In Decision...
Well typically I would do this all in my head, or in google docs, but thought there might be some value in tossing my research process into the blog as well. I have begun the search for an IDE which is open source or free against which I can develop the DevTracker application. My objective is to find the top 3 candidates and evaluate them one at a time until I hopefully find one I like.
So, onto the pre-screening process:
First one I stumbled across was SharpDevelop. Looking at the contents of the linked page, I like that it is also built against .Net 4.0. I haven't really had any exposure to the new .Net 4.0 stuff yet, but it should be backwards compatible so my .Net 3.5 code should still run. Of interest are a number of the listed productivity enhancements. Many are not new by any means, but to have a free IDE with these features seems pretty exciting. Also, the IDE has a WPF designer. From the limited screenshots, it is on par for lameness with Visual Studio's. Given that the one in Visual Studio is incredibly weak already it is nice to know that it doesn't look like I will lose anything on that front if I choose this. All in all this is a strong contender for my top 3. It seems like this will be a hard one to beat, but since it is also the first one, maybe the abundance of quality .Net IDE's is just far greater than I had hoped for. We shall see.
Next was xacc.ide. Well, the good didn't keep up to the levels in my first hit. This one is lighter on the features and only .Net 2.0 (no WPF). Which strikes it off the list. Not feeling like I'm missing anything here. Also found CSharp Studio in an incredibly early beta and MonoDevelop. Both of which are geared at Mono, which I believe is also not yet WPF capable. This does however bring up a point I could perhaps think on, while Mono doesn't support the full WPF library, it DOES support SilverLight API through the Moonlight project and as per this site, can be run outside of a browser. Since my real interest in WPF is actually Silverlight related, this may be a valid decision after all. So, from disappointment comes perhaps a superior idea. Having a Silverlight application makes it more web ready as well. Though so far, out of these 3 MonoDevelop seems the best and even if I like the idea of Silverlight/Moonlight apps, SharpDevelop is still a nicer looking more feature rich IDE in my opinion and will have first shot at swaying me.
Hit some interesting ones after that last batch, including this one; CodeRun Studio. A browser integrated IDE aimed at Cloud computing. Supports WPF and Silverlight browser apps and everything is online. Not sure I'm ready for this one. But cool.
On the topic of free. From Microsoft there is always the Express line-up. Of interest is of course Visual Studio 2010 Express.
So, after all is said and done. I started off strong, and was hoping the luck would continue. It didn't. I found numerous sites building reviews between alternatives and the best editors, etc... and what it came down to was that there were 2 that were on just about every single list (SharpDevelop and VS Express) and then depending on the focus of the reviewer either CodeRun or MonoDevelop popped their heads in there. My top 3 I think is:
SharpDevelop
Visual Studio 2010 Express
MonoDevelop + Moonlight.
MonoDevelop has also kind of given me a nudge in a different direction. As stated, my real intention behind this from a day to day learning perspective is actually to increase my knowledge of Silverlight over my knowledge of WPF in general. So I think DevTracker has just officially become a SilverLight project. I will do some tinkering in each of my candidate environments before this is cast in stone, but all 3 IDE's seem to support SilverLight in one flavour or another.
Visual Studio 2010 Express may seem like a bit of a cop out, hence the reason it is only number 2. I feel there is good reason for it to be on this list however. There have supposedly been a large number of improvements, especially in the designer, which as I noted before was truly lacking, and it is free. If SharpDevelop disappoints and it succeeds then I won't need to worry about a Mono port (a minor shame, but then again, my true focus is on .Net and not on Mono however similar they may be).
Code Run seemed great, but at the end of the day, releasing my code at my leisure is one thing. Having it live on someone else's server... I'm not ready for that.
So, hopefully an update on SharpDevelop is on the horizon soon. Both it and VS Express will require a few additional Microsoft installs, being after 10pm already, I don't expect a 3rd post tonight.
Cheers,
Alex
So, onto the pre-screening process:
First one I stumbled across was SharpDevelop. Looking at the contents of the linked page, I like that it is also built against .Net 4.0. I haven't really had any exposure to the new .Net 4.0 stuff yet, but it should be backwards compatible so my .Net 3.5 code should still run. Of interest are a number of the listed productivity enhancements. Many are not new by any means, but to have a free IDE with these features seems pretty exciting. Also, the IDE has a WPF designer. From the limited screenshots, it is on par for lameness with Visual Studio's. Given that the one in Visual Studio is incredibly weak already it is nice to know that it doesn't look like I will lose anything on that front if I choose this. All in all this is a strong contender for my top 3. It seems like this will be a hard one to beat, but since it is also the first one, maybe the abundance of quality .Net IDE's is just far greater than I had hoped for. We shall see.
Next was xacc.ide. Well, the good didn't keep up to the levels in my first hit. This one is lighter on the features and only .Net 2.0 (no WPF). Which strikes it off the list. Not feeling like I'm missing anything here. Also found CSharp Studio in an incredibly early beta and MonoDevelop. Both of which are geared at Mono, which I believe is also not yet WPF capable. This does however bring up a point I could perhaps think on, while Mono doesn't support the full WPF library, it DOES support SilverLight API through the Moonlight project and as per this site, can be run outside of a browser. Since my real interest in WPF is actually Silverlight related, this may be a valid decision after all. So, from disappointment comes perhaps a superior idea. Having a Silverlight application makes it more web ready as well. Though so far, out of these 3 MonoDevelop seems the best and even if I like the idea of Silverlight/Moonlight apps, SharpDevelop is still a nicer looking more feature rich IDE in my opinion and will have first shot at swaying me.
Hit some interesting ones after that last batch, including this one; CodeRun Studio. A browser integrated IDE aimed at Cloud computing. Supports WPF and Silverlight browser apps and everything is online. Not sure I'm ready for this one. But cool.
On the topic of free. From Microsoft there is always the Express line-up. Of interest is of course Visual Studio 2010 Express.
So, after all is said and done. I started off strong, and was hoping the luck would continue. It didn't. I found numerous sites building reviews between alternatives and the best editors, etc... and what it came down to was that there were 2 that were on just about every single list (SharpDevelop and VS Express) and then depending on the focus of the reviewer either CodeRun or MonoDevelop popped their heads in there. My top 3 I think is:
SharpDevelop
Visual Studio 2010 Express
MonoDevelop + Moonlight.
MonoDevelop has also kind of given me a nudge in a different direction. As stated, my real intention behind this from a day to day learning perspective is actually to increase my knowledge of Silverlight over my knowledge of WPF in general. So I think DevTracker has just officially become a SilverLight project. I will do some tinkering in each of my candidate environments before this is cast in stone, but all 3 IDE's seem to support SilverLight in one flavour or another.
Visual Studio 2010 Express may seem like a bit of a cop out, hence the reason it is only number 2. I feel there is good reason for it to be on this list however. There have supposedly been a large number of improvements, especially in the designer, which as I noted before was truly lacking, and it is free. If SharpDevelop disappoints and it succeeds then I won't need to worry about a Mono port (a minor shame, but then again, my true focus is on .Net and not on Mono however similar they may be).
Code Run seemed great, but at the end of the day, releasing my code at my leisure is one thing. Having it live on someone else's server... I'm not ready for that.
So, hopefully an update on SharpDevelop is on the horizon soon. Both it and VS Express will require a few additional Microsoft installs, being after 10pm already, I don't expect a 3rd post tonight.
Cheers,
Alex
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