Re: [DotGNU]Is there a Developer FAQ

[Rhys Weatherley]

Charles Shuller wrote:

> What is CSCC, and what is it's relationship to MSVC?

cscc is the DotGNU Portable.NET C# compiler.  No relation to MSVC.

> Do I need MS-Windows to develope for dotgnu at this point in time?

Debugging the C# class library is a bit difficult without Windows
right now, but it is possible to avoid Windows entirely if you wish,
especially if you are working on the compiler or runtime engine,
or just want to use the system and not hack on it.

> What is the development cycle in terms of multi-platform development,
> for example, develop on *nix, port to win32?

We try to write the code to be generic from day 1, with platform
dependencies isolated as much as possible.  We also tend to follow
GNU guidelines on writing portable code.  Win32 support is acheived
using Cygwin, which provides a Unix-like API base to work with.

I may remove the Cygwin dependency one of these days.  However,
it isn't a big priority.  GNU priorities are always to build it
for free software platforms first.

> What packages do I need to install to claim to have a working dotgnu
> install (If this is possible at this point)?

I can only speak for the Portable.NET parts of DotGNU.  See my
Web site for the treecc and pnet packages, which are the most
basic requirements:

http://www.southern-storm.com.au/portable_net.html

> Where are the specifications?
>    For coding style (or is it gnu, or variable by package), and other
> such matters.
> 
> What are the procedures for patch/code submission (I very much suspect
> that they should be mailed to a project developer, but I haven't found
> anything stating this)?

See the "pnet/HACKING" and "pnetlib/HACKING" files in the sources.

> What windowing toolkits are supported (I think the SEE might care about
> such things, but I suspect nothing else does, so this might just be a
> SEE thing)

Windowing toolkits are what we call a "high level library issue".
As such, we are co-operating with the Mono project on that front.
There are already ports of Gtk and Qt, and they are working on
Windows Forms.

> Is GCC supported, if so are there version restrictions?

2.95 or higher is recommended, but it will probably compile with
earlier versions.  Gcc is our standard compile platform.  It may
compile with other Unix-ish cc clones, but it isn't a high priority.

> What tools do I need to develop on linux for dotgnu?

See the aforementioned HACKING files.

> Is there a central download site to quickly grab everything (or will
> there be) so installers don't need to go to 8 different FTP servers, and
> curse excessivly? (thinking of the current GNOME FTP directory structure
> which recently incorperated release directories with all the packages
> comprising a release in said directory.  Makes wget a great option)

See above.

Note: all of the above is just for the Portable.NET component
of DotGNU.  Other people will need to answer the questions for
other DotGNU components.

Cheers,

Rhys.