VB.Net on MacOSX

[Anil Gupte/iCinema.com]

Ii have a requirement from a potential client that their software work on

Microsoft Windows -- version(s): windows xp
Macintosh -- version(s): leopard
Mac OS X -- version(s): leopard

Is there anyway to write a VB program and then "port" it easily? Or do I
need to rewrite the whole thing?

Thanx,
--
Anil Gupte
www.keeninc.net
www.icinema.com
www.wizo.tv

[=?Utf-8?B?S2VycnkgTW9vcm1hbg==?=]

Anil,

Of course web apps run on every client via a browser. So one option would be
an ASP.Net app running on a windows server and delivered to a browser on any
platform.

On the other hand if you are talking about a more "traditional" windows
forms application, then the open source Mono project is probably your best
bet.

I used to dismiss Mono as hopelessly incomplete, but I've heard some good
things about it lately.

Kerry Moorman
"Anil Gupte/iCinema.com" wrote:

Ii have a requirement from a potential client that their software work on

Microsoft Windows -- version(s): windows xp
Macintosh -- version(s): leopard
Mac OS X -- version(s): leopard

Is there anyway to write a VB program and then "port" it easily? Or do I
need to rewrite the whole thing?

Thanx,
--
Anil Gupte
www.keeninc.net
www.icinema.com
www.wizo.tv

[Dick Grier]

Using Mono would be a port, too.

Another "port" might be to use RealBasic, which has an IDE similar to Visual
Studio, and similar constructs -- though enough different that there would
be some non-trivial work involved. The RealBasic application can be written
for Mac and Windows.

--
Richard Grier, MVP
Hard & Software
Author of Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to Serial Communications, Fourth
Edition,
ISBN 1-890422-28-2 (391 pages, includes CD-ROM). July 2004, Revised March
2006.
See www.hardandsoftware.net for details and contact information.

[Tom Shelton]

On 2008-07-23, Dick Grier <dick_grierNOSPAM@wrote:

Using Mono would be a port, too.

Sort of... You have to make sure that the stuff you use is implemented on
Mono. You also have to make sure you aren't doing windows specific things,
like api calls, registry access, etc. This can be more subtle then people
think... Things like new lines (use System.Enviroment.NewLine), file and
executable paths (use System.Environment.GetFolderPath for system and user
folder paths and System.IO.Path class to build paths), etc. Sometimes, you
have to do OS checks to accomplish things... And in the end you have to test
the crap out of it on both systems :)

But, from a executable standpoint, they are binary compatible. In
other words, you can take your exe you compiled in VS and run it directly on
Mono.

Another "port" might be to use RealBasic, which has an IDE similar to Visual
Studio, and similar constructs -- though enough different that there would
be some non-trivial work involved. The RealBasic application can be written
for Mac and Windows.

Hmmm... Well, if you approach development correctly - you can develop a cross
platform executable using VS.NET.

--
Tom Shelton

[Tom Shelton]

On 2008-07-23, Dick Grier <dick_grierNOSPAM@wrote:

Using Mono would be a port, too.

Another "port" might be to use RealBasic, which has an IDE similar to Visual
Studio, and similar constructs -- though enough different that there would
be some non-trivial work involved. The RealBasic application can be written
for Mac and Windows.

PS.... I think if I was going to really try and make a cross platform app,
targeting .NET and Mono, I would probably abondond VB for the task. Last I
checked the state of the VB.NET runtime on Mono wasn't all that complete - so
you might end up with issues using some of the VB specific functionaliy. This
isn't the case with C#.

--
Tom Shelton