building .net applications without Visual Studio

Question

I'm interested to hear about people working with building .net applications using MSBuild, NAnt or similar tools. What are you using, why are you using it instead of the VS IDE?

I like to use different editors quite a bit and I'm thinking of changing over to using something that can keep me IDE free.

Thanks!

Kirakiran

I once had to interview for a place that expected you to code in notepad. Needless to say, I didn't get the job. – Corot

I write the majority of my code in MSPaint. – Procrastinate

I don't know which editor you like but there are VIM plugins for VS and Sql Management Studio that I use that work pretty well. – Brodie

@Jehud I use VIM somewhat regularly. I wish the VS IDE had more features for refactoring etc.. without having to buy a third party plugin. – Kirakiran

@casey : you can get Coderush Xpress for free : devexpress.com/Products/Visual_Studio_Add-in/CodeRushX – Enzyme

recursivity.com/blog/2012/10/28/ides-are-a-language-smell – Mooned

Answer 1

I don't know anyone that is using NAnt or MSBuild instead of the IDE. Everyone I know that uses one or the other is using those tools in support of and in addition to the IDE. It's not that you can't write .NET code without and IDE such as VS, Mono or SharpDevelop, but they will save you a world of pain along the way.

Also, NAnt is no longer being developed or really supported. The last beta was something like two years ago. I would not recommend using it, though I know many that swear by it (and we even have to use it here for certain legacy projects).

Equilibrant

Answer 2

Believe me without an IDE you just waste your time and it is a real pain !

if you feel that visual studio is expensive you can try the express editions or go for MonoDevelop or sharpdevelop

Enzyme

I agree, use the express edition. It's very powerful for a free product. You'd be surprised what you can build with express. Sharpdevelop is another neat tool, I haven't done a lot with it, but I have seen stuff built with it that's pretty impressive. If you are really anti-IDE, you can always use notepad or Notepad++ and compile it with "CSC" at the prompt. (Though you'll still have to have VS installed) – Hepcat

+1 for the Express Edition. With 3th party tools (NUnit/MbUnit, Equatec Profiler, TortoiseSVN etc) it works fine. – Ionize

NAnt + VS.NET integration: weblogs.asp.net/bsimser/archive/2006/06/06/… – Ionize

Jeremy, you do not need to have Visual Studio installed in order to get the C# or VB.NET compilers, they are included in the .NET Framework. – Armpit

Answer 3

You don't need to be using another IDE to use a different build mechanism.

Not using an IDE is really a waste of productivity. You could use sharpdevelop or monodevelop though if you don't want to use Visual Studio.

Apogamy

Answer 4

I have written build scripts for my project in both NAnt and MSBuild and I prefer NAnt or a hybrid of the two.

I still use VS; however, if I want to do automated/nightly builds or do more than just build, I've found that using NAnt makes it easy. Plus developing your own NAnt tasks is a pretty easy task once you get used to it.

I tend to use a Hybrid of MSBuild and NAnt when working with ASP.Net projects. When this is the case, I'll have NAnt call MSBuild and pass in the project file to handle the compilation and then use NAnt for everything else.

Cesar