The new version of .NET MAUI has been released with .NET 8 Release Candidate 2, bringing developers closer to the general availability of .NET 8. This release, which is covered by a go-live license, focuses on resolving regression issues encountered during the preview stages. As reported, efforts have also been made to recover performance that was impacted during enhancements to features such as hot reload, visual state manager, bindings, and app themes.
In the latest Release Candidate 2 version, several significant improvements have been introduced, with the primary objectives focused on enhancing performance, fixing UI and control issues, and implementing platform-specific solutions.
Performance enhancements were a key highlight of this release, with a focus on optimising ActivityExtensions.GetWindowFrame on Android and refining Setter Specificity performance. As reported, these changes are expected to result in a smoother and more responsive app performance experience.
The development team also dedicated efforts to fixing UI and control issues, including problems related to CollectionView, TabBar visibility, RoundRectangle Borders, and Android text alignment. These updates aim to create a more consistent and visually accurate user interface across different platforms.
Furthermore, the release introduced platform-specific solutions to ensure a uniform user experience. This involved enhancements in drag-and-drop functionality, improvements in Shell tab bar appearance, and fine-tuning of specific platform behaviours.
In addition to these primary objectives, the release included numerous other bug fixes, enhancements, and contributions that aim to enhance the overall software performance. For a comprehensive overview of these changes, readers are encouraged to refer to the complete release notes.
Alongside RC 2 the .NET 7 Service Release was also released as the .NET MAUI service release 8 (version 7.0.96), targeting essential high-priority fixes in areas like layout, memory leaks, CollectionView, and safe area. Developers can access this service release by installing .NET 8 RC2, allowing them to build applications that target .NET 7. Alternatively, version 7.0.96 is available through an upgrade to Visual Studio 17.7.5.
Moreover, Xamarin developers can now utilize Xcode 15 to target the latest iOS and iPadOS versions, alongside targeting Android API 34 for policy compliance. This can be achieved by installing Visual Studio 17.8 Preview 3 or the latest stable version of Visual Studio for Mac, allowing existing projects to continue building. This flexibility is particularly beneficial for those in the process of transitioning to .NET 8 and .NET MAUI, even with the upcoming Xamarin end-of-support date next year.
Also, the comments section is active as usual. The author of the announcement post and principal product manager on .NET MAUI, David Ortinau, was a part of the communication with community members. So it is recommended that developers take a look into the conversations to gain more insights and look for community feedback.
Lastly, in addition to an original release blog post, and as part of the development process, the development team calls on developers to test the new release and share feedback through the official GitHub issue tracker. The community members are also invited to visit the official GitHub project repository and learn more about this project and its future roadmap.
