Under the hood in Xamarin.Mac

Ahead of time compilation (AOT)

Ahead of time (AOT) compilation is a powerful optimization technique for improving startup performance. However, it also affects your build time, application size, and program execution in profound ways, so it's worthwhile understanding how it works.

Mac architecture

Xamarin.Mac's relationship to Objective-C, including concepts such as compilation, selectors, registrars, app launch, and the generator.

Xamarin.Mac registrar

Xamarin.Mac bridges the gap between the managed world and Cocoa's runtime, allowing managed classes to call unmanaged Objective-C classes and be called back when events occur. The work required to preform this “magic” is handled by the registrar, but understanding what's going on "under the hood" can sometimes be helpful.