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Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

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Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#41

Post by rbanffy »

beefsack wrote: post #27
fuj wrote: post #25

This is nice, but no... it will never replace VS. I'm sorry if I sound arrogant, but if anyone disagrees than they either never used VS or don't know its potential. I'm no MS fanboy, but VS is simply the best IDE.

Usually calling something the best is entirely subjective, but I believe due to the closed ecosystem surrounding Visual Studio, competitors don't stand a chance regardless of how bloated and cumbersome it is. It's also interesting how analogous that situation is to many others concerning walled gardens in computing.

> best is entirely subjective

Indeed. For starters, I won't run on a Mac. Or Linux. Or BSD. Does it do Java as well as Eclipse or NetBeans? Can I write Clojure code with it?

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#42

Post by wubbfindel »

mariusmg wrote: post #21

No. The word "alternative" implies a certain quality and that you can actually switch. Sorry but this isn't the case here. I've used SharpDevelop in the past but there is a world of difference between VS + R# and SharpDevelop.

> The word "alternative" implies a certain quality and that you can actually switch.

It implies that to you maybe, but I don't think you can say that's the universal understanding of the word and how it should be used.

Google "define alternative" and this becomes clear: - adjective 1. (of one or more things) available as another possibility or choice.

For me, SharpDevelop is a great alternative to Visual Studio. Sure VS has a lot more features and the latest versions look pretty sleek (I love the dark theme). But I have used SharpDevelop very recently (not just in the past) as the IDE of choice on many professional projects too (emphasis on 'choice' because it's a choice you can make to use it, as per the definition). It is a genuine alternative, in that it's available as another possible IDE you can choose to use.

I would argue that an alternative doesn't even have to be that good (think alternative medicine); so it doesn't imply "a certain quality" either. However, in the case of SharpDevelop, I do believe it IS a quality tool made available by the open source community.

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#43

Post by untog »

I have such fond memories of SharpDevelop. In 2006 I was reaching the limits of the MS Access form designer for an internal database I'd created. I requested VS Express be installed on my machine but the request was ignored - enter SharpDevelop, a dream because it didn't require admin rights to install.

Soon I had a VB.NET (shudder, but at the time...) app up and running and using an Access DB as the backend. I compiled it and distributed in a shared network folder for the rest of the team.

Utter hack, of course. But the company was working on a SAP-based system that was going to replace everything, so it didn't matter. I spoke to an old co-worker last year and what do you know - the SAP system still isn't working correctly and my old app is still in use. I almost feel guilty...

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#44

Post by mynameismiek »

rbanffy wrote: post #40
mynameismiek wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, its called Visual Studio Express. You can get web, windows (8.x) app, desktop, TFS, and windows phone versions. http://www.visualstudio.com/en-us/products/visual-studio-exp...

And what are the artificial limitations of VS Express for C# projects? What can this alternative do that VS Express can't?

You don't get a lot of the more advanced/business/enterprise-y features like advanced debugging features, very little code metrics, only the more basic unit testing things, no MSDN subscription benefits, no Azure credits.

You can still still use Nuget, write unit tests, debug, all of the basic stuff you need to write programs for .NET. The Unreal Engine 4 source works just fine with VS 2013 Express. Xamarin Business and its Visual Studio plugin works just fine in express. You can still connect to TFS, Perforce, or Git repo.

edit: to clarify that this is for VS Express compared to VS Pro/Premium/Ultimate not compared to Sharp Develop.

edit2: removed that it supports add-ins like Resharper.

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#45

Post by 72deluxe »

rootlocus wrote: post #36
brokenparser wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't need no stinkin IDE, just a text editor and a compiler. You'll learn more than when using an IDE.

If you're a student / novice working on small projects, aiming to learn and improve yourself maybe. If you work in a production environment "learning" isn't a strong enough reason.

I would second this because with many many files and namespaces and stacks of dependencies and libraries, an IDE isn't a luxury - it is a necessity.

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#46

Post by misnome »

mynameismiek wrote: post #44
rbanffy wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And what are the artificial limitations of VS Express for C# projects? What can this alternative do that VS Express can't?

You don't get a lot of the more advanced/business/enterprise-y features like advanced debugging features, very little code metrics, only the more basic unit testing things, no MSDN subscription benefits, no Azure credits. You can still still use Nuget, write unit tests, debug, all of the basic stuff you need to write programs for .NET. The Unreal Engine 4 source works just fine with VS 2013 Express. Xamarin Business…

I'm pretty sure Resharper doesn't work on the express versions - disappointingly, since it's the only reason I need the higher versions (everything else I want can be done via external tools).

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#47

Post by JeremyMorgan »

Awesome that this stuff is still around.

I remember working at place in the mid-2000s that needed desktop apps but didn't pay for Visual Studio (pre-express days) so this is what we chose. We built lots of good stuff with it.

Looking through that feature list it looks there are still some reasons to use it over VS express, I'm going to download it tonight and check it out. Working with it before I remember it being very stable and easy to use.

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#48

Post by gavinpc »

I'm with Yegge on this one. [0]

That said, I have turned to SharpDevelop at times for the debugger, because after .NET 2 the standalone CLR debugger was no longer supported. It has some quirks, but it works.

[0] https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/effective-emacs

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#49

Post by giulianob »

antihero wrote: post #15

The main problem with Visual Studio for me is lack of portability - now with Mono, I want to be able to use FOSS tooling to make lovely C# apps, and so when something like this sprouts up it's like ooh, perhaps it'll be cross compatible. Nope. Surely if it's built in .NET it can't be that difficult to make it run on Mono, so why yet another Windows only .NET IDE?

MonoDevelop is cross platform compatible and its decent but it's certainly no Visual Studio.

Re: Sharp Develop – Open Source Alternative to Visual Studio

#50

Post by profquail »

rbanffy wrote: post #41
beefsack wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually calling something the best is entirely subjective, but I believe due to the closed ecosystem surrounding Visual Studio, competitors don't stand a chance regardless of how bloated and cumbersome it is. It's also interesting how analogous that situation is to many others concerning walled gardens in computing.

> best is entirely subjective Indeed. For starters, I won't run on a Mac. Or Linux. Or BSD. Does it do Java as well as Eclipse or NetBeans? Can I write Clojure code with it?

FWIW, you can write Clojure (clojure-clr) code with Visual Studio: http://dev.clojure.org/display/doc/Getting+Started+with+CLR+...
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