[Mono-list] Some general advice for a newbie, please

[peter]

Paul wrote:

>Hi Peter,
>
>How far have you got now with installing Mono?
>
>I did see something on the main list, but has way too drunk to reply and
>by mistake, hit the delete key and off it went to /dev/null.
>
>TTFN
>
>Paul
>  
>
Ha!  One of us had a good time then!

:)

Here's an update:

This is what happened to the subversion download:

<quote>
Performing cvs update of Cairo/libpixman. Press return for password
Logging in to :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.cairographics.org:2401/cvs/cairo
CVS password:
cvs login: warning: failed to open /root/.cvspass for reading: No such 
file or directory
cvs update: cannot open CVS/Entries for reading: No such file or directory
cvs [update aborted]: no repository
cvs update: cannot open CVS/Entries for reading: No such file or directory
cvs [update aborted]: no repository
Checking out monodevelop

<hangs />
</quote>

This is what happened when trying to access the Cairo website:

<quote>
Directory Listing Denied

This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.
</quote>

This is what I then wrote:

<quote>
I couldn't find the tarball via Google either, and I'm just getting 
tired and hungry.  I don't know how many hours I've been at this now.  
So I may just try to put the original rpms back and live without 
Windows.Forms.  I just hope YaST doesn't complain I've already got a 
newer version installed ...

Many thanks for your help and patience Paul.  I'm not giving up on mono: 
but I think I may not be up to the job of overcoming all these 
obstacles.  I just want to write some code.

I'll see what I feel like when I've had something to eat (and possibly a 
good night's sleep).
</quote>

Well...  Having eaten, I decided to put everything back where it was.  
YaST didn't complain, but the original version did not install either, 
so I checked all the rpms were uninstalled and then spent a couple of 
hours identifying all the files that had anything to do with mono and 
deleting them.  Following that, I reinstalled mono and friends from the 
SuSE 9.2 DVD.  I now seem to be back where I started - except that I 
haven't got monodevelop any more and there doesn't appear to be any way 
of getting it.

I'm really grateful for all the time and effort you've put into trying 
to help me, Paul, but I'm obviously too stupid to deal with all this.  
So I'm sticking with mono 1.01 (which is what comes with SuSE 9.2).  
When monodevelop comes back on line I'll reinstall it, and I'll work 
from there.  Hopefully a new version of mono will become available in 
easily installable form before I start my dissertation so that I can 
include the new functionalities in what I say, but for the moment my 
impression is that for ordinary mortals mono has no Windows.Forms 
functionality.  Quite what this does for mono's X-platform pretensions 
I'm not sure yet.  I have a lot more to find out.

If any of the above sounds bitter, or critical, it is not meant to be.  
Really.  I understand that mono is a work in progress and so I don't 
expect it to have reached the sophistication of the MS implementation: 
or to have the huge array of tools that MS can offer.

I think I'm like most developers.  I don't want to spend time scouring 
the web for help and advice on how to get to the point where I can write 
some useful code - and then being continually frustrated because things 
still don't go right.  I just want stuff to install successfully from 
some sort of installer program so that I can then get on and do what I 
do best.  This is one of the things that MS has got right (in most cases 
- just don't talk to me about BizTalk 2004 installation).  Any competing 
systems will, in the end, have to be just as convenient or they won't be 
used.

As I say, I do understand that mono (and dotGNU which I have yet to look 
at) has only just started, and will improve.  I look forward to making 
some small contribution to that improvement, if I can.

Once again, thank you very much for all your help and advice.  I hope 
you won't mind if I call on your expertise again in the future, and that 
you don't think me excessively stupid for being unable to cope with what 
is obviously, to you, a fairly straightforward operation.

And finally, "Blwyddyn Newydd Dda" (Happy New Year).  Hope your 
hangover's not too bad.

Cheers

Peter