How do VS developers handle debugging to iOS from Windows?

Question

Problem I am facing:

1. I need to have the most recent/ compatible version of Visual Studio(windows), Visual Studio(Mac), and Xcode in order to use my set up correctly.
   • This means every month or so going through this arduous process of manually updating each of the aforementioned softwares which takes a long time, only to be a fruitless endeavour because of some issues with compatibility.
     • e.g Windows Visual studio version not the same as Mac xCode & Visual Studio...
   • I need to debug on my iPhone in order to test my Xamarin.forms App correctly.
   • Is there a better way to debug onto an iOSdevice from VS Windows yet? I feel like Apple has set it up so that you must have a Macintosh in order to develop Apps for iOS.
2. Xcode gets to the very end of the update (after usually 4+ hours) and then nothing happens.

What I have tried so far:

1. Upgrade OS X to the latest
   • This stopped the eternal spinner - instead the spinner showed for a second, then nothing happened
   • In the past, updating the App Store itself helped
2. I go to the Updates tab and click UPDATE ALL
   • App Store asked me for my credentials then ran all upgrades, including Xcode
3. James Montemagno's Visual Studio for Mac and Win have been very useful
   • but it seems like these personality developers have infinite resources.
     • He has like two Mac's and a PC, and an ASUS.
     • Is there any hope for us Developers who want to create cross platform apps without having amazing Mac setups?

Conclusion:

• I have scoured the internet to find resources (stackoverflow/superuser/Microsoft/xCode Forums/ Xamarin TV/ Xamarin forums/ Syncfusion solution... etc).
• It appears that there is no real way of going around this problem. But I am curious how other developers in my community are handling this problem. Surely I am not the only one who has experienced this?

Answer 1

The only legitimate way to run Xcode is on Apple hardware; so if you don't have an unlimited budget, then you need a Mac, nothing else.

You can quite easily & legitimately run Windows or any flavour of unix on a Mac, so you don't need two computers to do this. You just need the one licensed to run the OSes you need.

Note most macOS software will auto-update in the background if you allow it. No need to interrupt your work for anything other than full OS updates under most circumstances.
It is also capable of returning to the exact point you left off in almost all apps, if you leave them running as you shut down/restart/relog etc.