[Mono-dev] Compiling mono on windows for developing (not running)

[Edward Ned Harvey (mono)]

> From: martin at my2cents.co.uk [mailto:martin at my2cents.co.uk] On Behalf
> Of Martin Thwaites
> 
> I'll have to wait until someone puts a guide together about developing on
> windows as I am seriously out of my depth.  I've spent about 2 evenings so
> far trying to get mono to build in cygwin, but coming up with various errors
> that googling isn't solving.
> It's disappointing that it appears there is little appetite for getting extra
> people to help with mono who don't own a mac 

There's nothing special about mac, except that it happens to be the most popular platform - You definitely don't need one.  Of course windows is the #1 most popular desktop, but people developing on windows usually use VS.  Mac is #2, and XS works well.  So, you know...

Also, if you just want to develop .NET code, and run on mono, you don't need to build mono.  The only reason you need to build it is if (a) you need a version later than what's available for your OS, or (b) you want to contribute to (or debug or just step through) the actual mono source.

If you want to develop the actual mono source, and don't have a mac, then until somebody puts in the effort to update the windows build instructions, you should be able to do it in linux.  If all you have is windows, you can certainly build a linux VM.  (Using Virtualbox or VMWare Player).  I would recommend ubuntu desktop.

The one comment I'll make is this:  In my experience, the mono that distributes with the various OSes is archaic.  It is best, after building the linux machine, to build your own mono runtime, and build your own monodevelop.  In my experience, this is usually pretty easy, so don't be scared.  (Unlike lots of other projects, that often have difficulty building from source, I hardly ever see any build problems with mono, and even then, there's usually a workaround.)

I have no knowledge or comments on the ASP.NET side of things.