Professional IronPython

What Is Mono?
 
❘
 
407
➤
➤
openSUSE: You can use this download for the openSUSE 11.0, 11.1, and 11.2 platforms. You 
must have your own system with openSUSE installed to use it. You can download openSUSE 
at 
http://software.opensuse.org/
. Just in case you’re interested, the SUSE part of the 
name stands for Software und System-Entwicklung, which translates to software and systems 
development.
➤
➤
SLES/SLED: You can use this download for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) or
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED). SLES and SLED are the paid versions of SUSE 
from Novell. As with openSUSE, you must have your own system with SLES or SLED 
installed to use this version of Mono. You can find out more about SLES and SLED at 
http://www.novell.com/linux/
.
➤
➤
Virtual PC: This is actually an openSUSE 11.2.1 virtual PC image that includes Mono 2.6.1. 
You could use this download to check out Linux functionality for your IronPython applica-
tion on your PC without leaving Windows. Of course, performance won’t be very good, but 
it will get the job done.
➤
➤
VMware: This is actually an openSUSE 11.2.1 VMware image that includes Mono 2.6.1. 
You’d use it to check your application for Linux functionality without leaving the host 
operating system.
➤
➤
Windows: You can officially use this download for Windows 2000, XP, 2003, and Vista. 
Testing shows that it also works fine for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008. The download 
includes Mono for Windows, Gtk# (a graphics library to display a user interface onscreen), and 
XSP (eXtensible Server Pages, an alternate Web server for serving ASP.NET pages). You can 
also get the Mono Migration Analyzer tool as a separate download.
➤
➤
Other: This is a group of less supported platforms including Debian and Ubuntu. At least these 
two platforms have supported packages. You can also get Mono in an unsupported form for 
Solaris, Nokia, and Maemo. Theoretically, you could support yet other platforms by compiling 
the source code found at 
http://ftp.novell.com/pub/mono/sources-stable/
.
Of course, this list contains only a summary of the main Mono downloads. There are a large num-
ber of Mono add-ons a well. For example, you can obtain Mono Tools for Visual Studio (
http://
go-mono.com/monotools/download/
) if you want to work with Mono directly from Visual Studio. 
Unfortunately, the current version of this product only works with Visual Studio 2008. The developer 
should provide a Visual Studio 2010 version soon. You can obtain a trial version of Mono Tools for 
Visual Studio (registration is required), but you must pay for the full version.
You might also decide that you want to eschew Visual Studio for something 
specifically designed for Mono. In this case, you should at least look at Mono 
Develop (
http://monodevelop.com/
). Mono Develop comes in a form for most 
platforms that Mono supports, so you can use the same IDE on any platform you 
require. For the time being at least, Mono Develop is free, so download it and 
give it a try.
548592c19.indd 407
2/24/10 12:49:50 PM
www.finebook.ir

---