SharpDevelop 2
Two very good news for this post. First of all is the recent update of our favorite Open Source IDE for C#, SharpDevelop, to Framework 2.0. Yeah I know, this isn’t strictly new, because it’s not recent (and how difficult is being in this day and age!): it was the last July the 17th when it made its official appereance the definitive version of SharpDevelop 2 2.0.
But now let’s talk about the second piece of news. After downloading it ( 4.2 Mbs) and install it (less than five minutes) I begin to try it. When creating a new try it out solution (another Hello, world!) I began to tremble: compatibility troubles on sight.
SharpDevelop 1 used combines, file swith a .cmbx extension, as its central type file: SharpDevelop combines were the equivalent to VS .NET solutions. So when you spotted on your hard drive a .cmbx file you knew it was SharpDevelop’s, and it was by default associated on Windows Explorer to that application. Files such as .cs or .resx you could decide wich IDE you want them associated to.
But now the combines are lost, being replaced with solutions, just as in Visual Studio. And their file extension is the same: .sln.
The pain. I was already picturing myself creating separate root folders for Vs and SharpDevelop projects, I was already picturing both IDEs fighting for the .sln association like two furious web browsers, I was already picturing myself corrupting forever a solution after opening it with the wrong IDE, and so on.
Hold your horses: after creating a nice, little and silly solution in VS .NET 2005, I’ve been able to open, modify and compile it without fuss in SharpDevelop 2. And viceversa, the same solution can be opened, modified and compiled by both IDEs with no troubles that I detected.
I wish I could do a much more serious testing, for example an ASP .NET application, but for now I can declare both IDEs totally compatible. And this is a very good news.
