Xamarin.iOS, in combination with Xamarin Studio, provides a debugger for debugging apps either on the simulator or on the device. In this recipe, we'll see how to use the debugger for debugging Xamarin.iOS apps. Open Xamarin Studio and load the ButtonInput project. Make sure to set the project configuration to Debug | iPhone.

Perform the following steps to debug your application:

The debugger that is used is called soft debugger. It is called so because it depends on both the runtime and Xamarin Studio, combined to provide one unified debugging platform. When the debugging process starts, Xamarin Studio begins listening for debugging information from the app. The same applies for debugging on both the simulator and the device. When the app executes, it starts sending information back to Xamarin Studio. It then displays that information in the Application Output pad, which is automatically activated. A typical application output when debugging is the information on the assemblies that are loaded, the threads that begin execution, and the breakpoints, if any, that are available.

The Console.WriteLine() method can also be used for debugging purposes. The debugger takes care of this and redirects the output of the method to Xamarin Studio's Application Output pad.