Does anyone know anything about an opensource C# IDE called SharpDevelop? I'm looking for something to learn with, and don't want to get something that's not going to do me much good. Thanks for any info!

#develop is good. I think it is just an ide wrapped around the .net framwork (or something like that). It is good, mainly because it is free.

Yep, that's what I like about it. But I'd hate to get myself up to decent speed on it, then get Visual Studio and find I have to re-learn. Right now I just don't have the loose change lying around that Microsoft wants to VS 2005. Sheesh!

I havent really had much success with IDE's, I find them really unintutitive. I seem to find myself using a texteditor (usuly nano or gedit). They are exceedingly useful for building GUI's but when im not doing that I cant really see any point to using one, since they are spost to make life easy, and they don't seem to.

I've used #Develop and VS.NET 2003. And there is a world of difference! #Develop is good if you're doing simple tasks, and not in a work environment. If you are at all concerned with scheduels and the like, use VS.NET. I know it's not free or open source, but it's a great product.

Yeah, I have used both too, and VS.Net makes organizing and other stuff easier. It is costly though. The only thing bad about jsut writing a file in notepad or something is it doesn't come with a compiler and a debugger.

Yeah, I don't have any worries about scheduling; my goal (after learning of course) is to mainly write and sell programs more or less independently. I have a lot of what I think are good ideas, I just need to sharpen (no pun intended) my tools.
As I said, my main concern is that #develop is so different from VS that I'll be locking myself in and will have to relearn if I decide to get VS. I have no doubt that VS is a great product, and I really, reeally want it, but I really really can't justify it's cost at this stage.

Then you're probably going to want VS.NET. It really makes many aspects of programming much less hasslesome, especially when wanting to build quality, professional software. But yes, it is very pricy. You might be able to grab a copy on a student license, depending on how old you are and stuff....
Plus, if you wait until 2005 comes out, you could probably get 2003 for a good deal. And I use 2003, and it's an awesome IDE.

VS.NET IDE is very intuitive. There are some glitches but with as robust as it is, MS would have been hard pressed not to screw up somewhere. There is no IDE as comprehensive. You COULD use #develop for learning purposes, but as stated above, not for anything on a schedule.

Consider that #develop is in an open source alpha/beta stage and will UE on you. The #develop team has implemented some things that are definitely missing from VS.NET ide like a few code completion macros:

prop int counter (hit Alt+Q here)

turns into:

It's a nice feature to have, but can easily be duplicated in minutes from within the VS.NET Macros IDE (and it runs a lot faster too).

I think that #develop is an awesome idea, and once it has been extensively bug tested and developed, that it may give the community at large a viable alternative to using a Microsoft product. However, with VS.NET 2005 about to break, #develop may be a little to little a little too late.

Seth Webster

Yeah, that's kind of my worry. I guess I need to take a look at VS.NET 2003. As long as the controls have the more modern look, I think I'll be satisfied. Then again, with the release date of 2005 being pushed back, maybe I'll have time to save a some pennies, scrounge up a bunch of aluminum cans and sell off some old clothes and buy it when it comes out. That would be HARD, though. I'd have to be real sure I'll be in this programming thing for the long haul before dropping that kind of dough!

Any thoughts about any of the Express products? They're still in beta, but I think MS is touting them as great tools, minus some of the serious power-developer functions, that might present a better learning environment.