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Building .NET Applications Using SharpDevelop

As you may agree, authoring C# code with TextPad and Notepad++ is a step in the right direction,

compared to Notepad and the command prompt. However, these tools do not provide rich Intelli-

Sense capabilities for C# code, designers for building graphical user interfaces, project templates, or

database manipulation tools. To address such needs, allow me to introduce the next .NET develop-

ment option: SharpDevelop (also known as 

#Develop).

SharpDevelop is an open source and feature-rich IDE that you can use to build .NET assem-

blies using C# or VB as well as using CIL and a Python-inspired .NET language named Boo. Beyond

the fact that this IDE is completely free, it is interesting to note that it was written entirely in C#. In

fact, you have the choice to download and compile the *.cs files manually or run a setup.exe pro-

gram to install SharpDevelop on your development machine. Both distributions can be obtained

from http://www.sharpdevelop.com.

SharpDevelop provides numerous productivity enhancements and in many cases is as feature

rich as Visual Studio .NET 2008 Standard Edition. Here is a hit list of some of the major benefits:

• Support for the Microsoft and Mono C# compilers

• IntelliSense, code completion, and code snippet capabilities

• An Add Reference dialog box to reference external assemblies, including assemblies

deployed to the global assembly cache (GAC)

• A visual Windows Forms designer

• Integrated object browsing and code definition utilities

• Visual database designer utilities

• A C# to VB (and vice versa) code conversion utility

• Integration with the NUnit (a .NET unit testing utility) and NAnt (a .NET build utility)

• Integration with the .NET Framework 3.5 SDK documentation

Impressive for a free IDE, is it not? Although this chapter doesn’t cover each of these points in

detail, let’s walk through a few items of interest.