C#? Mono??? .Net in linux? What a world!

[Nexusx6]

Hello

I come to you oh Programming Talk forums for some much needed help

I am an ex-visual basic, ex-windows user who's recently switched to Ubuntu (and loving it) and really itching into getting back to programing; So I do my homework and I'm thinking Python is the language for me until I run across a thread that talks about C# and some weird little thing call Mono.

"C#, in Linux? .NET? Huh??" I'm rather confused by this but as the posts go on it really seems like C# and 'Mono' are becoming the new things in Linux, and sounds like a great portable language (My WinXP friends have yet to see the light).

But like I said, I'm throughly confused. Does Mono mean that I can go to Barnes and Nobles and pick up any Learn C# book and have the same code in that book work in Linux? Does using Mono need its own 'How-to' booklet? In VB, making a GUI app was childs play.. is it difficult in C#? Is C# in general a pretty hard language to learn like C++?

I apreciate all reply's and help b(^^)

[Daverz]

I think you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting anything like the VB environment.

As for C# books, just avoid Visual .NET specific ones. Also, Gtk# is the default toolkit for mono development on Linux (as opposed to WinForms). It can be used from any of the mono languages (which, BTW, includes IronPython, an implementation of Python). This book

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596007922

has an intro to Gtk#. Of course, you can also use Gtk from "regular" Python.

[Note360]

Visual Basic is also supported by Mono though not completely. Most C# books only concern dotNet but the basics are the same most of the GUI stuff is different. Here is my suggestion

Go here and read on mono.

Then go to Synaptic and download Mono and MonoDevelop (the IDE)

Next, find a tutorial or book.
Here is a list of books with a review: http://lists.ximian.com/pipermail/mo...ry/011066.html

[Oler1s]

Is C# in general a pretty hard language to learn like C++?

It makes boring tasks easier. C++ is hard because you have to work with everything. GUI gets even worse.

C# takes care of all the annoying details, and allows you to focus on writing the meat of the application. I found learning C# easier than C++.

[mostwanted]

C# feels like a revised Java where all the obsolete junk collected over time is thrown out and classes have been renamed to make it more in tune with other languages.

Monodevelop comes with a visual GUI builder (Gtk#-based) which is very alpha at the moment, but it's there nonetheless. When Monodevelop some day becomes less buggy, maybe it will be a piece of cake. You can also use Glade which is a largely language independant GUI builder (also Gtk+ which = Gtk# when used in conjunction with Mono).

[LordHunter317]

It makes boring tasks easier.

Not really. It makes some boring tasks eaiser. The problem is that the .NET framework is so poor that when you want to do a boring task it doesn't cover, it becomes order-of-magnitude harder to do.

You have to design your application to the framework in a lot of situations, which is just a really poor state to be in.

C++ is hard because you have to work with everything.

I'm not sure what you mean.

GUI gets even worse.

Not really, if you're using a good toolkit.

C# feels like a revised Java where all the obsolete junk collected over time is thrown out and classes have been renamed to make it more in tune with other languages.

Well, yes and no. MS did crib from Java in several ways, there's little question about that. The problem with C# is that the /language/ is superior in many ways to Java (and actually inferior in a few others), but the basic library is incredibly inferior.

[mostwanted]

Well, I disagree

[GeoMX]

I'm learning C++ (I've been programming with C) and wxWidgets, but wanted to take a look at C# + Mono.

I installed monodevelop (from the repositories), and compiled the simple console application (the one monodevelop creates automatically), but when adding using System.Drawing; I got this compiler error:

[Task:File=~/Projects/monotest/monotest/Main.cs, Line=3, Column=1, Type=Error, Description=The type or namespace name `System.Drawing' could not be found. Are you missing a using directive or an assembly reference?(CS0246)

Do you know what do I need to do in order to make mono recognize the System.Drawing namespace? Do I need to install another package?

Thanks for your help.

[LordHunter317]

Well, I disagree

Go look at System.Collections vs. the JCF and get back to me on that.

[LordHunter317]

As for GeoMX's problem, you probably need to add '/r:System.Drawing.dll' to the command line. System.Drawing is in a seperate library, and you have to tell the compiler to link to it.