I'd like to create a few simple C# applications and command line utilities to learn more about C#, affordably. Initially, I tried using Microsoft's free Studio Express in a Windows 8 virtual machine; however, it quickly reported that it could only create apps for the Microsoft app store and failed to build the simplest examples of an XML file transformer.
I also found Mono or rather MonoDevelop. I'm still reading about it. It seems that the SDK is entangled with the MonoDevelop IDE, and the MonoDevelop installer is actually the Xamarin Studio installer. Xamarin is a subscription based IDE and inexpensive versions of it appear to be constrained. Perhaps I need to continue studying; however, I thought I'd ask if anyone has experience getting started with C# on OS X.
Ideally, I'd like the simplest setup. I prefer using command line compilers, simple code editors, and build scripts. Are there Windows and OS X command line compilers for C# applications? Are there framework libraries that can easily be included that work on both OS X and Windows?
First, Mono is not an SDK, but a runtime. The specific point of Mono is to be able to, for the most part, run the same IL on other platforms as what runs on .NET for Windows. This means that, barring the slight hiccups in implementation, you could copy a program, run it via "mono program.exe" (via the console) on OS X, and get the same output (I have tested this with Console applications, at least - UI starts to get a little hairier).
In terms of library, the Mono libraries try to mirror the .NET ones so exactly, that the code you write for one is almost completely compatible with the other.
"MonoDevelop" and "Xamarin Studio" are the same thing, simply having applied a name change after a certain version. They are the most well known tools for building in the .NET language family on a non-Windows system (the only tools I even know of), and tend to mirror the shortcuts of Visual Studio well (at least on windows.) Unlike Mono itself, these are an IDE, and do not constrain you any more than VS constrains you into .NET.
The constraints you'll find with free Xamarin apply mostly to their mobile platforms (iOS, Android) and do not affect working with desktop (ie Windows and OS X) applications.
I've settled on using a Windows 8 virtual machine and Visual Studio Express for Windows Desktop as Dan J recommended. For usage similar to mine, simple desktop and command line apps, be careful not to select and install the "V.S.E. for Windows" version.
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I have years of experience developing on microsoft development stack primarily visual studio 2012/c#. But right now, im required to develop app on linux. While i know c++, its been years since i really touch that. I have few questions.
Can i develop using mono and compile binary for linux and windows with no code(or minimal) code changes?
Can i develop on windows platform using visual studio 2012, compile for linux on window platform? do i need to use virtual machine for compiling for linux in windows platform?
How do you setup your development environment if you want to develop linux app on windows platform(develop on windows, compile for linux and windows. my linux box use for testing is a separate machine.)
Some info on what im working on.
My project is about network channel analysis. The client is cheap industrial linux box most probably with no ui. Im using mono/c# to develop the client. The server would be windows develop using vs2012 c#. Most probably using wpf as ui. Im planning to share network/communication library between linux(client) and windows(server). My primary concern for using linux is for cost saving since the client is almost thousand units.
thank you.
Mono runs executables in PE (Portable Executable) format, the native file format of Windows. There's no need to "compile for Linux", as long as your app is pure MSIL. And even if you use native DLLs through p/invoke, Mono and Wine work together to run the Windows files on Linux.
(The a.out and ELF executable formats used by native Linux applications don't have mechanisms for storing .NET metadata, the PE format was modified to support .NET, so that's what .NET Framework (not Micro Framework) implementations use regardless of platform)
The most important things to consider at the beginning are,
WinForms of Mono is problematic. Not only most third party controls won't work properly, but also libgdiplus itself is not 100% compatible with Microsoft's GDI+. It might appear to be a sweet option, but later you might still need to fight hard against the incompatibilities.
WPF is not an option as Mono does not support it yet.
GTK# is your best choice for UI, which blends naturally with Linux distros. If you refactor your Windows project properly, you should be able to share the non-UI code between your Windows and Linux solutions. This is what Mono guys recommend (not only use native UI frameworks for Windows, Linux, but also for Mac/MonoMac, iOS/Xamarin.iOS, and Android/Xamarin.Android).
So go back to your questions,
You should never wish for no code change for a real world project. No, that's impossible. As I said earlier, you have a chance to share most non-UI portion.
You can develop the non-UI portion and the Windows only portion using VS2012 and test them out on Windows. If you plan to use Mono's WinForms or GTK#, you must develop and debug on Linux using MonoDevelop. Thus, you need either a virtual machine or physical machine of Linux.
For me, I frequently switch between Linux/MonoDevelop and Windows/VS.
As Mono + C# is much more productive than using C/C++, many successful Linux apps are developed on Mono, such as Banshee and Tomboy.
You can use Visual Studio without problems but for example you cannot use WPF, while Windows Forms are ok. For more information what you can use visit: http://www.mono-project.com/Compatibility
Moreover there exists Mono tools which integrates with VS: http://www.mono-project.com/GettingStartedWithMonoTools
I am creating a project on C#-.Net. The 'exe' file generated from the project is not executable on machines which do not have the .Net already installed. This error is popping up:
To run this application you first must install one of the following versions of the .NET.Framework: V4.0.30319
I don't want to make an installer file which installs the dependency files (.Net FW and other...) on PC.
As project requirement, I want to make an 'exe' that runs on every Windows PC without installing software or dependency sofware -> .Net FW. Just when clicked and the s/w exe should execute.
Is it possible to make such machine independent 'exe' for Windows from .Net ??
That's not exactly possible (there are some tools out there that will allow you to bundle dependencies, but I wouldn't recommend using them).
Your best possible approach to this is using an as-old-as-possible framework, for example .NET Framework 3.0. This way you'll use a framework version that is already preinstalled on pretty much all systems in use. Or in other words, you'll ensure your program runs on as many systems as possible out of the box. Just provide a link to the runtime in case someone is still missing it.
Also just to note that this is far better compared to what happened to the first few iterations of the .NET Framework: Those executables would just crash with a complex error message not telling the user that it's just the runtime missing. It improved a lot over time.
Also, just as an alternative: Have you thought about using ClickOnce deployment? This will allow you to provide users a simple and minimal installer they won't really see either. It will only download and install dependencies that are still missing. Also this is built into any edition of VisualStudio, even the Express ones.
This error is popping up
It is not an error. Just a friendly reminder to the user that your program need .NET 4 to be available before your program can run. He'll click "Yes, please!" and everything solves itself automagically.
You could create an installer to avoid the message. But, given that you don't want to do that, and it already takes care of it for you, there is very little point.
More about what this all looks like and why it works this way in this answer
"As project requirement, I want to make an 'exe' that runs on every Windows PC without installing software or dependency sofware -> .Net FW. Just when clicked and the s/w exe should execute.".
1) What if the version of Windows doesn't have any .Net Framework?
2) What if the version of Windows doesn't support any version of .Net Framework? (.Net didn't come around until Win2K/ME ish times, and Windows 95 won't take most .Net frameworks, 3.1 / 3.5 wont even take Mono)
"Is it possible to make such machine independent 'exe' for Windows from .Net ??"
Sounds like you're trying to make something like a Setup.exe that can be a single download that will work out the specifics after the fact... Actually the "machine independent" makes even C++ unsuitable, because while C++ will work on Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, and a whole slew of more exotic systems with x86, x64, i64, PPC, ARM24/32/64 etc. (all of which exist with Windows installed on them, out there, in the wild, but are pretty rare) once the executable is compiled and linked, it will be targeted towards a single CPU architecture and OS. (OS/2, GEM and DOS all use .exe files, and there are some similarities between them, but most other OS don't require any specific file extension for executable binaries)
So, .Net isn't a terrible idea for this reason, any more than a .jar, .pl or .py would be. (which is relatively common for *nix software that you hope will run on Linux, Mac and BSD Unix... maybe even Solaris or HP/UX etc.) If you target MSIL, rather then x86 or x64, then your .exe will run on PPC Windows, DEC Alpha Windows, Itanium Windows, and ARM Windows, as well as the other two. (although this isn't what you are asking about) If you build it without a dependence on the WPF, or other Windows specific GUI engine, it will also work on Mac, Linux and BSD, so long as they have Mono installed. (it just may be worth considering, while you're at it... Versions of Windows Microsoft don't support with the appropriate .Net version will also need Mono to work this way)
To that end, I would recommend building a command-line executable in Mono, rather than .Net development environment. (Mono executable will run on .Net easier than .Net executables run on Mono... Though either is possible if you are careful about the dependencies you include in headers you import into your source)
I've had some success with this, writing a background service that would install on either Windows or Linux with the same binary executable. I used MonoDevelop. (https://www.monodevelop.com/) However, it's really just a flashy IDE around the core Mono development tools. (https://www.mono-project.com/)
Would it be possible to code and compile C#, on a Windows 8 Tablet (WinRT) (the ARM processor edition)?
Basically it comes down to this:
Is there a C# compiler that runs on ARM?
Is there and IDE that can run in WinRT?
If the above is true, I don't see any issue, but I currently can't find if the C# compiler runs on ARM (only a lot of posts about compiling for ARM). I've also looked at SharpDevelop, and found that their source code compiles for "Any CPU", which according to this post: Windows RT and c#, means that it'll run on ARM.
Sharpdevelop however requires .NET 4.0 "Full" runtime, which I couldn't find if WinRT has or not. I'm betting it doesn't, as WinRT is supposed to be a really lightweight edition of Windows.
As a sidenote, I know that Windows tablets will come in two editions, one for ARM and one for classic processors. The classic processors will run a normal Windows 8 edition, which means it can run all the native applications. Compiling C# wouldn't be an issue here - so the question is rather, can I do the same on ARM?
This would be awesome for travelling and trying out new ideas quickly.
Currently: no, and no.
It would certainly be possible to build a Windows Store app that contains an IDE and a C# compiler. However, you would not be able to run any programs built using such an app. Windows Store apps run with reduced privileges in a sandbox. In this sandbox, the CLR will only load system assemblies and assemblies contained in the app package. The app package is immutable and cannot be modified at runtime.
Actually, the .Net framework on the surface includes csc.exe, the Csharp compiler.
I've gotten code to compile, but WinRt doesn't seem to like it being run without proper signing.
The IDE won't happen for a while, not yet at least. I'm sure that with proper signing, it is possible to run a compiled executable.
Or the other guy might be right and it isn't just an issue of signing.
I've ported SharpDevelop to run on unlocked Windows RT devices, it works at least for C# Windows Forms apps. http://chentiangemalc.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/sharpdevelop-rt-edition-beta-code-windows-forms-directly-on-windows-rt/
I'm looking into Mono and .NET C# and we'll be needing to run the code on Linux Servers in the future when the project is developed. At this point I've been looking at ASP.NET MVC and Mono.
I run an Ubuntu distro and want to do development for a web application, some of the other developers use Windows and run other .NET items with Visual Studio.
What does Mono not provide that Visual Studio does?
If running this on Linux later shouldn't we use MonoDevelop?
Are there some third party tools or add-ins that might be an issue with Mono later?
What does Mono not provide that Visual Studio does?
MonoDevelop is presumably what you mean here. MonoDevelop offers cross platform development on Linux, Mac OS X, Windows based on GTK. However it is not as polished as Visual Studio for obvious reasons - it's 3 people making it, not hundreds. It has some nice features, especially its source control plugin architecture. However as Visual Studio Express is free there aren't many advantages on Windows to using it.
It uses the same .csproj and .sln format as Visual Studio, however the XML docs format is different.
If running this on Linux later shouldn't we use MonoDevelop ?
As I mentioned above, the project formats are inter-operable.
Are there some third party tools or add-ins that might be an issue with Mono later?
Unlike Visual Studio, there aren't a huge wealth of add-ins for Monodevelop. The ones that you use in Monodevelop won't effect your .csproj files at all, as anything Visual Studio cannot read it generally ignores.
As people have said don't confuse Mono for MonoDevelop. MonoDevelop is an IDE for Mono that originally came from (forked) SharpDevelop.
Mono is the cross platform framework that 'apes' the Microsoft CLR and framework libraries.
I don't have much experience in this area but...
The Mono Project Roadmap has an overview of features that are new, upcoming, and not present in Mono compared to MS.NET. Even where Mono has the same classes as .NET, note that compatibility is not 100% (although that is generally their goal). I'm not sure if there exists a comprehensive list of things missing in Mono.
MonoDevelop is now available on both Windows and Linux so you're probably best off using it. However, MonoDevelop does appear to use the same project file format as Visual Studio and SharpDevelop, so you could make an attempt at mixing IDEs.
Of course, when using 3rd-party .NET libraries, note that many of them have not been tested with mono, and in particular anything that uses P/Invoke will not work on Mono for Linux. However, most incompatibilities with mono are minor, and if you stick with open-source libraries you can always fix any incompatibilities you run into.
You might also take a look at Mono Tools for Visual Studio. It lets your visual studio developers target and test with the mono platform.
You're aiming to always have support, and/or primarily use the software on Linux, correct? This is actually a question I asked the Mono developers at a conference a little while back, and it basically boiled down to what you want to do with it.
If you want it to always work on Linux, then use Mono. If you only care about Windows, then use Visual Studio.
If you're using Mono, then use MonoDevelop across all developers. It'll just make life a lot easier later on, and it'll make sure that whatever you write in the one will work for everyone.
Unfortunately, I do not know the answer to the exact limits/advantages of Mono vs. .NET, aside from .NET being further ahead, and Mono playing catch-up, nor about different addons.
If none of your developers need to develop on Mono for certain features, I suggest you all use Visual Studio on Windows. Then test the applications on Mono via
Mono Tools for Visual Studio
manually copy the binaries over
check out the code on Linux and build in MonoDevelop.
Personally I experienced a lot of small troubles when I tried out the third way, but luckily I am capable of finding workarounds.
It is only when you touch Mono, you know which part of your application needs to be tuned.
http://www.mono-project.com/Start
If you can help it, it'd recommend avoiding the Mono implementation of Remoting. There seem to be some unexpected hiccups and debugging it is not straight-forward.
We had a very Remoting heavy product that we tried to port to Mono so we could support Linux. Due to being unable to resolve the Remoting issues, we eventually had to abandon our attempts at supporting Linux altogether.
Caveat: my experiences may be outdated. See comments below
You don't need MonoDevelop in order to run ASP.NET program in Linux, make a shared folder on your development server (VMWare'd or real one), test often so you can easily work-around what's missing from Mono
That's the same approach I'm using in my .NET Remoting program I host on Ubuntu server. But I do the reverse, since I'm a solo programmer, I make a shared folder on my Windows development machine, then access that shared folder on my Ubuntu test server (vmware'd). On ASP.NET stuff, if the changes don't reflect on your Ubuntu test server, in Terminal just touch the Web.Config file in your Ubuntu test server. i.e. touch Web.Config, then refresh the page
Mono has a fully functional implementation of ASP.NET. This includes full support for ASP.NET Web Forms and Web Services. This essentially means that more or less any ASP.NET application that you have developed using with the .NET Framework will work with Mono. Obviously there might be changes needed, such as data access changes, removal of any
reliance on .NET Framework BCL types . Mono- Oracle users-.Net Programming C# : ubuntu 11.04
I'm very newbie to Ubuntu OS and I have my solution developed in visual studio 2008.
I want my application to run in both windows and Linux(ubuntu).
I've few questions in my mind.
Does mono support visual debugger .
If I start development using
mono.Is it possible to run same in
.net framework (windows) ?? or do I
need to write the NSI script to
download the libraries during
installation from internet and
install.
What is the best way to
achieve platform independence.
Thanks in advance.
Yes, Mono has a debugger - see MonoDevelop.
Assuming you don't use any Mono-specific libraries, or ship them alongside your app, it should just work in Windows against the Microsoft .NET implementation - although of course you'd want to test it.
A lot of achieving platform independence is a matter of the libraries you use: make sure whatever you want to call is either already available in both platforms or can be shipped alongside your app. Beyond that, there are obvious things like not assuming a particular path/directory separator, potentially not assuming a particular endianness (although that's rarely an issue in C# in my experience) - and regular testing, both manual and automated as far as possible.
There is an Mono add-in for Visual Studio that warns you when building your app if you use something that Mono doesn't support yet.
Don't remember the name, thought.