[MonoDevelop] Native support for VS2005 Projects in Monodevelop

[Charlie Poole]

Hi Lluis, 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lluis Sanchez [mailto:lluis at ximian.com] 
> Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 5:07 AM
> To: Charlie Poole
> Cc: '"Andrés G. Aragoneses [ knocte ]"'; 
> monodevelop-list at lists.ximian.com
> Subject: Re: [MonoDevelop] Native support for VS2005 Projects 
> in Monodevelop
> 
> El dl 08 de 01 del 2007 a les 14:29 -0800, en/na Charlie Poole va
> escriure:
> > Hi All,
> > 
> > > > Yeah, the current situation is a bit confusing. Here is 
> a proposal 
> > > > that would simplify it from the user point of view: remove
> > > the "Import
> > > > VS2003 project" option from the File menu, and instead add
> > > a new file
> > > > VS2003 format in the file open dialog.
> > > > 
> > > > When the user tries to open a VS2003 project a warning
> > > message box is
> > > > shown which says that the project file format is old and
> > > needs to be
> > > > saved in a new file format (which could be either the
> > > native MD format
> > > > or VS2005 format). I haven't tried, but I guess that VS2005
> > > would do
> > > > the same if you try to open a VS2003 project.
> > > 
> > > I like that suggestion.
> > 
> > Reading this, I thought of a different model...
> > 
> > Image manipulation programs let you open various formats 
> and save in 
> > various formats. The use-friendly approach in that setting is to 
> > default the save to the same format in which you opened. This isn't 
> > universally done - I worked for a software vendor whose 
> product kept 
> > insisting on saving things in it's own proprietary format - 
> but it's 
> > definitely more convenient for most users.
> > 
> > Note that some changes to the image - increasing the color 
> depth, for 
> > example - might make it impossible to save in the original format. 
> > This could be true for projects as well. In that case, it's nice to 
> > warn the user at the point the change is being made, rather than 
> > waiting till a lot of work has been done and it's time to 
> do the save.
> > 
> > I'm pretty sure such an approach could work for projects as well.
> 
> Yeah, that would be the most correct behavior, and in fact we 
> can support it for VS2005 projects, since we support both 
> reading and writing. However for VS2003 projects we don't 
> support writing, and I don't feel like spending time on that 
> right now, since the importer might be enough for most users.

It probably will be. The more conservative IT groups that are
using VS2003 rather than 2005, probably won't be switching to 
Monodevelop that quickly anyway. ;-)

I do think that behavior should apply to any file type you
allow people to Open, rather than Import. I made a mistake
with NUnit in allowing "Opening" of VS projects. People tend
to assume that they can "Save" anythin that they "Opened"

Charlie

> Lluis.
> 
> 
>