C# -Mono (platform independence)

Question

I'm very newbie to Ubuntu OS and I have my solution developed in visual studio 2008. I want my application to run in both windows and Linux(ubuntu). I've few questions in my mind.

1. Does mono support visual debugger .
2. If I start development using mono.Is it possible to run same in .net framework (windows) ?? or do I need to write the NSI script to download the libraries during installation from internet and install.
3. What is the best way to achieve platform independence.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Yes, Mono has a debugger - see MonoDevelop.

Assuming you don't use any Mono-specific libraries, or ship them alongside your app, it should just work in Windows against the Microsoft .NET implementation - although of course you'd want to test it.

A lot of achieving platform independence is a matter of the libraries you use: make sure whatever you want to call is either already available in both platforms or can be shipped alongside your app. Beyond that, there are obvious things like not assuming a particular path/directory separator, potentially not assuming a particular endianness (although that's rarely an issue in C# in my experience) - and regular testing, both manual and automated as far as possible.

Answer 2

There is an Mono add-in for Visual Studio that warns you when building your app if you use something that Mono doesn't support yet.

Don't remember the name, thought.