Slashdot Mirror

He's working on an open source C# IDE.

Or (if you don't mind staying on Windows) there's SharpDevelop an actually pretty good VS.net clone that's GPL.

Open Source IDE
You can use CVS for .NET development and you can use any database also.
The only point you have is the middle tier, and with mono and dotGNU, becoming more complete, this point crumbles away also.

A great open source C#.net IDE written in c#. Not available on *nix (or does it run on mono?). I've been using it to develop c# projects on win2K and it's pretty good AND saves on the Highway Robbery that is VS.NET. here's the c# homepage

Give #Develop a try (www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/default.asp). It's pretty nice, even though they took auto-complete out of the latest release. You could get the one prior to 0.89 if you're really needing auto-complete now. Otherwise, it's just a temporary removal while they work to implement a better auto-complete system -- I didn't think the old one was all that bad, but I think they wanted a more extensible system. It's GPL'd, which I think is dumb, but I realize that a lot of people here think it's a good thing. Give it a try sometime.

But, does its EULA let me write GPL'd code with it? Sun's does

I suggest you take a look at SharpDevelop; an open source C# and VB.NET editor (written in C#), that's released under the GPL license.

Or you can use SharpDevelop, specifically written to use the free compiler in the .NET framework SDK.

Unfortunately, it doesn't have a GUI editor to work with WinForms yet. This attempt is the best I've seen.

For better or worse, .NET is seeing a huge take up. Any developers using VB, ASP or Visual C++ are likely to be migrating to the .NET framework on Windows platforms. For that reason, I'd like to see a full and free implementation of .NET on linux - especially the webservice APIS and the Windows.Forms namespace stuff.
GTK# seems to exist in it's own namespace at present, which means that GUI apps written using c# on Linux won't work natively on .NET for Windows. If the Windows.Forms stuff is implemented as GTK widgets in MONO or whatever, then that level of compatability would be achieved.
For the interested, the .NET framework is free(beer) for windows and there's a free(speech) alternative to VisualStudio shaping up already.

.Net isn't as portable as it's made out to be - yet. AFAIK, the GTK# bindings are differerent to the Windows.Forms namnespace which Mickeysoft supply with their .net framework.
So until XIMIAN/AN-OTHER reimplement the Windows.Forms namespace (all the Windows widgets basically) as GTK components, a Windows .NET GUI won't work in GNOME.
Also of interest; The .NET framework is available as a free download for windows. Also, you don't need to buy/warez Visual Studio.NET - there is a Free (GPL) alternative which is shaping up quite nicely; SharpDevelop

Well, you might either shell out some bucks (USD 29.95 upwards) for ActiveState's Komodo - if your working with windows. Or you might just write a plug in for Eclipse or Sharpdevelop. Remember, your effort might be just what will help others as well.

IMO the worst thing that could happen to the Free Software community is the situation where the bulk of user-layer applications are dependent on a non-free platform. SharpDevelop is coming along very nicely too. Support .NET and the Mono project!

Check out the GPL SharpDevelop, a IDE for .NET written in C#.
MS also makes the .NET Framework SDK available for download, which is all you really need to develop for .NET.
I have been using these for several months with no problem.

As you work on Windows systems, you might look at #develop which is a very flexible open source IDE for .NET. I presume you are running .NET anyway by now, as that is where VS is at now. It has among other nifty features a completely plugin-based architecture (see the SODA document for details) and user-definable backends, i.e. you can switch the compiler (and language of course) to whatever you like. Currently the MS.NET compilers and the SUN Java engine are implemented as backends, but if you want to use MONO for Windows, GCC or whatever, you can do it. And as you might guess from the last bit, porting to Linux is planned as soon as dotGNU and/or MONO are up and running :-)

As you work on Windows systems, you might look at #develop which is a very flexible open source IDE for .NET. I presume you are running .NET anyway by now, as that is where VS is at now. It has among other nifty features a completely plugin-based architecture (see the SODA document for details) and user-definable backends, i.e. you can switch the compiler (and language of course) to whatever you like. Currently the MS.NET compilers and the SUN Java engine are implemented as backends, but if you want to use MONO for Windows, GCC or whatever, you can do it. And as you might guess from the last bit, porting to Linux is planned as soon as dotGNU and/or MONO are up and running :-)

So everyone hates MS OSes, but they have a decent IDE in VS.NET. It has that compressible comment feature you want. Also a really nice feature that allows you to define regions of code which are collapsable.

there is an open source C# IDE, with the above features here. Of course if you want to develop for linux your going to have to wait on the Mono project.

While this currently only applies to C#, it could obviously be implemented in other languages.

knock yourself out

No '$1000' needed. Oh, and grab a copy of the free, open source C# developmenttool SharpDevelop.

Check out SharpDevelop, found here. It's an open source (GPL'ed) app for editing both C# and VB.NET. All you need is to install the .NET frameworks first.

Many people predicted on 1995,that with the advent of more high speed processors,Java would be the best development language .After 5 years ,it is still slow and they have a worst user interface(Swing).
Look at SharpDevelop ,it is fully written in C#.
I guess Java still has a long way to go on that

In addition to the already mentioned downloadable SDK, you can get a GPLed IDE written entirely in C#: SharpDevelop, which serves as a pretty good demonstration of the potential of the framework. It certainly seems faster and nicer than any java-based IDE i've tried... (except for the fact that it loads sluggishly the first time you run it, as the runtime is loaded, there's no apparent difference from a native win32 app)

There aren't any other IDE's? First you preach Open Source, then you complain about a lack of choice for Windows IDE's. Well, if there's a lack of choice, start an OSS project and make your IDE the Right Way(tm).

Wasn't Microsoft's anti free software license for one toolkit that wasn't even out of beta yet? That license didn't apply to everything that can be downloaded from MSDN, does it?

I got the distinct feeling that they were floating that to gauge the reaction from the developer community, that it was a timed and calculated move to fit in with Mr. Mundie's speeches and the other stuff that was being flung around.

As for what I consider the core of .NET (C# and CLR) there is the SharpDevelop IDE/Code editor which is released under the GPL.

Chris Cothrun
Curator of Chaos