Why would you choose SharpDevelop over Visual Studio for coding in C#? [closed]

Question

I've encountered SharpDevelop a few times before but I don't know anyone who actually programs in it. Would you recommend it for medium size projects in C#?

Subquestions: Is there a difference in speed of compiling? (Article is about multi-threading compliling in SharpDevelop)

Thanks for answers!

Joline

Well, for one reason, Visual Studio doesn't install on my PC even after trying everything! – Gybe

For the small amount of C# development I have, I have to work in an environment where there can be no access to the internet. Visual Studio requires the use of the internet for verification and so is of no use to me. – Fitting

Answer 1

There is absolutely no compelling reason to choose SharpDevelop over Visual Studio if you have the choice and the budget.

Visual Studio is by far the best IDE on the market, and I have used quite a few.

And, as Marty says in comments, he is a student. At http://www.dreamspark.com any student can get free, full professional versions of most all of the Visual Studio and Windows SKU's.

Visual Studio is also offered without cost in less featured versions labeled 'Express'

If you are not a student (or don't know one, wink wink) and on a budget, and the VS express versions don't have the features you need, then SharpDevelop would be a good way to go.

I am not an MS fanboy, just in case you are wondering.

Merge

I'm a student and therefore I can use Visual Studio via MSDNAA. Thanks for the opinion! – Joline

@Marty - sure, dreamspark.com , Free Visual Studio Professional 2008 and 2010 for students. Brilliant. You would be crippling yourself if you didn't take advantage of that offer. – Merge

There is something to be said for Mono and easy cross-platform development, and it's easier to target Mono using SharpDevelop than it is using Visual Studio. – Nonsuch

@SkySanders, I nearly choked reading "you would be crippling yourself...", thanks. Let me offer another opinion: you'd be exercising your free spirit if you go for non-M$ sw and support the community and acknowledge the awesome work the champs did on the FOSS. You can even sell that to shareholders if you make it into a marketing strategy. No, rest assured you wouldn't be crippling yourself, more to the contrary. – Noonday

I've just installed the latest versions - VS2013 and Xamarind 5.7. I'm deeply impressed by the later. – Noonday

I will say when I last used it a long while back, I have found SharpDevelop faster and smaller in footprint than any version of VS. So that's one pro for using SharpDevelop if you don't need all the features of VS. – Cassidycassie

Simply for performance. For example, web development is many times slower in VS2015 and this converts to more time producing a similar result which you now need to charge your client for. Why should they pay more? Why should I suffer with slow speeds in the IDE? Evaluate the speed difference between VS2010 and see how much faster it is than the newer IDE's especially with web development. Microsoft's IDE's are great but the performance is consistently getting worse on each release. – Ulane

Answer 2

I am running SharpDevelop in a Windows VM on a macbook air, which has only a 256G solid state "hard disk", so I need to keep the VM package as small as possible. An installation of Visual Studio, by the time all its updates had been installed, increased the size of the VM package by about 8G. Too big. And why does it take so long to install? what is it doing to the registry? So why spend several hundred pounds on Visual Studio when SharpDevelop is free and tiny by comparison?

Nameplate

This looks like a totally separate question, rather than an answer to this question. Please create a new question for it instead of posting it here. – Shoddy

It's a rhetorical question... – Doll

Answer 3

For people who need opensource.... eclipse for example would have never been so successful without Open Source

Complete list for Feature comparison (VS Express vs SharpDevelop):

http://community.sharpdevelop.net/blogs/mattward/pages/VisualStudioExpressComparison.aspx

Gaytan

Answer 4

If you have a full license for Visual Studio and are going to write only Windows programs for only yourself or a business, then there would be no incentive.

However, if you wanted to use the C# language and the .NET-style for an Open Source project, or one that is compatible across many platforms, you'd probably choose to use Mono instead of .NET and SharpDevelop instead of VS.

Remorseless

Answer 5

i have tried it for VB.NET couple of years, didn't like the IDE. After i tried i used the Express Editions for C#/VB.NET (2005).

Now i've a msdn premium account from my company, thats why i only use the Team Systems (home/work).

I think VS is imo the best IDE to develop with the .NET Framework.

Natatory