Our company has a handful of Mac users. I recently built a Winform application and now my main user is using a Mac. Is it possible to run this application on a Mac? What would have to be done to convert it? If it is too much, I may just rebuild it is asp.net as a web application.
Thanks in advance!
JCC
Maybe. Many .Net programs can be compiled with mono as well, winforms usually is not a problem, but some libraries (e. g. MS Office libraries for editing Excel files). I am not sure about VB, as mono coders mostly use C#, but you can analyse your code with the Mono Migration Analyzer for portability to mono.
Depending a bit on features and controls used, it may run on Mono. Since you can run Mono on Windows as well it's rather easy to download and test it.
Your basic options are (from least intrusive to most intrusive, from the point of view of a Mac user):
Convert it to a web app.
Run it on a Terminal Server and have them use Remote Desktop.
Run the application in a virtual machine (VMWare or Parallels) that is running Windows.
Try to get it running under Mono.
If there isn’t a strong reason for it to be a desktop application, you really should be thinking in terms of web apps for new applications—at least, that’s an unwritten rule where I work.
Related
MacOS Catalina drops support for 32-bit applications, signaling the final death blow to Silverlight on Mac. Anyone out there know of a way to get a Silverlight codebase to run on Mac? I don't mind recompiling or running under a special host. I'm just looking for some way to get a little more time before the codebase is completely replaced.
You'll need to migrate to a different framework that runs in the browser. I can recommend C#/XAML for HTML5 as a relatively painless option, depending on how complex your Silverlight app is.
Looking for opinions. I'm working on a mid-sized 3-tier ASP.NET project (.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005) with an Oracle on Unix back-end, some beefy MS web servers, and IE browser clients. Performance is pretty bad, and users feel the UI looks outdated as well. We may have an opportunity soon to redesign and rewrite the entire application from the ground up, and I'm wondering what the current or recommended MS platform is.
I was involved with WPF and Silverlight on a different contract when MS downgraded support for Silverlight in favor of "HTML5" for Windows 8 and Windows Phone a few years back. I'm not trying to start a flame war between how long Silverlight or even WPF will be around, but I'm looking for some modern alternatives as of today, April 2013. The one requirement we can't get around is that we can't install something on each and every user PC throughout the client organization.
My own background is in WinForms and C# more so than any of the above, but everywhere I turn it seems developing any new LOB apps in WinForms isn't done much anymore.
Whatever happened to the Application Server platform and apps run thru Remote Desktop? Does it still make sense to develop desktop apps and deploy to app servers and just put a shortcut on each user's desktop, or even map a drive letter like we used to do back in the day?
Your $0.02 would be appreciated!
I would definitely consider doing it as an internal web site.
The UI would be HTML5 using the "single page application" (SPA) for each function you need. Each function would be on a page that is loaded when the user needs it. The javascript/ajax code in the browser would interact with the web server which feeds back the raw data needed to be displayed.
Using Active Directory, you can have full security and customization per person.
If you need lots of interactivity, then you'd also want to consider including SignalR in the mix. (That is one of the "new" MS tools!)
If you can't install anything in the end users' PCs then go ASP.Net. Anything else will require installation.
You can make a web application more appealing to the users by having a good designer and a LOT of javascript. Not remotely comparable to the power and beauty of WPF, but that's your best bet.
WPF is part of the .Net framework and will not run without it installed.
Silverlight could also be an option, but it still requires an installation (although minimal, 4 MB, less-than-2 minute install), but an install anyways.
WinRT only works in Windows 8. It's not supported in lower versions (Vista, XP, 7). So I don't think it's an option as of now (unless all your users have Windows 8, of course).
And no, winforms is not an option. It's also part of the .Net framework, and even if you could get it installed, it doesn't make any sense having to deal with the limitations of it, having many much much better technologies at your disposal.
Are there any pitfalls to be aware of in deploying Silverlight files (XAP files) in a Java EE web application archive (war file) on Weblogic?
It works fine but seems a little unusual to do. For some achitecture related reasons, we are exploring this option for a project.
Until now, I have not myselft tried such an option, but I plan to use Silverlight with PHP in the future. It is not very different from Flash. You should however keep in mind that it is a Windows-oriented technology. Implementation on the Mac is supposedly the same as on windows however I find it much slower and much more fragile (it crashes A LOT while the windows counterpart never does). Implementation on Linux is FAR behind the Windows version.
Silverlight runs in the browser, so theoretically is as client-side as a JQuery script is. You can deploy it to any web server (apache eg: http://www.geoghana.com/blog/?p=53). You will be missing WCF and the integration between Silverlight and ASP.net, but this can be easily replaced with other technologies.
The thing that I am unsure about is the dev and debugging environment. This is probably the part you should investigate and test before committing. I am not sure whether you can debug your Silverlight app if it is integrated into a different web server (I doubt). You should especially find out how does Visual Studio development fit into your workflow and your tools... For example it may be that you need to develop it in IIS and only then deploy it to your webserver.
I am thinking of making a website using a WPF browser application, but would like to know the minimum requirement a client/internet user must have to access this website made by using WPF.
Please state even the very basic requirements, like does he need to run Windows or will even Mac and Linux do, with any browser to view the application?
Three main requirements:
User has to run the application under Windows;
The browser should be either Interned Explorer or Firefox;
The .Net Framework should be installed on user's machine.
One requirement is to have the .NET framework installed (same version as you used to build your application), so that means it will only run under Windows.
Also I think only Internet Explorer and Firefox support XBAP applications.
Also I assume that you know there is a lot of restrictions for you, the developer, on what is allowed or not compared to a full trust program. For example, the file system and registry among other things are restricted in a WPF browser application.
I begin to program some handheld program as hobby, right now i currently have knowledge on Blackberry App (Java), Symbian S60 (PyS60) and J2ME
Something that i wanna learn was Windows Mobile/Pocket PC and iPhone development, but since i don't use Mac so i step to Windows Mobile/Pocket PC development
Here some question:
1. Which is better Lazarus or Turbo Delphi.Net?
2. Do both have some kind support of network access (GPRS, Wi-Fi, HSDPA, etc)?
3. Do both have database access, both remote database and standalone/embed database? like SQL Server 2005 CE?
4. Do i need some driver installed on Windows Mobile/Pocket PC to be able to work with SQL Server 2005 Developer on server i already have?
If possible answer point-by-point
Thanks
Lazarus has form designer built in for WinCE applications, Delphi 4.Net doesn't has one, also CG has stopped developing the Turbo Delphi line, and it's support .Net CF 1.1 only.
Maybe using Delphi Prism will be better option, because it's support the latest .net framework, and with the new MonoTouch it could be better option for future development with IPhone too.
Point 2 & 3, I don't have information about them, you could visit Lazarus forums and wiki to have more information, but for Delphi 4.Net it has support for all classes on the .Net framework CF.
4.If I remember correctly, the .Net CF has drivers for SqlServer Mobile edition and Sql Server, for example it has SqlCEConnection for mobile and SqlConnection for Regular Sql server edition.
I never tried Turbo Delphi .NET, but afaik CodeGear stopped that line, so I wouldn't start new development in it. I also heard that CF.NET was not officially supported and a bit ackward. As said I never used it, I hope that others will comment.
Lazarus core functionality works, but many more "outer" parts are not always tested on CE, and you will have to find stuff out yourself.
Roughly the same as under normal delphi/win23. Can access TCP/IP with Indy10 afaik, but to work with network connections you need api calls
sqlite is sometimes used. In theory all the db drivers should run if their client libraries are available to arm. The DB support should mostly be endian clean. However I don't know which ones are supported.
Sql Server variants are generally not supported by FPC, except via ODBC. And I don't know if CE has that.
Usually you need to have some client lib or a generalized DB connectivity lib ADO/ODBC/JDBC.
Browsing the lazarus/fpc wiki for CE topics could be a good next step. If you persist in CF.NET, I would migrate to VS, and not work with TD.NET.
If I would develop something for a handheld, I would create a webapplication. Only if you need to access the handheld data (pim, gps, ...) it makes sense to create a local running application.
But if you want to create something to run on the device, I would go for FPC / Lazarus as well.
Your questions has been answered so I'll reply with my opinions;
Lazarus: It gives you power of
native application, but it's not used
widely. Give it a try, see if it fits
your needs on the mobile device.
Perhaps report bugs and help its
development.
Delphi Prism + .NET
CF: Object-pascal alike .NET syntax
-which I do not like but that's just my opinion-. Here's a sample video
to get started. It lacks form
designer for .NET CF so if you stick
with it you'll use WinForms designer.
C# + .NET CF. It has really good
IDE for .NET CF development. This is
how I rolled for mobile device
development and I'm happy with it.
ie, if I have a problem the huge .NET
userbase most likely has the
solution.