[Mono-list] IDEs, Visual Studio and Mono

[John BouAntoun]

Just to add my two cents worth.

I switched from Visual Source Safe (in VS.Net 2003) to Subversion using both Tortoise SVN (normal source code management from the file system) and Ankh SVN (VS.Net plugin that integrates subversion into the IDE) and have absolutely no regrets.

The Ankh SVN plugin works beautifully and the Ankh dev guys seem to be relatively active in it's development. I would definitely recommend using Ankh in Vs.Net over Visual Source Safe, if at least for the better revision management and diffing tools.

Keep in mind the following things when using tortoise/ankh svn on windows for asp.net apps in vs.net:

VS.Net does not like the .svn admin directory for Web apps. There are several workarounds documented on the web including starting web apps as library apps or (as I did) using the specially built version of tortoise svn that uses _svn instead of .svn. Ankh SVN has the ability to deal with either admin folder name.

JBA

-----Original Message-----
From: mono-list-bounces at lists.ximian.com [mailto:mono-list-bounces at lists.ximian.com] On Behalf Of Joe Audette
Sent: Thursday, 30 June 2005 12:32 AM
To: Gavin Hamill; mono-list at lists.ximian.com
Subject: Re: [Mono-list] IDEs, Visual Studio and Mono

Hi Gavin,

I develop my project (http://www.mojoportal.com) on
Windows with VS.NET 2003 Professional using svn and
deploy and test on linux/mono

> The problem I'm having is finding definitive info on
> IDEs given that we'll be 
> using the Web forms functionality exclusively.
> 
> Management would like us to use Visual Studio. VS
> confuses me greatly. The 
> 'Standard'  C# edition is about £90 whilst the
> Developer edition is £1500. 

I've never tried the C# edition but that may be
sufficient as long as it supports web development, but
I can say for sure the Professional Edition has
everything you need and some things you probably don't
need.

Eventually we'll have MonoDevelop to consider but its
probably a ways off for web development to be
productive.


> I guess I'm just looking for some sage advice on how
> a 5-developer operation 
> with source control might work re: a Mono backend..
> are there any things I 
> need to bear in mind e.g. with a dev working on code
> and ASP.NET execution on 
> localhost, and then submitting to CVS / SVN ? If it
> works on their local 
> machine, should it work with Mono?

Yes it should as long as you use the Rebuild command
to compile instead of just Build. In VS.NET, Build
does an incremental build of just things that changed.
Mono doesn't like incremental build. Also need to be
aware of differences between running on IIS
development machine vs linux/apache/mono.
For example urls being case sensitive on apache but
not on Windows.
If building a file system path using string concat you
don't want to do 
fragment + "\" + anotherPathFragment
Instead use 
fragment + Path.SeparatorCharacter + anotherFragement

which gets it right no matter which platform

Other than that it generally works, though you may
occasionally encounter a bug in mono.


> What about database connections (we're using MySQL
> of course..) - is the C# 
> code likely to be identical whether run on MS's .NET
> SDK or Mono?

Yes, you can use either the older ByteFX driver
included with mono or the newer .NET Connecetor for
MySQL (GPL)

My app supports MySQL and PostgreSQL and both work
whether the web app is on windos or linux.

> Does VS even let you use CVS / SVN as opposed to
> Visual SourceSafe?

You can use TortoiseSVN and just manage souurce
control in the file system (it integrates with Windows
Explorer) or if you really need it integrated in
VS.NET there is AnkSVN plugin

I'm sure there are also cvs tools but I use svn and
love it.

Good Luck, I'll be glad to help with any other
questions you may have.

Joe Audette

joe_audette [at] yahoo dotcom
http://www.joeaudette.com
http://www.mojoportal.com
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