile) which won't fit inside the limit. You can still **try** it using the 30 days trial (no size restriction). – poupou Apr 22 '13 at 20:06
  • you can separate any app logic in a PCL (portable class library) and reduce the actual Xamarin user code size – Radu Simionescu May 06 '15 at 15:49
  • So I am wondering now, when taking one of the samples, what exact files/folders are counted and what not are counted after compiling (or before). – CularBytes Feb 23 '16 at 21:36