MonoDevelop

MonoDevelop (also known as Xamarin Studio) was an open-source integrated development environment for Linux, macOS,^[5] and Windows.^[6] Its primary focus is development of projects that use Mono and .NET Framework. MonoDevelop integrates features similar to those of NetBeans and Microsoft Visual Studio, such as automatic code completion, source control, a graphical user interface (GUI) and Web designer. MonoDevelop integrates a Gtk# GUI designer called Stetic.^[7] It supports Boo, C, C++, C#, CIL, D, F#, Java, Oxygene, Vala, JavaScript, TypeScript and Visual Basic.NET.^[8][9][10] Although there is no word from the developers that is has been discontinued, nonetheless it hasn't been updated in 4 years and is no longer installable on major operating systems, such as Ubuntu 22.04 and above. Its parent Microsoft, seems to have shifted focus to Visual Studio Code and the .NET Framework, which runs on many operating systems, including Linux.

MonoDevelop

Developer(s)	Xamarin (a Microsoft subsidiary) and the Mono community
Stable release	7.6.9.22 / September 21, 2018; 5 years ago (2018-09-21)^[1]
Repository	github.com/mono/monodevelop
Written in	C#^[2]
Operating system	Windows, macOS, Linux^[3]
Available in	Multilingual^[which?]
Type	Integrated development environment
License	core: LGPLv2, portions of the code and add-ins: MIT X11^[4]
Website	www.monodevelop.com

MonoDevelop can be used on Windows, macOS and Linux. Officially supported Linux distributions include CentOS, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Ubuntu, with many other distributions providing their own unofficial builds of MonoDevelop in their repositories.^[3] macOS and Windows have been officially supported since version 2.2.^[11]

MonoDevelop has included a C# compiler (an alternative to MSBuild and CSC) since its earliest versions. It currently includes a compiler that supports C# 1.0, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5.0 and C# 6.0.^[12]

A customized version of MonoDevelop formerly shipped with Windows and Mac versions of Unity, the game engine by Unity Technologies.^[13][14] It enabled advanced C# scripting, which was used to compile cross-platform video games by the Unity compiler.^[15] It has since been replaced by Visual Studio Community,^[16] except on Linux versions.

History

In late 2003, a group of developers from the Mono community began migrating SharpDevelop, a successful .NET open source IDE from Windows Forms on Windows to the GNOME toolkit (Gtk#) on Linux.^[17] The fork was also to target the Mono framework instead of the Microsoft .NET Framework implementation.^[18] Being an early fork of SharpDevelop, MonoDevelop architecturally differs from recent SharpDevelop releases.^[19]

Over time, the MonoDevelop project was absorbed into the rest of the Mono project and as of 2016, is actively maintained by Xamarin and the Mono community. Since Mono 1.0 Beta 2, MonoDevelop is bundled with Mono releases.^[20][21]

Starting with version 4.x, Xamarin rebranded MonoDevelop as Xamarin Studio, but only for the Windows version of the IDE.^[22][23] As of 2016, Xamarin Studio also runs on macOS.^[24]

In October of 2021 it was announced in the issue tracker that the project would be archived because it's no longer maintained.^[25]

Features

MonoDevelop is an IDE for the .NET platform with features comparable to Microsoft Visual Studio. Highlights include:^{[26][27][17][18]}

• Multi-platform IDE and user projects (Linux, Windows and macOS)
• Multi-language (C#, F#, Visual Basic .NET, C/C++, Vala, JavaScript, TypeScript)
• Project templates for C#, Visual Basic, Boo, Java (IKVM) and C/C++
• Code completion support for C#, code templates, code folding
• Customizable window layouts, user defined key bindings, external tools
• Integrated Debugger for debugging Mono and native applications
• Integrated Compiler (supports up to C# 6.0)
• GTK# Visual Designer to graphically build GTK# user interfaces
• ASP.NET web projects with code completion support and testing on XSP (Mono web server).
• Source control, makefile integration, unit testing, packaging and deployment, localization

UI Builder

MonoDevelop has included a GTK# GUI designer called Stetic since version 0.1.^{[28][7][29][30]} to develop GTK+ user interfaces in C#. Stetic is very similar to Glade Interface Designer but is integrated into MonoDevelop with features such as drag and drop. It has been criticized for being more difficult to work with than the likes of Qt Designer and the Microsoft Visual Studio Windows Forms Editor when the programmer does not yet have a concrete layout in mind.^[31]

Xamarin Studio

Xamarin offers a rebranded version of MonoDevelop 4.0 as Xamarin Studio which now uses platform-specific code in various places to enhance the look and feel.^[32] While Mono provides a package for Solaris 10 running on SPARC,^[33] MonoDevelop packages for OpenSolaris are only provided by groups from the OpenSolaris community.^[34] MonoDevelop on FreeBSD is likewise supported only by the FreeBSD community.^[35]

Visual Studio for Mac

Another rebranded version of MonoDevelop is Visual Studio for Mac. Visual Studio for Mac employs many of the same tools as its Windows counterpart: for example, the Roslyn .NET Compiler Platform is used for refactoring and IntelliSense. Its project system and build engine use MSBuild; and its source editor supports TextMate bundles. It uses the same debugger engines for Xamarin and .NET Core apps, and the same designers for Xamarin.iOS and Xamarin.Android.

On August 30, 2023, Microsoft announced that Visual Studio for Mac is in the process of discontinuation, with 17.6 being the last version supported until August 31, 2024.^{[36][37][38][39][40][41][42]}

See also

•  Free and open-source software portal

• Mono (software)
• Comparison of integrated development environments
• Glade Interface Designer
• Qt Creator
• Xamarin
• SharpDevelop
• Visual Studio
• Visual Studio Code

References

1. "Blog post on Xamarin Releases". Xamarin. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
2. "Languages". MonoDevelop. Ohloh. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
3. "MonoDevelop Download". monodevelop.com. Retrieved 2016-01-28.
4. "Monodevelop FAQ". Monodevelop.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
5. "MonoDevelop on Mac OS X - Miguel de Icaza". Tirania.org. 2009-05-05. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
6. "MonoDevelop 2.2 Beta 1: We go cross platform. - Miguel de Icaza". Tirania.org. 2009-09-09. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
7. "Stetic Gui Designer". Monodevelop.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
8. . MonoDevelop. 2008-02-05. Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
9. Embarcadero Technologies. . Embarcadero.com. Archived from the original on 2010-06-28. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
10. "How to Install Mono-D". dlang.org. Retrieved 2014-08-25.
11. "What's new in MonoDevelop 2.2". Monodevelop.com. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
12. C# Compiler, Mono Docs
13. Chu, Philip (2013-08-04). Learn Unity 4 for iOS Game Development. Apress. ISBN 978-1430248767.
14. "MonoDevelop". Unity documentation. Unity Technologies. Retrieved 9 June 2014.
15. Lukosek, Greg (2016-03-31). Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 5.x. Packt Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1785287855.
16. "Replacing MonoDevelop-Unity with Visual Studio Community starting in Unity 2018.1". Unity Technologies. 5 January 2018. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
17. Avery, James (2007-06-26). Windows Developer Power Tools. O'Reilly. ISBN 978-0596527549. monodevelop.
18. Mamone, Mark (2006-11-08). Practical Mono. Apress. ISBN 1430200979.
19. Vasiliev, Sergey (30 December 2015). "Looking for Bugs in MonoDevelop". Medium.
20. Cogswell, Jeff (4 June 2009). "MonoDevelop 2.0 Rivals Microsoft Visual Studio". eWeek.
21. Paul, Ryan (31 March 2009). "MonoDevelop 2.0 and Mono 2.4 officially released. The Mono project has announced the official release of Mono 2.4 and …". Ars Technica.
22. de Icaza, Miguel (February 22, 2013). "The Making of Xamarin Studio". Xamarin. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
23. Ellis, Dean (15 May 2013). "From XNA to MonoGame. A reprint from the May 2013 issue of Gamaustra's sister publication Game Developer magazine, this article explains how you can transition your XNA projects to MonoGame". Gamasutra.
24. "System Requirements - Xamarin".
25. Sanchez, Lluis (2021-10-04). "THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN ARCHIVED". Retrieved 2022-02-23.
26. MonoDevelop Features
27. MonoDevelop Feature List
28. MonoDeveloper Project: Release notes for MonoDevelop 0.10.
29. MonoDevelop Project: Feature List.
30. Taft, Darryl K. (14 March 2008). "Novell Ships Mono Development Tool". eWeek.
31. "First info about Mono's Stetic, the new RAD tool", OSNews, 16 March 2005.
32. De Icaza, Miguel (2013-02-22). "The Making of Xamarin Studio". blog.xamarin.com. Retrieved 2014-01-27.
33. . Go-mono.com. Archived from the original on 2010-06-23. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
34. . Opensolaris.org. Archived from the original on 2011-06-05. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
35. "Mono:FreeBSD - The BSD# Project". Mono-project.com. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
36. Cangialosi, Anthony (August 30, 2023). "Visual Studio for Mac Retirement Announcement". Visual Studio Blog.
37. "What's happening to Visual Studio for Mac?". Visual Studio for Mac documentation.
38. Hall, Zac (August 30, 2023). "Microsoft is discontinuing Visual Studio for Mac after major overhaul". 9to5Mac.com.
39. Toulas, Bill (September 1, 2023). "Microsoft retires Visual Studio for Mac, support ends in a year". Bleeping Computer.
40. "Microsoft to discontinue this service on Mac, here's what it means for users". the Times of India. August 31, 2023.
41. Krill, Paul (August 31, 2023). "Microsoft axes Visual Studio for Mac". InfoWorld.com.
42. Hale, Craig (August 31, 2023). "Microsoft is pulling Visual Studio for Mac". TechRadar.com.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to MonoDevelop.

• Official website  
• Xamarin Studio
• Visual Studio for Mac