SharpDevelop vs Visual Studio
February 12, 2009 Alternatives, Comparisons, IDEs, Open Source
As my previous post on SharpDevelop explained, SharpDevelop in many ways a better alternative to Visual Studio. However, the significant differences between these two and the advantages or disadvantages over each other are explained here.
Advantages of SharpDevelop over Visual Studio:
- Open Source (Full Source Code available freely)
- Completely Free to use for both Commercial and Personal use
- Supports all .NET Framework, Compact Framework, WinForms (with excellent extra GTK# for X-Window based systems), Console Application, Direct3D (wow, Game Development anyone?), WPF, and Windows and Web Services.
- Supports additional languages like Boo, F#, ILAsm and Python (very good) out of box apart from C# and VB.NET.
- Supports Installer Creation (a very likeable feature works better than VS in my opinion)
- Light on Resources faster on Building (refer Point 8 below). The last time I checked, has only 80 KB of RAM with 0.x% CPU Usage even after opening a bulky WinForms project and keeping couple of forms open in design mode. (A relief from VS’s usual 128 KB or more RAM and 4-5% CPU Usage)
- Inbuilt Refactoring Engine (you’ll need JetBrains ReSharper if you want this in Visual Studio)
- Parallel Build support for Multi-core machines (faster building, very likeable feature which is sadly not available in VS)
- Supports important Visual Studio add-ons like FxCop, StyleCop, NUnit, PartCover etc.
- Version Controlling with Subversion (which is far better a solution than VSS. I’ll post another post soon explaining the benefits of SVN over VSS)
- Wide range of very useful Add-ons (as the case with most Open Source projects)
- Inbuilt Documentation Generator (Sandcastle, SHFB)
- Very likeable Class Diagram and Code Coverage views
- Very likeable F# Interactive, Boo Interpreter and Python Console
- Supports Mono (the alternative .NET 2.0 Framework for Linux, BSD and Mac OS X)
What I see as disadvantages of SharpDevelop:
- Code Editor has some minor glitches (I’ve seen some glitches on code folding and unfolding though it’s just visual not physical)
- Lack of VSS Support (though I’m not looking forward to it as it’s a proprietary version control system to be included in any open source project like this)
- Lack of Visual Studio like Object Browser (I miss that one here, though #Develop has very good Class Browser)
- Somewhat Buggy (I’ve seen it crashing sometimes but understandable due to its Open Source nature)
But apart from this, programmatically speaking, you can do everything that you can do in VS with #Develop. It’s pretty impressive for a Open Source project.
Comments (9)
Another advantage would be the installer only weights 19MB, and installed it weights about 50MB. Compare that to a Visual Studio installation (if you can
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I’ve been amused by seing how comparable to visual studio this is.
Btw, good review.
Yes, very true.
Thanks for the comments.
Which version of Visual Studio do you have in mind ?
Visual Studio is the best IDE out there. There is nothing comparable to it. NOTHING.
The only reason people use open source garbage is ’cause they don’t like to pay for things. Open souce (from linux to sharpdevelop) is the poor man’s solution.
Just my 2 cents.
I’m a professional developer having working experience of more than 10 years. Most of my development career in on Microsoft technologies. So, do not assume that I don’t know what I’m talking about here.
I’ve used Visual Studio versions from 6.0 to the latest 2010 RC.
Your perception of the Open Source users is very wrong. Many people such as yourself may be comfortable in using proprietary technologies without really understanding what’s the real purpose of a software product. Open source is the heart of software.
From your term ‘open source garbage’ I can safely guess that you have never used any open source software. You have to really use some open source software to appreciate it or the philosophy of open source.
Now, the review here is NOT about what is better. It’s a comparison that would help people who are eying alternatives for Visual Studio. Believe, me there are hell lot of people who are looking out for alternatives to Visual Studio.
Another thing, for you to make statements such as ‘there is nothing comparable to Visual Studio’ you have to really have worked in other IDE products which I strongly doubt.
I used sharp develop for my two business project. When you compare to visual studio , the best one is light ide , it doesn’t force to buy new hardware. Also best option you don’t mention is it supports windows service application but express version of visual studio doesn’t. Just one weakness is code completing is not good.
Thanks for the comments and that important tip Taner.
Yes, except for a better Code Completion, SharpDevelop rocks!!!
It does not support VS Setup projects. I have started looking at it; I’m tired of the slow moving overpriced and bloated VS IDE. I own it via MSDN and have used it since VS6.
I think it lacks some designers and lags .NET framework. I think for web/ASP.NET developers would have issues using it.
In sharpdevelop, the problem is that it doestn’t read VS format, it doesn’t show design view in some languages which VS does, hardly do i find any resource for learning .net with #develop
Dear Mr Joseph,
You have done an exhaustive comparison. On starting my own venture i had to start using SharpDevelop to save money. Now i find it much better. VS is a shade better in debugging library code. But this can be over come by using Debug, Trace classes of the System.Diagnostics namespace.