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I need to convert a C# .NET Windows desktop app to Mac.

I've read about the cross-platform aspects of Qt, REAL Studio, LiveCode/RunRev, wxWidgets, and Mono (www.mono-project.com and http://monodevelop.com).

Is Mono the only one that can be used to directly convert?

If I were developing the app from scratch, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of each of these products? I've read great things about Qt, but the commercial license is expensive. I've read much less about REAL Studio but it seems very capable and more affordable.

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Qt is available under LGPL for quite some time now, you can develop and deploy proprietary software with it. –  Frank Osterfeld Apr 5 '11 at 6:23

2 Answers 2

It might be easier to use Mono project and make your .net application compatible for Mac OS version of Mono.

More info.

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Real Studio is a great way to create cross-platform applications. It's apps are fully native and its language is object-oriented and very similar to VB/Java/C#.

For me the advantages of Real Studio are the familiar programming language and overall ease of use.

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I understand they have a conversion utility to convert c# .NET code to REALBasic. Does that work reasonably well? What about limitations, such as availability of various libraries (image editing, etc.)? If REAL Studio is so awesome (and it sure does look awesome), why is it so under-talked-about? –  Dan R Apr 7 '11 at 4:06
No, there is no tool to convert C# .NET code to RealBasic code. Real Software does have a "Migration Assistant" that will migrate a VB6 project to Real Studio, but it doesn't convert any code. –  Paul Lefebvre Apr 7 '11 at 13:09
Real Studio is probably not as well known because it is proprietary and not heavily used by enterprise shops. If you have further questions about Real Studio, feel free to contact me directly. That might be more efficient than commenting here. –  Paul Lefebvre Apr 7 '11 at 13:11

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