Book Review: Mastering Xamarin.Forms

It may sound odd but from time to time I get approached to review a book which is either due to be or has just been published.

I say odd because I’m just a regular developer – not a podcasting rockstar (or even a blogging one). Why would my option be worth a free copy of a book?

Maybe it’s because I’m just a regular developer – just like most of us.

Some of these I let pass me by, especially if I have no real interest in the content, i.e. a technology that I am not using and have no plans to use – F# for example. I frequently say that ‘you have to pick your fights when it comes to technology – you can’t win them all’.

So, when Packt asked if I would review this book it made me wonder:

“How much of a master can I be after reading a book that’s ‘only’ 200 pages?”.

Getting Started with Visual Studio 2019 Android Navigation Drawer template

So, I’ve had an idea for another privacy-focused application, this time aimed at mobile devices – Android in particular (I know that Apple are a little touchy about encryption apps – maybe I’ll venture into iOS at a later date).

Notwithstanding my desire to keep my skills up to date I knew that the project I have in mind would require a lot of platform specific logic. While Xamarin Forms can handle this I prefer to take the hit, roll my sleeves up and I opted for a native Android project instead – and that’s where the trouble/fun started.

IR35 – Living with a Broken Promise

Well I guess it’s old news now, although it was quite foreseeable, but despite a pre-election promise the Conservatives have reneged on their commitment to review the IR35 legislation. Instead they will review the process for rolling the changes into the private sector – not the same thing at all.

Instead of me going over old ground, take a look at my previous IR35 post which was published prior to the election (and it’s broken promises).

In the weeks that have followed Twitter has been ablaze with tweets tagged with #IR35 – many are mine. There is a lot of anger out there and our worst fears, that end clients would take the ‘easy option’ and just stop using contractors altogether has come to pass (despite HMRC saying it wouldn’t).

Unit Testing with the Xamarin.Forms MessagingCenter

While we all know that Test Driven Development (TDD) is a good idea, in practice it’s not always viable. It could be a time constraint, a resource issue or the project just doesn’t warrant it.

While TDD may sometimes be an option, unit tests themselves should really be considered to be a must. They will save you a lot of time in the long run and while they may not prevent you from going grey, ask me how I know, they will reduce your stress levels when bugs raise their ugly heads.

So, whether you write your tests before you write the code or vice-versa, if you are developing production code you really should write tests to cover it.

IR35 2020 – Thoughts from the Coal Face

I’ve been contracting for over eight years now and in that time I’ve been careful to ensure that, to the best of my abilites, I operate in a manner that places me outside of the IR35 legislation. That is, to provide a service to my clients and not to be seen as an employee.

Currently it is my responsibility to determine the employment status of a role with regards IR35. I do this by having contracts independantly reviewed to ensure that they comply with the legislation and take steps to ensure that the actual working conditions are in accordance with service provision rather than employment.

If I get it wrong then it is down to me to justify my determination, in court if need be, and pay any unpaid taxes should I be unable to do so.

However, in April 2020 that determination could largely be taken out of my hands and placed in those of the fee payer, e.g. the client if I’ve been engaged directly or otherwise a recruitment agency that have facilited the engagement.