[MonoDevelop] Why does MonoDevelop require .Net 4 on Windows?

[Lluis Sanchez Gual]

> I don't disagree that it is a great thing that MonoDevelop "CAN" run with
> .Net but to be "REQUIRED" to use it is what I am complaining about. 
> 
> Also .Net 4 is not everywhere and doesn't come installed on any Windows out
> of the box. It has to be downloaded to do this, and it is optional in
> Windows Update so not being forced upon. .Net 3.5 is on Vista and higher.  

Last time I checked, Mono wasn't also included in any Windows version,
so you also have to download and install it.

> 
> However I am trying to setup an Mono build and development environment on XP
> SP3. I choose XP SP3 to intentionally make sure there was no Microsoft .Net
> version of any kind so that I can insure that all that I do only is working
> with mono and that there are no accidental usage of .Net.

If you install Mono and set it as default target framework, you're
ensured that all you do will work with mono.

> 
> I am not sure WHY there is a requirement for .Net 4 when Mono 2.10 is not
> fully .Net 4 compliment, seems like .Net 3.5 should be the minimum
> requirement from .net point of view, with Mono being allowed to run against.

You are confused. .NET 4 is required for running MonoDevelop, but the
projects you create with MonoDevelop can target any .NET and Mono
version.

> 
> So just for fun I installed MonoDevelop 2.6 beta 2 without any .Net to see
> how enforced this requirement is.
> 
> Well it not only requires GTK# it requires the one that requires .Net 2.0
> not the one that is installed with Mono 2.10.  So you cannot install
> MonoDevelop 2.6 beta 2 without having .Net installed.

That's correct. The installer requires .NET 4.0 and GTK# for .NET. 

> 
> The point is that no mono projects should have a "REQUIRED" dependency on
> any version of .Net. Otherwise what is the point of Mono itself if .Net is
> required to use it.  This only happens on Windows of course and it is wrong
> and to me shows no confidence by the Mono group in their products on the
> Windows platform.

Historically, Mono on Windows has not been as fast and as reliable as
Mono on Unix. This is a matter of fact. Our focus has always been to
bring Mono to platforms where .NET is not available. When MonoDevelop
was ported to Windows some years ago, we decided to use .NET to provide
the best experience to Windows users, and to simplify the installation.

If you are not happy with this, you are free to build or get the
MonoDevelop binaries and run them on Mono. Some people have done that
and it seems to work. But I can't guarantee that everything is going to
work, because it's basically untested. Any help in that area is welcome.

Lluis.