Can you reference Xamarin's output (lib) in Xcode?

Question

I have two different applications on different platforms: Windows (.Net) and iPad (made with Xcode). With introduction of similar features on both applications I am thinking of some way to share logic/code on these applications. Xamarin came to mind as possible option.

However I am not interested in migrating/rewriting whole iPad application (objective-c) to Xamarin (c#) and I am looking for some ways to link Xamarin's build output (dll?) to iPad Xcode project.

Something like this: .Net Portable Library project -> Open with Xamarin -> Build into 'some package' -> Link 'some package' in Xcode project.

Can Xamarin compile into some library that is linkable in Xcode?

Answer 1

No. Xccode cannot read a package built with Xamarin.

Answer 2

No, you can't create a static library (or anything else Xcode understands) from a Xamarin.iOS project.

There is however another solution: you can create a static library for your Xcode project, and consume that in your Xamarin.iOS project. The only requirement Xamarin.iOS poses, is that the entry point must be your managed Main method.

Taken to the extreme this means that you can rename your native main method to something else (native_main for instance), and just P/Invoke native_main from your managed Main method. Then you can start porting code to C# at your own pace.