I wanted to tryout C# for general purpose programming (not web development). I program in Windows environment, but I would like to avoid coding specifically for Windows (.NET), because I want to keep the option open for a future migration to Linux.
Are there any specific libraries in C# .NET that wouldn't work in C# Mono for general purpose programming work (not interested in Windows Forms, Silverlight and stuff like that) ?
Is there any internet link of things/features that provides a list that works on C# .NET wouldn't work on C# Mono or vice versa? I didn't readily find anything in google per se.
Note: I would be interested in specific answers, not opinions of which is better or worse (thanks!)
It is possible for a CLR assembly (even in the form of a DLL, as mentioned in the comments) to be read by Mono, as long as it does not have dependencies that do not exist in Mono, because...
...not every piece of code that compiles for .NET will compile for Mono, since there are lots of Windows-specific things in .NET (not strictly part of C#) that aren't implemented (WPF, ASP.NET async stack) or don't make sense at all in Linux (COM is one such example, I think).
Fortunately, there is a list of what .NET features are implemented in Mono. Even more fortunately, it seems they have an app that tells you a priori whether your code makes use of anything not implemented in Mono (but I have never tried it).
if you install xamarin (you need Pro or bigger so you have VS integration) you can create Portable Class Library that targets xamarin (which is based on mono) and visual studio will allow you to only use classes that are compatible with mono.
http://docs.xamarin.com/guides/cross-platform/application_fundamentals/pcl/introduction_to_portable_class_libraries/
apparently you can also use xamarin studio to create a PCL and there is a free version of that.
Related
Keep in mind that although I know how to code, I am NOT a professional developer. moving on:
I am looking to create a simple GUI program for an embedded system that runs on both Linux and windows. The issue is, the person responsible for developing the applet insists on it being written in c#. I can run .net framework code through mono, and the .net core is multiplatform by design, but he was going to use UWP, and that obviously won't work on Linux. I have looked into Avalonia, but it is not compatible with the version of .net he uses. He told me that QT apparently won't work for some complex reason b/c we are just running a local app and nothing web-connected or even from a server. To be very clear, I need cross-platform GUI in c#. I am also not asking what the best option is, just what possible options even exist. I and the dev will go from there.
thx in advance, RUWO
You have some options which depending on your needs might work well, I would go with AvaloinaUI, but here are your options:
Avalonia Is a WPF-inspired cross-platform XAML-based UI framework providing a flexible styling system and supporting a wide range of OSs: Windows (.NET Framework, .NET Core), Linux (also ARM), MacOS. Android and iOS are on the Roadmap.
There is also a functional wrapper for Avalonia https://github.com/AvaloniaCommunity/Avalonia.FuncUI that makes using it from F# a charm.
Gtk#
is a Graphical User Interface Toolkit for mono and .Net. The project binds the gtk+ toolkit and assorted GNOME libraries, enabling fully native graphical Gnome application development using the Mono and .Net development frameworks.
Eto This framework can be used to build applications that run across multiple platforms using their native toolkit, with an easy to use API. This will make your applications look and work as a native application on all platforms, using a single UI codebase.
CoreUI/LibUI Bindings to portable C Library. Simple and portable (but not inflexible) GUI library in C that uses the native GUI technologies of each platform it supports.
QtSharp Mono/.NET bindings for Qt
This project aims to create Mono/.NET libraries that wrap Qt (https://qt-project.org/) thus enabling its usage through C#.
Avalonia is currently heading towards version 1.0 but it's already stable. I am using Avalonia now since about a year, and my experience is pretty good so far. The community around it is growing fast, and the core developers are very active in the official gitter chat.
.NET Maui is now an option as of recently, and is developed by Microsoft.
for strict constrains in my scenarios, I have very few room to install my application, and .net framework is not installable (any version).
If the application is really simple (more or less), it is possible to create an application in visual studio (in c#) with no dependendency from the .net framework?
Thanks!
Short answer: NO.
There is no way to create a .NET application without any framework.
It is possible to compile a C# app such that it has no dependencies on any of the built-in .NET types & libraries, by using the /nostdlib switch (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/fa13yay7.aspx). You then need to supply your own System namespace.
However, this doesn't remove the need for the .NET framework on the target machine if you use the standard C# compiler. As well as containing the built-in types, the framework also includes the JIT IL compiler, the CLR extra, which all .NET executables and dll's are reliant on.
There are ways of compiling C# code such that it doesn't need the framework though. The Xamarin product for example (http://xamarin.com/), supports compiling C# code to native iOS apps, which are wholely independent of the .NET framework. I'm not aware of any equivalent for "desktop" OS's though.
Writing, compiling and running a C# program without .Net means running a special C# compiler that produces native code instead of managed code. I think such a compiler exists from WinRT for mobile phones, which uses COM instead of .Net (And C++/CX instead of C++/CLI). Code it produces does not depend on the .Net Framework, but does depend on the WinRT runtime.
You may create mono GTK# application and then use mkbundle to generate independent executable. You can use Visual Studio to build your logic and use Xamarin studio to build GTK# GUI. For more information about mkbundle see this and this.
To reply to your query. It really is not possible to create a .Net application without the .Net frame work. And moreover if you have installed Visual Studio by default it would have asked you to install .Net framework or would have installed it by default. In that scenario there is already .Net framework installed in your PC.
Thanks
There's a program written entirely in C# that targets .NET Framework 2.0.
Is there a way I could somehow compile (translate) managed EXE to a native one so it could be .NET-agnostic? I know there are probably commercial products for that purpose... but they are a bit expensive.
The problem is that we are to deploy the program on computers running Windows XP with no .NET Framework installed. There's also a requirement that the program's size must not exceed 500Kb (1Mb maximum) for it is downloaded from the web server (now the size is 255Kb). That is why there's no way we could attach a full-fledged .NET FX (or even a reduced one) to the downloaded program's file.
Obviously it is a terrible software engineering error that should have been detected and avoided earlier so we could use native technologies like C++ instead.
We have tried for now Novell's Mono - an open-source implementation of .NET Framework for Linux, MAC and Windows. Mono consists of C# Compiler, IDE, runtime (CLR) and Class Library assemblies (like System.dll and mscorlib.dll - much like .NET's class library assemblies installed to GAC).
What we tried to do is to locate CLR files and ship those along with our program's file and a few assemblies. This way the program can be invoked by running "mono program.exe" (command prompt) on a user's computer.
In addition to the inconvenience of such a use for the end user CLR files (mono.exe and mono.dll) turned out to be about 2.5 Mb in total that is much greater than the desired 500 Kb or even 1 Mb.
So, we have left with no other option but to translate our .NET App to a native one by a compiler, however the question remains - what compiler should we use and where could we find one...
For now I have stumbled upon a Singularity OS Project by Microsoft Research. It is an open-source research OS that is written in managed code (in part at least). The Singularity OS includes a Bartok compiler that the OS uses in order to translate a managed program to a native one (x86 32 bit). It should be noted that Bartok can't translate all the aspects of .NET 2.0 to a native code, but most of them. However I haven't yet learnt how to use the Singularity...
I would be really grateful to you if you could provide me with some useful tips and advice regarding the problem, your own experience with Singularity OS and Bartok Compiler or another approaches to the problem that I have overlooked and ways of solving it.
Thank you very much in advance!
Finally, using Mono's Full AOT feature (on Callum Rogers' advice) I've managed to produce a program.exe.dll that lacks a CLI header.
So it looks to me like a native dll. However I can't figure out how to convert that dll into exe or make it operational.
Also this dll doesn't seem to expose any functions of interest such as main function.
Check out AOT (Ahead Of Time) Compilation from the Mono project. This compiles your managed project into a native exe or an elf executable (depending on which system you target) that does not need the JIT. This is the technique used to get mono apps onto the iPhone (where the JIT/Framework are not allowed) and also has the added benefits of faster startup times, lower memory usage and it makes it harder for people to decompile your code. You said you were already using Mono, so it should be compatible.
Read up about it at the mono-project.com website and at Miguel de Icaza's blog (and iPhone info).
Note that you cannot use dynamic code or generic interfaces like
interface IFoo<T> {
...
void SomeMethod ();
}
And you will have to compile the DLLs of all the libraries you use.
PS: Make sure to use "Full" AOT for your problem.
2018 Update
At Build 2018, Microsoft announced .Net Core 3.0 roadmap that support Windows desktop applications (Winform & WPF)
2017 Update
For console apps, you can use .net core Self-contained deployments (SCD). Even for a hello world app, your package will 50MB+. You still need to install VC runtime though.
Update
As #jenix's comment, .NET Native is only for Windows Store Apps(UWP). After 3 years of it's announcement, this is still true, .net native for desktop may be dropped by microsoft . So this answer is not applicable anymore.
========
Microsoft Announced .NET Native Preview on Build 2014
With the .NET Native Developer Preview, apps will get deployed on end-user devices as fully self-contained natively compiled code, and will not have a dependency on the .NET Framework on the target device/machine. So, no .NET framework required on the target machine with .NET Native.
Announcing .NET Native Preview
Microsoft .NET Native
There is a project called CrossNet that parses .Net Assemblies and generates unmanaged C++ code, that can be compiled in any standard compiler.
Not really a solution for .NET to native conversion, but maybe this helps: http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/csharp/faq/#framework.required
Not quite sure that there is much you can do besides painstakingly rewrite the application. To ease the already burdening process, you could disassemble the .NET application using something like Reflector (into Microsoft C++), and use that as a base to start and just replace managed C++ references with native ones.
Recently, I came across Mono and MonoDevelop packages in Ubuntu linux. They claim to have a .NET runtime in accordance with CLI. Before installing the packages myself, I would like to know the following:
How powerful is Mono?
Can I develop GUI application for
linux like developing WinForm
applications for Windows.
Is MonoDevelop IDE compatible with Visual Studio IDE. Can I import VS 2008 solutions to MonoDevelop and work?
Does it support .NET 2.0 and above?
EDIT: Adding one more doubt
Is there any way to run the .NET exe (of a winform app) in Linux without building the cod e in linux? In fact I don't have the code for some of the small utilities I developed earlier and would like to run them in linux.
(Strange, markdown starts the enumeration with one, even though I began with 2...)
Yes, you can, but you're limited with 3rd-party components, because the internal implementation is different, and last time I checked (not very long ago), the Mono WinForms implementation made my test app look rather strange (owner-drawn list view). It is not really recommended, though Mono claims that it's now completely WinForms-2.0-compatible.
MonoDevelop is/was a SharpDevelop branch, with the latter having solution support. I don't know if MonoDevelop has. But the cool thing is, you can just develop with Visual Studio and run your compiled apps on Mono. And Mono is, by the way, also available for Windows.
Yes, it does, as far as the CLR goes. As Marc Gravell already wrote, the Windows Foundation libraries are missing, as are a few other (System.Management, for example). But things should mostly work, including ASP.NET 2.0. Mono's application portability guidelines are a good read on this.
1: pretty good, actually. Not all the full framework is there, so if you are writing code that should build on both MS .NET and mono, you need to build and test early against both platforms
4: yes - although things like WPF/WCF/WF (3.0) are missing or slimmed down
I don't know much about the development environment, since I use VSTS (on Windows) and just use a NANT script to do the build on mono...
Define "powerful".
Mono has a WinForms implementation to allow for some level of source compatibility. However, depending on your needs, you might want to use one of the Mono bindings for a Linux native framework, like Gtk# or Qyoto
Wouldn't know.
Depends on what parts of .NET you mean. C# the language seems to be pretty current, things get fuzzier the closer you get to the enterprisey features as was already mentioned.
To sum things up, if you'll be using Mono as a separate target platform, you're likely to have good results. If you want a no-code-changes-required .NET compatibility layer, less so.
Very powerful. There are no major bugs in the core implementation. It is not a science project. The deficiencies are mostly where you would expect, the newest APIs (Microsoft inherently has a first-mover advantage there).
Yes. We just finished a project where most of the GUI code was developed in WinForms on Windows. I was able to work on it using Ubuntu without major headaches. That said, this is one of the hardest parts of the API, and there are still issues. See http://mono-project.com/WinForms for details.
Don't know, as I don't use it.
Yes, though again, there may be some missing APIs in the runtime.
Note, I use Ubuntu Hardy (8.04).
Mono is mighty powerful. It has all the .Net muscle on a very strong open source skeleton.
When you say "develop GUI application for linux like developing WinForm applications for Windows" I understand that you are asking about a visual designer that will allow you to quickly create the UI. Yes, it is possible. MonoDevelop has Stetic - a built-in visual designer for Gtk#. There is also QyotoDevelop which enables QT support in MonoDevelop.
Yes, MonoDevelop natively supports VS project/solution file format. You can use the same code base to compile your app with VS in .Net on Windows and win MD in Mono on Linux.
Currently Mono supports C# 3.0 with some stuff beyond that already implemented and a lot in the pipeline.
Yes, in many cases it is possible to run a .Net compiled app in Mono, however with MonoDevelop's support for VS solutions it doesn't really matter. It takes as much as pressing F7 to rebuild the whole project, so the effort is really negligible. The best tool for checking if your application can run in Mono is MoMA.
Mono is very powerfull, sometimes even more powerfull than Microsoft's implementation. link text
Yes you can. Winforms 2.0 is supported
I believe so.
Yes it does. C# 3 is supported and just look at winforms and the asp.net implementation to see how much is supported from each of the projects. Look at http://mono-project.com
I use WinForms in mono. The 2.x releases are very good.
I develop forms in visual-studio on windows, and run them in Linux, with zero code changes. Yes, forms look a little different than on XP, but then again, an XP-themed GUI would look kind of strange in GNOME.
If you are just getting started, stick with WinForms, while you get comfortable with Mono/Linux. However at some point you might want to investigate GTK.
Is it possible to force the C# compiler to pull all the referenced calls out of the framework and pack them into dlls or even a single executable?
I like writing quick 'one-off' applications with C#, however I don't want to have to install the whole framework on the target machine once it's ready to go.
You ask a loaded question. C# is merely a language and does not require the .NET Framework. The process of compiling it requires a compiler, which may or may not itself take a dependency on the .NET Framework (Microsoft's C# compiler does not -- it is written in native code). Your program will need to reference some assembly where types, classes, and methods can be found for your use. You can remove system.dll and mscorlib.dll from your references list and reference your own assemblies. So you can avoid dependencies on the .NET Framework if you really work at it. But in the end, unless you have a C# compiler that compiles programs to native code you still have a dependency on the CLR.
That's a very technical way of saying... almost nothing. But it answers your question. :) More practically useful however is how to get your C# programs to run with a minimum of dependencies. mkbundle from mono will actually let you compile it all into an .exe with virtually no dependencies.
But if you want to stick with the Microsoft .NET Framework, you can achieve a much lighter footprint and faster install of the dependencies you commonly need by using the Client profile of .NET 3.5 SP1. You can read about it here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc656912.aspx
Look at mkbundle using Mono.
It is now possible to compile C# to native code using Microsoft .NET Native:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn584397(v=vs.110).aspx
It automatically compiles the release version of apps that are written in managed code (C# or Visual Basic) and that target the .NET Framework and Windows 10 to native code.
...
For users of your apps, .NET Native offers these advantages:
•Fast execution times
•Consistently speedy startup times
•Low deployment and update costs
•Optimized app memory usage
This only works with Visual Studio .NET 2015.
Take a look at the .NET client profile.
This will allow you to package a minimum install on the client machine.. which will later be updated by windows update to the full framework.
This depends, of course, on your app only using libraries that are contained in the client profile ...
Some info here: http://blogs.windowsclient.net/trickster92/archive/2008/05/21/introducing-the-net-framework-client-profile.aspx
It's said it is possible, using 3rd-party tools such as http://www.remotesoft.com/linker/
Not possible. Your "compiled" C# application is a language which the .Net CLR interprets (should have said JITed, Reads the IL, compiles to native code, and then invokes the compiled native code) at runtime.
FYI .net 2.0 is a standard install on xp SP2 and vista, so you won't be paying that much of a penalty.
You could look into mono, but this still involves running some kind of framework on your target machine.
This dependency which unfortunately frequently breaks or is missing in the real world is a big reason why C# has not had a wider adoption. On the flip side most development does have dependencies.. look at C++ & Java for example.
I don't think we will really get away from these dependency issues anytime soon, so I recommend that if you want to use C#, that you make a wrapper for installation which checks for the .net framework version dependency you need, and if missing notify the user that they need this to run your app.
Some C# features are bound to interfaces of the .NET framework.
For example:
yield return requires the IEnumerable interface
using (x) {} requires the IDisposable interface