The Best of Both Worlds: The Role of Mono in Multi-Platform Application Development
Have a Windows application, but want to port it to Linux? Mono lets you keep your source code and run on Linux, too. Mono founder Miguel de Icaza explains.
Although many developers coming from Windows to Linux continue to use Visual Studio to develop, test, and deploy on Linux, some developers want to develop natively on Linux with an IDE.
There are a number of options for developers looking to use an IDE with Mono. The proprietary tools today are the most advanced. OmniCore produces an IDE called X-Develop that offers support for developing Mono applications with IntelliSense and visual designers. SlickEdit is also a popular choice for developers that are just starting to use Linux.
The open source solutions today are not complete. But there are two choices available: Eclipse with the C# plug-in and MonoDevelop. MonoDevelop is not as mature as Eclipse as a complete IDE, but it provides a very tight integration with Mono, auto-completion for all the class libraries, support for various programming languages (C#, Visual Basic, Boo, Nemerle, and ILASM) and a GUI designer specifically designed for Gtk#. MonoDevelop is shown in Figure One.
FIGURE ONE:The MonoDevelop integrated development environment is one of the most active and enthusiastic projects right now in the Mono world
The Challenges of Implementing a Moving Standard
With a single company, in this case Microsoft, both setting and implementing the standard, significant challenges exist in releasing open source code that implements that standard. Fortunately, most development does not take advantage of bleeding-edge…
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