[xcode11-feature] Swift Libraries (CryptoKit and RealityKit)

[chamons]

Both CryptoKit and RealityKit are Swift-only, with no Objective-C binding.

Infrastructure to work on swift is in work but not public currently.

If we wish to support these libraries, we need to figure out what shipping a Swift library binding truly entails.

As a friendly reminder, an issue card is not a guarantee that a certain feature will be done, or done under any particular time frame. Issues allow us to document what features we do and do not have, and give the community a place to provide feedback.

[wjk]

Just a comment, if binding to Swift natively is too difficult (although it should be easier now that the ABI has been fixed), we could always write a Swift library that exposes @objc entrypoints, and then call those from C# instead. Inelegant, but workable.

[softlion]

Any news on this ? Now that SceneKit is officially out, RealityKit is the way to go. And it's in swift only.

[chamons]

Hey folks, while not a full solution the prototype in https://github.com/xamarin/xamarin-macios/issues/15315 might help resolve part of the issue, depending on what APIs you need.

[CastleSoft]

Any progress on RealityKit ?

https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/realitykit/

C# wrappers ?

Thanks

[chamons]

There is no current progress on this issue. However, using this prototype you could potentially bind the subset of the API you need yourself.

[jimjams26]

Has there been any update on this. I have tried to bind RealityKit and have been unsuccessful multiple times. I have been working on this for months due to needing to create a LiDar scanning application with Xamarin. Is there any more news on this? I just need something. Is there anyone out there that has been successful in binding the swift only framework ? I would love to know ! Or can anyone give any tips on how to implement a LiDar scanner in xamarin. Thanks, Jimbobs

[tipa]

CryptoKit is now the 3rd library (after StoreKit2 & WidgetKit) that I wanted to use, just to find out it is not supported. Really hope there will be some progress is making Swift-APIs available...

[tipa]

I just found out that in .NET8, the AesGcm class is using CryptoKit under the hood (https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/29811), maybe the work that has been done there can be used to make CryptoKit available for direct use?

[rolfbjarne]

I just found out that in .NET8, the AesGcm class is using CryptoKit under the hood (dotnet/runtime#29811), maybe the work that has been done there can be used to make CryptoKit available for direct use?

Not really, in dotnet/runtime this was partially implemented in Swift, by creating C-style functions in Swift that were then consumed from C# using DllImports.

In other words this is all custom, manually written, code. Exposing entire frameworks like this is quite labor intensive, and not feasible with the manpower we have available.

[mlancione]

Do we know whether Microsoft intends to ever support Swift Libraries? This seems quite critical to supporting the iOS platform going forward.

Xamarin as a company seemed to make it their core mission to supporting all iOS and Android functionality (with same-day OS support as well).

[dalexsoto]

Yes this is on our radar and we intend to look into this in the future, I do not have a timeline for you just yet but it is something we will be actively looking into.

[mlancione]

@dalexsoto Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.