2 Build a .NET MAUI app
This chapter covers:
- Introducing Visual Studio for macOS and Windows and the .NET CLI; the tools you will use to build .NET MAUI apps.
- How to create a new cross-platform mobile and desktop app with .NET MAUI app.
- How to run your .NET MAUI app and see changes in real-time with Hot Reload.
I work with .NET developers all day every day. Most of them are full-stack developers and work with a web UI framework like Angular or React. But I often hear them say things like “I don’t know mobile development” or “I don’t know native desktop development”. This is a misconception and couldn’t be further from the truth.
Any .NET developer can build mobile or desktop UI apps with .NET MAUI. There’s a small learning curve to get to grips with some of the UI- and markup-specific syntax and the design patterns – and that’s what this book is for. Anyone with prior experience with a web UI framework (especially Angular) should feel very comfortable working in .NET MAUI; although prior experience is not necessary.
In this chapter we’ll see just how easy it is for .NET developers to get started building mobile and desktop UI apps with .NET MAUI.
2.1 Say ‘Aloha, World!’ with .NET MAUI
In this section, we’re going to build our first .NET MAUI App: Aloha, World! We’ll look at the tools and templates available to developers for building .NET MAUI apps and talk about some of the pros and cons of each approach.