[Mono-list] Re: C# plugin for eclipse

[Todd Berman]

Gregory Bowyer wrote:
> Erik Dasque wrote:
> 
>> Well, I think that developers are unlikely to drop the development 
>> tool they like to use another one even if it's arguably better. 
>> MonoDevelop is shaping up to be a great tool and we like it very much. 
>> However, we have to make sure that we look beyond MD and provide 
>> support to other IDEs and that includes Eclipse.
> 
> 
> Ok your points are valid and I was not thinking through the human issues 
>   in development.
> 
>>>>>> I don't know whether we want to limit intellisense to only working 
>>>>>> if Eclipse is running inside IKVM, though. A bridge to the CLR 
>>>>>> from a generic JVM using only JNI but providing the same 
>>>>>> capabilities as IKVM, compatibly, would be the holy grail ;)
> 
> 
> Can java programs running inside the IKVM utilise .net objects inside 
> the CLR (just like VB.net programs talk to C# code and such forth)
> 
>>>>> However you could run a process (read mono application) that the C# 
>>>>> plugin would communicate with and that would tell it what 
>>>>> completions are. This application could be built using some of the 
>>>>> engine work in MD (a GUI less MD engine).
> 
> 
> If this is the case then might it be an idea to seperate out the backend 
> of mono-develop (and in part sharp-develop) and then write front-ends to 
> this code, granting us the ability to use the backend stuff with a wide 
> variety of platforms and development tools (ie a GTK# front-end, a 
> windows frontend , links to emacs / vim eclipse etc), with some 
> discussion with the sharp-develop team we could all work against a 
> common backend reducing the amount of work involved for all ?!? .
> 

Unfortunately this sounds like a lot better of an idea than it really 
is. There are subtle but pervasive differences in the platform itself. 
We have had to extend a lot of non-gui code to meet the requirements of 
mono, gnome, and in general the 'open source' way of writing code. An 
abstract 'IDE backend' is just not feasible on any realistic level. And 
even if you could somehow unify everything into one framework, there 
will still exist people that have issues with one piece or another, and 
will want to write their own stuff.

As far as not having to write code over, all of the code in 
SharpDevelop, and most of the code in MonoDevelop is licensed under the 
GPL, so reuse via copy is a very realizable goal.

--Todd