[MonoDevelop] Build MonoDevelop with makefiles. How?

[Michael Hutchinson]

On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 4:13 PM, koyatole <koyatole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello.
> I want to work with MonoDevelop in a Debian distribution, as well as in
> Windows (Vista). For none of those operating system(s) (distributions), a
> package exists. So I read on the Internet the instructions to build

Packages do exist for Debian, though only for 1.0. We don't really
support Windows, though some enterprising individuals have got it
(kinda) working...

> MonoDevelop with the source code (e.g.
> http://www.monodevelop.com/MonoDevelopWin32).
> So far so good, but here is my question (which seems to be bizarre coming
> from an experienced programmer, but in fact I'm rather a Windows programmer
> and furthermore one who has always made use of Visual Studio --> so no
> experience at all with makefiles) :

On Windows, the easiest way to get started would be to build the
binaries on Linux and copy them over. ATM you'd have to run them on
Mono, not .NET. We're planning to switch to csproj project files which
should make it possible to build with MSBuild (and hence in VS) --
http://lists.ximian.com/pipermail/monodevelop-devel-list/2009-January/000095.html
-- but I'm not sure how soon this will happen. I certainly wouldn't
recommend trying to build MD with makefiles on Windows -- it's likely
to be very painful :-)

Be aware that MD on windows is very experimental. It's almost
certainly much easier to use VS. Now our project files are compatible,
so it's not too awkward.

> The compiler/linker/builder of Mono is mcs/gmcs. I succeeded in building
> some test programs with it. But the source code of MonoDevelop exists of a
> lot of cs files and makefiles. I don't have any idea how to begin making an
> assembly with those files...

It's pretty straightforward when you get the hang of it -- when
everything's set up, you just have to type "make" to build it. We
actually have integrated the makefiles with the project files so that
the two are automatically kept in sync, and MD can be built with
either system -- but to build it with the project files, you need a
copy of MD. When mono's xbuild (MSBuild) is done, that'll no longer be
the case, so we may be able to drop the Makefiles.

Here's a guide to getting it building on Linux:
http://monodevelop.com/Development:_Getting_Started

-- 
Michael Hutchinson
http://mjhutchinson.com