Use Project Catalyst To Run Apps On Mac

Mac Catalyst adds support for new and updated frameworks to extend what your apps can do on Mac. HomeKit support means home automation apps can run alongside the Home app on Mac. The addition of the ClassKit framework lets Mac apps track assignments and share progress with teachers and students. Catalyst makes it easy for developers with iPad apps to port them to the Mac, allowing them to run on the desktop with few changes to the codebase. Essentially, it’s a very similar approach to Electron, with a major caveat: It only targets one platform, effectively only solving the Apple side of the equation. Meanwhile, here are a smattering of Catalyst apps that may come in useful to iPad/Mac using enterprise professionals. GoodNotes 5 is a brilliant note taking app that lets you. DC Universe is an example of a Project Catalyst app coming to Mac. Apple's plans to allow iOS apps to easily run on Mac were first reported by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman over 18 months ago.

-->

Apple unveiled Project Catalyst in June at WWDC. Apple Apple's efforts to bring iPad apps to the Mac are beginning to pay off, but there's still a long way to go before Mac users are able to find.
Project Catalyst is a big deal in Apple circles these days, and for good reason: It refers to Apple’s project to merge development for iOS and Mac apps, allowing you to use them interchangeably.
WWDC 2019: Apple's Project Catalyst brings iPad apps to the Mac (ZDNet) WWDC 2019: Apple's Marzipan is actually Project Catalyst and means more iPad apps on your Mac (CNET) Which devices support.

This tutorial shows how to create and run a .NET Core console application using Visual Studio for Mac.

Note

Your feedback is highly valued. There are two ways you can provide feedback to the development team on Visual Studio for Mac:

In Visual Studio for Mac, select Help > Report a Problem from the menu or Report a Problem from the Welcome screen, which will open a window for filing a bug report. You can track your feedback in the Developer Community portal.
To make a suggestion, select Help > Provide a Suggestion from the menu or Provide a Suggestion from the Welcome screen, which will take you to the Visual Studio for Mac Developer Community webpage.

Prerequisites

Visual Studio for Mac version 8.6 or later. Select the option to install .NET Core. Installing Xamarin is optional for .NET Core development. For more information, see the following resources:
- Tutorial: Install Visual Studio for Mac.
- Supported macOS versions.
- .NET Core versions supported by Visual Studio for Mac.

Create the app

Create a .NET Core console app project named 'HelloWorld'.

Mac Catalyst App

Start Visual Studio for Mac.
Select New in the start window.
In the New Project dialog, select App under the Web and Console node. Select the Console Application template, and select Next.
In the Target Framework drop-down of the Configure your new Console Application dialog, select .NET Core 3.1, and select Next.
Type 'HelloWorld' for the Project Name, and select Create.

The template creates a simple 'Hello World' application. It calls the Console.WriteLine(String) method to display 'Hello World!' in the terminal window.

The template code defines a class, Program, with a single method, Main, that takes a String array as an argument:

Main is the application entry point, the method that's called automatically by the runtime when it launches the application. Any command-line arguments supplied when the application is launched are available in the args array.

Use Project Catalyst To Run Apps On Mac Os

Run the app

Use Project Catalyst To Run Apps On Macbook

Press ⌥⌘↵ (option+command+enter) to run the app without debugging.
Close the Terminal window.

Enhance the app

Enhance the application to prompt the user for their name and display it along with the date and time.

In Program.cs, replace the contents of the Main method, which is the line that calls Console.WriteLine, with the following code:
This code displays a prompt in the console window and waits until the user enters a string followed by the enter key. It stores this string in a variable named name. It also retrieves the value of the DateTime.Now property, which contains the current local time, and assigns it to a variable named date. And it displays these values in the console window. Finally, it displays a prompt in the console window and calls the Console.ReadKey(Boolean) method to wait for user input.
The n represents a newline character.
The dollar sign ($) in front of a string lets you put expressions such as variable names in curly braces in the string. The expression value is inserted into the string in place of the expression. This syntax is referred to as interpolated strings.
Press ⌥⌘↵ (option+command+enter) to run the app.
Respond to the prompt by entering a name and pressing enter.
Close the terminal.

Next steps

Project Catalyst Mac

In this tutorial, you created a .NET Core console application. In the next tutorial, you debug the app.