December is usually dominated by top-10 lists for the year that is about to pass. While Uno-wise we had a great 2020, we’d rather look forward to 2021 and define what will make it great. This list is a compilation of our team wishes, as well as early looks at the data we are gathering from our 2021 roadmap survey (still open btw).
About Uno Platform
For those new to Uno Platform – it allows for creation of pixel-perfect, single-source C# and XAML apps which run natively on Windows, iOS, Android, macOS, Linux and Web via WebAssembly. Uno Platform is free and Open Source (Apache 2.0) and available on GitHub.
1. UnoConf – August 2021
UnoConf will happen– be it in Montreal or online. The Canadian government estimates that most Canadians will have access to the vaccine by late summer. This likely means that borders will be open and that hosting in-person conferences will be safe. We really miss seeing you in person and we hope to host you in Montreal in August.
2. Day-0 shipping with WinUI
WinUI will likely be released in the first half of 2021. Our commitment is to have Day-0 support for WinUI, enabling you to extend those experiences to non-Windows desktops, Web and Mobile. Our sincerest thanks to the Windows UI team who keeps sharing their roadmap and early bits so we can be compatible
3. Tripling down on Web/WebAssembly
Many of our paid support users are very excited by the prospects of WebAssembly and the opportunity it creates for them. Product-wise, Wasm will be our top priority. You can expect further improvements to AOT and performance in general, like we did in our 3.2 release.
4. Documentation & Samples
No documentation is ever perfect or complete and we acknowledge we got ways to go in enhancing our docs and samples. Our approach will consist of three main streams
- Producing pure Uno Platform – specific documentation
- Enhancing documentation so it is clear where your documentation needs are best met at – i.e., if we are reusing a control from WinUI, the best ever documentation will be on Microsoft site. There is no point in duplicating that same documentation on Uno docs. However, we need to provide easy paths for you to understand when to go to Uno vs. Microsoft docs
- Soliciting Uno community to help us fill documentation gaps through Hackthoberfest-like activities or Twitch streaming.
- Migration Paths. We admit we have not been good in providing migration paths and documentation for those of you modernizing your older desktop applications or even switching from other platforms. In 2021 we will start a series of documentation articles helping you migrate over to Uno Platform.
5. More Control Mappings
In 2020 we had released support for many new platforms – macOS, Linux, Skia and flirted with Tizen. In 2021, when WinUI is expected to RTM, we will be putting an even bigger focus on maturing Uno Platform by providing a growing set of controls and mappings to existing WinUI and 3rd party components such as the recently-announced Infragistics controls for Uno Platform, and Syncfusion charting.
6. Tooling
Our plan is to have you ever so productive with Uno for multi platform development. There are a number of ideas we have floating around, and this blog is not the right place to announce any of those experiments. But you can expect productivity accelerators in 2021. And to that point, our survey is still open if you would like to pitch any tooling suggestions.
7. Same number or more frequent releases
In 2019 we had 4 releases and in 2020 we had 8 releases. For 2021 we will aim for 8-10 releases, meaning you will get access to production-ready code faster.
8. Uno team at your local user group
Be it virtual or in-person presentation, we would like to come and talk to your local user group in a smaller and intimate setting. We are setting aside time for this and would love to come speak to your group. Pelease reach out to us if you’d like us to come visit your group.
9. Endorsing .NET 6
.NET 6 is expected to RTM in the second part of 2021. We expect to be able to leverage a lot of goodies that will come with it, just like we did with .NET 5. What exactly will be decided as .NET 6 deliverables become available. But rest assured that we will inherit any productivity or performance accelerators coming with .NET 6.
10. Fun Experiments
We’ve grown a bit of a reputation with experiments we’ve done int the past – the XAML CyberTruck, Windows Calculator on iOS, Linux, Android, macOS and Web, the “ToyCar” demo, and various experiments with Blazor to name a few.
Rest assured we will continue making these fun experiments in 2021 so we can jointly learn and push technology limits.
If you are new to Uno Platform and want to have fun with us, give Uno Platform a try via this 2-minute tutorial.
Sasha Krsmanovic, CMO, Uno Platform.
