[TriLUG] Re: .NET development on Linux (was "SuSE")

[Aaron Bockover]

While I *really* don't care for C# or VB, I certainly respect the work
being done in the Mono area for .NET support.

Just because I'm a curious soul, I spent a few hours a month or so ago
on getting much of the Mono project "working" on my system (Slackware
9.1/Dropline 2.6.1). There are many steps, and many things to build. But
eventually, I was able to build everything, including the really nifty
MonoDevelop program, which I think has a great class browser, debugging,
and editing features. It uses GtkSourceView. MonoDevelop itself was
written in C# and uses GTK#... I think it's all fascinating though I
have no use for it, as I write software in C (and use plain old GTK2 for
GUI) and somewhat despise the two primary .NET languages.

I'm not sure how well all of the MS APIs have been implemented, so I'm
not sure how strong cross-platform compatibility is, but solid .NET
framework support exists. Interesting fact... the Mono compiler can
compile itself, so that should say something about the maturity of the
project.

The bottom line, I guess, is that support for .NET under Linux is
essentially here... there are many projects being written in C#/GTK# for
Linux natively. I have mixed feelings on .NET in large projects such as
GNOME... I'm leaning towards the idea that it should still be completely
C/CORBA based, but if smaller apps can be built more rapidly and perhaps
with more stability using tools from the Mono project... then more power
to us. There are some pretty cool "demos" on the Mono web site.

So if you're interested, a good place to start with the whole Mono thing
is the MonoDevelop web site, because they provide a small tutorial on
building everything you need to be able to use MonoDevelop... which
requires pretty much the whole .NET Mono platform.

I haven't actually written a single line of C#... all I did was look
into the Mono project and compile the tools out of curiosity. But it's
pretty cool... even if you don't like .NET, C#, VB, whatever.

Happy .NETting? :-/ I'll stick to C :-)

Regards,

Aaron Bockover



On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 13:00, matusiak wrote:
> Now, I really, *really* don't know what I'm talking about here, so 
> please take with a grain of salt (or two), but didn't Miguel de Icaza 
> (formerly of Gnome Ximian fame) branch off a project called "Mono" that 
> would act like a Linux dev environment for .NET?
> 
> This is what I found:  http://www.go-mono.com/
> 
> I am quite interested in this topic, despite my gross ignorance.  I 
> hope the thread can continue for just a bit longer.  :)
> 
> On Jun 16, 2004, at 11:56 AM, Bob Shepherd wrote:
> 
> > As far as I know there is no .NET port to Linux or any non-MS OS.  I 
> > merely
> > develop applications using Kate2.1 in KDE.  It has native syntax 
> > highlighting
> > support for C#.  The applications themselves are implemented in Win2K 
> > Server
> > + Sql7.0 + IIS5, a legacy of my workplace.  If MS were to port the .NET
> > framework to Linux, I would be first in line to try it.
> >
> > Bob
> >
> > On Wednesday 16 June 2004 11:23 am, Jeremy Portzer wrote:
> >> On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 11:20, Bob Shepherd wrote:
> >>> Please flame me if it was improper to reply to this on-list!
> >>>
> >>> Yes, I am an enthusiastic SuSE 9.0 user/convert from Win2K for my
> >>> personal workstation.  Haven't tried 9.1 yet.  I do not have a rich 
> >>> Linux
> >>> background otherwise, except building simple firewalls, etc.  All I 
> >>> know
> >>> is I like SuSE 9.0 better than Windows for its overall usability.  
> >>> My job
> >>> is .NET web applications development.
> >>
> >> Do you run the .NET framework on Linux?
> >>
> >> Someone asked me what I thought of that (.NET on Linux) and I had to
> >> admit I had no experience with it, and didn't realize that it even 
> >> works
> >> (or is supposed to work) on Linux.  I've generally stayed away from 
> >> it,
> >> as it's a Microsoft thing; if I want a cross-platform executable I'll
> >> use Java or a scripting language like Perl or Python.   What has your
> >> experience been with Linux support for .NET then?
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >> Jeremy