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For developing VB.NET on Windows without paying a cent, you could use SharpDevelop or use the personal edition of Borland's C#Builder. I haven't used them myself for VB.NET(in love w/ C#), but they do support it. :)

This isn't directly related to BC++, but it's in line with my other post slightly above. It's related to looking for alternatives, in the current age of Java, .NET and Mono.

For the last 8 hours after my other post on this thread, I've been searching the net for information regarding C#, CIL, Mono, comparisons to Java (with usability in mind, not zealotism), etc. And one thing is for sure: .NET and CIL is good technology - I hate to admit it, but MS has something good there. It is not a surprise, as it comes a LOT from the same person that designed TorboPascal, Delphi and now C#. I recommend those interested to read an interview here and pay attention to the ideas he puts forth. It offers a lot of insight into a few things that are wrong with Java, and that most people will probably have felt.

Also, one interesting RAD project is here. .

I've also tryed to learn as much as I could from the state of Mono, its legal status... and I felt important to share that my view has changed slightly, it MIGHT become a player, and it might offer a cross-platform alternative to .NET. I also recommend the GoMono FAQ . There's a lot FUD regarding possible patent threats from Microsoft over Mono, but I believe that to be mostly out of misinformation and lack of knowledge at how it works. The idea of a common VM isn't new, Parrot for instance is just another one.

I'd be most interested in whatever other people might have to say about Java vs .NET/Mono, that comes from careful study and consideration not just hype. Approaches like CIL and Parrot make a lot of sense... where do you see them going?

Free C# compilator? Right here: .NET Framework SDK

Or here: Mono project

Free IDE? Here: Sharp Develop

Or, if you want to test .NET 2.0, go here:
.NET Framework 2.0 SDK

As you see, you don't have to pay anything to try C#; since you say you're convinced, go for it!

Currently it would be very difficult to develop for the .NET platform using any reasonably priced packages. Reasonably priced compared to the amount of money you would like to make, that is.

Huh? Everything you need to develop .NET software is free. I can't think of a much more reasonable price.

(I'm using the MS .NET SDK, although I could be using Mono on Linux if I preferred, along with the sharpdevelop IDE, which I think may be Windows specific.)

It might be intresting to see, as monos' Windows.Forms support advances, how #develop would succeed as an IDE. It's basically a GPL'd version of the VS.NET IDE.

Ding! Wish granted.

I switched to SharpDevelop a month or so back... once you get the hang of it, it can do much of the VS.NET editing and compilations stuff. Oh and you'll need the SDK installed so you can get at the debugger DBGCLR.exe. Check out this great article on how to do it.

One thing I really miss is a viable pointy-clicky WDSL tool.

Do they have one I'm not aware of?

Class Management

Built-in Help

Code Completion

Project Support

Integrated Debugger

and others It doesn't yet have a GUI builder, though you can use Glade for that which works OK for now.

If you want to go completely free and use a nice IDE, try #develop. It isn't as nice as VS, but it is astoundingly nice for a free (as in speech) IDE.

...as I've recently downloaded and fell in love with a nifty little free program called SharpDevelop as I've wanted to build some VB applications for a while now but just have no desire to pay so much for a development environment that should be free in the first place. My philosophy is that a development environment encourages use of a particular platform, and while I understand that it costs money to put them together, you're going to get much better developer support in the future if you release your toolsets for free. I mean, look at the various FPS and Neverwinter Nights modding communities. Yes, while mods are not always a commercial product like a software package built in Visual C++ or something, they still build a great deal of support for the initial program and extend it's usefullness for quite some time.

Anyway, I'll quite babling and just say that I think it's about time Microsoft did something like this. I've always been baffled that a Visual Studio suite runs upwards of $1000, and the lesser versions still can cost a few hundred. Right now I'm considering developing a database app to use as a MySQL front end for a small company I'm doing IS work for, and at first SharpDevelop was my only option (though it looks like I might stick with it; it's an incredible program) at least until a VB dev environment is COMPLETELY FREE. The only problem now is I have to decide whether to learn .NET, Visual C++, or C#. Ah, decisions decisions. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but SharpDevelop doesn't support pure unadaulterated VB...)

...yes, I would learn C++ or something otherwise, but time is of the essence right now. If any seasoned Windows developers have any suggestions for a plan of attack I'd love to hear it.

you visit the Eclipse and NetBeans sites.

I know we are all about open source here, but honestly.. this has very little to do with Microsoft launching Visual Studio Express. Maybe you should mention how you can code C# in Eclipse. And also mention sharpdevelop or monodevelop. NetBeans, isn't really useful for .Net development as far I know...

I'm assuming the Visual Studio Express suite comprises IDEs for .NET, since that's the direction Microsoft is going, big time.

There are actually two free .NET IDEs out there at moment (with caveats, of course): SharpDevelop (GPL, with GUI builder) and Borland's C# Builder Personal Editioin NON-Commercial (you can only make non-commercial apps with this).

Or you can use this fine dot NET development enviornment.

Free

Mono is free and open source. So is DotGNU. Rotor is made by MS themselves, free and "shared source". And the Microsoft Official .Net SDK is free as in beer as well, and free to distribute with any programs you make with it.

With all these free implementations, and Lots of free Open Source IDEs out there for it, implying that C# development costs money is pretty much the dumbest argument you can make against it.

One other note: This is actaully a port of the GPLed SharpDevelop which works with MS .Net. So for .Net use SharpDevelop and for Mono use MonoDevelop

One other note: This is actaully a port of the GPLed SharpDevelop which works with MS .Net. So for .Net use SharpDevelop and for Mono use MonoDevelop

Open source .NET IDE:

If it's just the IDE you're missing (and I wasn't aware that the Mono people were writing one), then you might want to take a look at icsharpcode.net. One of the projects (#Develop) is a free-as-in-both IDE for .NET.

In addition to that, Borland have a personal edition of C# Builder available, which is free as in beer, but not licensed for commercial use.

• Putty - A free (GPL) SSH terminal emulator
• Winzip - Yeah, you know what this is
• VLC - Free media player
• OpenOffice.org - I should stop doing these descriptions, its not as if youve heard of these things before!
• GIMP for windows - Yup, the infernal/eternal image editor
• Sharpdevelop - Free (GPL) .net IDE, requires the .net framework and SDK
• Bloodshed Dev-C++ - Excellent free (GPL) C and C++ IDE, using the Windows GCC port
• Thunderbird - Mail client
• Firefox - Web browser
• Adobe Acrobat Reader - PDF Reader
• PDFcreator - GPL PDF print driver for windows
• MessengerPro (Clickatell) - Non free SMS sender for windows, company does good bulk buy sms rates, i buy 500 at a time for less than $5
• Lavasoft Adaware and Spybot SS - For the essentials in life
• Topstyle - Free version of the excellent CSS editor for webdevelopment, if anyone knows a good free alternative, im open to suggestions :)
• SmartFTP - Great free for personal use FTP client, not found a better one yet! (I have, Filezilla it is excellent AND fully GPL, none of this non free shit, bub. :-) )
• MySQL-Front - Old version of the MySQL windows front end, much much better than the new one you pay for. Source isnt open and the old developer discontinued development, possibly one of the best advertisements for why OSS is good :(
• Editplus - Possibly the best editor ive found, not free im afraid, costs around $25

VLC -, like you mentioned, Free media player is a great media player, it blew me away. Better then Window's media player, and I know that my porno viewing habits are not going straight to Bill Gates.

One you didn't mention is Filezilla which is a good GPL ftp program instead of SmartFTP if you want to try another one out. (I must confess I use LeechFTP since I haven't gotten use to Filezilla just yet, although if you are into hosting files Filezilla is even better).

This is a little offtopic, but since its written in C#, for those of you what don't have Visual Studio and don't want to mess with the command line tools (or don't have Mono on Linux) SharpDevelop is a great C# development product. Its GPL. Again a little of topic, but its always good to pimp your favorite software.

Yes, there's also a Linux version.

The .Net compiler has already been free. You could already develop .Net apps without paying anything for tools. There is even a free open source IDE in existance that is similar to VS.Net.

Making the C++ Compiler is different, though.. Although it does support the .Net framework, you can compile to native code, which is what you couldn't do before without buying VC++.

...ICSharpCode.Net, which has the GPL's Sharpdevelop IDE for .NET

...ICSharpCode.Net, which has the GPL's Sharpdevelop IDE for .NET

Try Emacs !Once you get your key bindings right, it's really a fabulous editor. Lisp grows on you FAST.
Since you're an Emacs person, Brad Merrill, a Microsoft .NET Evangelist, has some tools for doing C# in Emacs. Also the people at @ic#code have a free as in beer, but still open-source IDE for C# programming. I don't know if I can do straight C/C++ with it. The screenshot has me believing otherwise. It looks like Visual Basic. I'm thinking I'll give that one a try before tackling Emacs.

While we're on the subject, I've just found that Macromedia's Dreamweaver MX 2004 works as an IDE for C# programming. It does color syntax highlighting, which is an important feature for me, but I haven't found any other standard programming IDE features.

Finally, not being an Emacs guru, I'm not sure which implementation to get. I can always use Cygwin unless there's a regular Win32 port. However, I also found a Windows version that claims to be smaller and lighter at http://www.notgnu.org/ Any recommendations?

Actually, there are a couple of free IDE's for the .Net world.

Microsoft offers a *FREE* ASP.Net development IDE called ASP.NET Matrix available at www.ASP.Net. It's geared towards code writing, so you don't get a great WYSIWYG HTML tool, but you can do some pretty cool stuff with it.

For a Windows Form IDE, look at SharpDevelop which is currently in Beta release .99b :-). It's open source (GPL) so if it doesn't work, you can fix it. I haven't looked at this one in a little while (beta .95), but it looks like the development team is rolling right along, and in fact, I'll probably download a copy of it today for evaluation. I'm a VS user, but actually write *a lot* of C# test code fragments in TextPad.

I'm sure there are others, but I've actually used those two IDE's (well, three if you count TextPad :-) and would recommend them.

No, it looks like SharpDevelopfrom which it is derived.

Like SharpDevelop for example?

[Warning: I'm just guessing there, I don't have Mono running on my compy right now]

IF your CLI supports System.Xml and System.Windows.Forms, then MAYBE SharpDevelop will run on your computer.

I tried it once using the early 1.0 framework, worked nice, a bit clunky if you are used to vs.net but then again SharpDev was an alpha OSS tool back then [now I gather it's a beta OSS IDE ;) ]
Please feel free to flame me to death for my ignorance or just post a 'WFM'.

the MSVS IDE is what keeps Microsoft/Windows up and above Linux as far as ease of development goes.

Have you tried #develop latelly? Free as in beer and as in speech;

http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/

SharpDevelop -- www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/

GPL'ed IDE, not (yet) as mature as Eclipse, but targeted specifically towards C# development, and very usable. It even has a GUI builder. Highly recommended!

There are 2 open-source IDEs for the .Net Environment of note:

1. Web Matrix, an ASP.Net oriented IDE. Can be downloaded from:

http://www.asp.net/webmatrix

2. #develop, a more general IDE for C# and VB.Net. Can be downloaded from:

http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/Default.a spx

Both of these IDEs are only available for Microsoft OSs at this time.

3. A C# plug-in is available for Eclipse. It can be downloaded from:

http://www.improve-technologies.com/alpha/esharp/

It should run on Linux, using Mono.

For the moment, only on windows... SharpDevelop

There is an open source alternative IDE for .NET called SharpDevelop, which you get at http://www.icsharpcode.net. It is not as good as VS2003, but quite near :)

I do a lot of ASP3.0/SQL2k and some utility development on Win32, taking a stab at .NET. It would be nice to move over to Mono.

Anyway, I've done a bit of poking around and ran across SharpDevelop - AKA #develop . It's open source a la GPL and looks a lot like Visual Studio, and compiles C# and VB.NET; has C# => VB.NET code conversion; does projects or files; has syntaxing for the whole MS shebang. It's a .97 - this build was released Friday 9/12/2K3, officially in beta, and you can get the binaries here, go snag the source here, and get the MS.NET1.1SDK here.

To those folks who hiss and moan about the whole GNOME/.NET/Mono thing, take a gander at the rationale before playing jump to conclusions (mp3).

SharpWT - AKA #WT is a .NET port of Java SWT on both Windows/.NET and Linux/Mono platforms. So...you can develop your .NET apps to run on both Win32 and Linux with pretty much the same GUI. Neat, eh?

Anyway, intrepid Windows Developer, if you can pry yourself away from the MSDN Library for a few minutes, you might find there's something to this Mono business.

I do a lot of ASP3.0/SQL2k and some utility development on Win32, taking a stab at .NET. It would be nice to move over to Mono.

Anyway, I've done a bit of poking around and ran across SharpDevelop - AKA #develop . It's open source a la GPL and looks a lot like Visual Studio, and compiles C# and VB.NET; has C# => VB.NET code conversion; does projects or files; has syntaxing for the whole MS shebang. It's a .97 - this build was released Friday 9/12/2K3, officially in beta, and you can get the binaries here, go snag the source here, and get the MS.NET1.1SDK here.

To those folks who hiss and moan about the whole GNOME/.NET/Mono thing, take a gander at the rationale before playing jump to conclusions (mp3).

SharpWT - AKA #WT is a .NET port of Java SWT on both Windows/.NET and Linux/Mono platforms. So...you can develop your .NET apps to run on both Win32 and Linux with pretty much the same GUI. Neat, eh?

Anyway, intrepid Windows Developer, if you can pry yourself away from the MSDN Library for a few minutes, you might find there's something to this Mono business.

I do a lot of ASP3.0/SQL2k and some utility development on Win32, taking a stab at .NET. It would be nice to move over to Mono.

Anyway, I've done a bit of poking around and ran across SharpDevelop - AKA #develop . It's open source a la GPL and looks a lot like Visual Studio, and compiles C# and VB.NET; has C# => VB.NET code conversion; does projects or files; has syntaxing for the whole MS shebang. It's a .97 - this build was released Friday 9/12/2K3, officially in beta, and you can get the binaries here, go snag the source here, and get the MS.NET1.1SDK here.

To those folks who hiss and moan about the whole GNOME/.NET/Mono thing, take a gander at the rationale before playing jump to conclusions (mp3).

SharpWT - AKA #WT is a .NET port of Java SWT on both Windows/.NET and Linux/Mono platforms. So...you can develop your .NET apps to run on both Win32 and Linux with pretty much the same GUI. Neat, eh?

Anyway, intrepid Windows Developer, if you can pry yourself away from the MSDN Library for a few minutes, you might find there's something to this Mono business.

I'm assuming you're asking for an IDE alternative to Visual Studio .Net. Take a look at SharpDevelop. According to its authors, it's open source under the GPL. I've given it a try on my old P2 300, and it's not bad at all IMO. It takes a little longer to load, but it has solid functionality and tons of features on an interface that looks very familiar to that of Visual Studio .Net

If I remember correctly, #develop is the "official" Mono IDE, although you're right; /. did report some time back (with choice quotes from Miguel) that Eclipse has been successfully ported to Mono (or vice versa).

• Framework 1.1 redistibutable (23MB) The minimum requirement to get anywhere with .net, but you might prefer the rather more comprehensive:
• Framework 1.1 SDK (106.2MB) All the commandline tools including the compilers for C# and vb.net, documentation as well as the framework libraries. If you don't want an IDE at all, this download is all you'll need.
• Web Matrix (1.3MB) Free ASP.net IDE which fits on a floppy, requires only the redistributable rather than the whole SDK, and includes a working local-only webserver derived from:
• Cassini Web Server (217kB) Open sourced, very simple web server for running ASP.net apps provided as a code sample. Only works on calls from the local machine but rem out one line of code and (if you're brave/foolhardy) this no longer applies. If you'd prefer to keep if Free as well as free (apart from the SDK of course), you could look at:
• SharpDevelop (8.3MB source or 5.3MB executable) An open source GPLed IDE for C# with a little bit (so far) of VB.net support

I was going to say "nope, you don't get the C# compiler with just the runtime, you need to download the SDK" but I did a "dir /s csc.exe," and behold! No only does the .NET runtime come with the C# compiler, you also get the VB.NET compiler (vbc.exe) and the JScript.NET compiler (jsc.exe)

For those wodnering where it is, the compilers and such can be found in:
C:\WINNT\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322

At least on my Win2k install with that version of the .NET framework.

You can get a free (mmm, speech) IDE in #develop- even does GUI buildling.

Start with Windows, add the .Net Framework or the SDK, download and install Sharp Develop and you've got everything you need to develop console apps, WinForms apps, Libraries, etc... For free.

SharpDevelop is basically "Visual Studio .Net Lite" and it costs nothing.

For ASP.Net applications, grab the WebMatrix tool from ASP.Net.

Neither one is perfect or can fully replace Visual Studio .Net but they're free and really quite functional.

Free GUI's for .Net programming:

ASP.net Web Matrix is a free GUI for ASP.NET projects by "Never give away anything" Microsoft... WROX even has a PDF book on it... Wrox Press ASP.NET Web Matrix>

SharpDevelop an Open Source IDE that is currently Beta .95, and looks like it has promise. Allows for console, service and web projects in VB, C# and Web Form projects in C#. My experience is that the Web Form designer still needs some work, but this looks like it will rock.

The .NET Framework SDK can be downloaded free from Microsoft's web site, and includes the C# and VB.NET command line compilers. Download SharpDevelop for a free IDE, and away you go.

• Mono's biggest missing piece is an IDE. Eclipse is a first-rate IDE, and now runs under Mono.

C# is the perfect blend of vb java and c++, it has rad as well as power and even cross platform support coming up quick (http://www.go-mono.com). C# has a very good free IDE (SharpDevelop) which is also going to be cross platform.

So what does c# have going against it? m$ haters that won't look past the fact that c# came from m$. I don't like m$ either but c# will join the ranks of c++ and c in regards to a publised standard language unlike java.

players will have to have the .net Framework (~20 meg, of which I note 1.1 is now downloading on Microsoft update.)

Wish Microsoft bundles both Java and .NET - wasn't the whole reason why .NET does not come bundled yet, Microsoft's apprehension of being forced to bundle Java too?

1. VS.net obviously gives you the "VB" approach to design and coding, so you have things like Intellisense pop down your available functions and methods, and instead of worrying with coding your GUI design you design it in design mode.

   Of course the problems with this approach is that it's way too easy to use the IDE as a crutch - especially Intellisense. One day you'll be in a situation (like a technical quiz for an interview) where you won't have these tools available, so unless you're paying attention you won't know what to do.

   Now this is not to say that IDE's are bad - we all use them. But be aware of what you're doing - commit to memory the notion of what event handlers you're really writing code for.

   Also, VS.net writes part of your code for you as part of the interface design - this is hidden (collapsed) by VS.net into a region - something like "Forms Designer Generated Code". They're correct in telling you in the comments not to touch it, but do open it up and look at it every once in a while, both because then you'll see the behind the scenes stuff (something VB6 wouldn't let you do) and because that stuff is written with Microsoft Best Coding Practices in mind, so it's clean to look at and study.

2. The second thing I would say is use the command line compilers now and again. Obviously you don't want to commandeer a huge project with command line compilers if you don't have to, but it's still a good way to make sure you know the code better than you know the IDE. A happy medium can be found with the open source (!) IDE SharpDevelop, but be forewarned that the forms designer leaves a bit to be desired and I've had SD wipe out code of mine before.

.NET Framework SDK is FREE

No, you don't get the Visual Studio development environment, but you CAN compile VB.NET, C#, or C++ code with it.

If you want a visual dev environment and still don't want to pay for it, try sharpdevelop

If you'd done some research before posting, you'd have realized that your criticism is unfounded. Additionally, there's nothing stopping you from getting GCC running under windows as well. You also have perl, python, or any number of other languages ... so what exactly was your point about not being able to develop for free?

VS.NET obviously won't work on Linux, but SharpDevelop is on the way...

I was on the Borland Developer Network page yesterday and found this article on Borland's upcoming .NET IDE.

"Borland plans to offer an alternative to Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET development environment. Such a product could suit application developers that want to leverage .NET and the best applications from many vendors."

The only other .NET IDE I know of today is SharpDevelop, which feels sluggish on my P3 1.2GHz. Anyone know of others?

It doesn't sound like much, but for porting a lot of business logic to Linux, this is a potentially huge development.

Another thing that's needed to get this project up to par with MS .NET is an IDE. Fortunately, the SharpDevelop folks are working on that...

So far this project has been very impressive. Kudos to the Ximian folx.