Compilation Woes
The code for GenX.NET 3.0 FINALLY went RTM today... one of the complications of such thorough documentation (generating docs from source code comments using Fesersoft's still unreleased update to VB Comments Creator and NDOC) with source code control is that, if you find problems in the docs, you have to update the source code. So I've been pouring over the Object Reference, making sure that everything is 100% accurate, with no typos or grammar mistakes. Since we haven't made the providers public in this release, there are tons of comments in the code that never made it into the public API (but will be available in the SDK). One of my biggest beefs is when documentation is incomplete, inconsistent, or not in the same “voice” throughtout. So I've taken extra time (well, the same time that I take with my code) to make sure that it's all in the best possible state of completeness. In case you didn't know yet, I'm kind of a hard person to please when it comes to code quality.
Now, I code strictly in VS.NET 2003, using methods I described (courtesy of XHEO) in my Builder.com article on “Basic .NET: Framework Compatibility Issues” and “Developing Components: Assembly Identification“ to differentiate between builds compiled to different versions of the Framework. My build for .NET 1.1 was finished, so I went to create a Solution file for VS.NET 2002 and compile the app. No biggie, I figured it would take 10 minutes, tops. WRONG! No, I installed VS.NET 2003 before I installed VS.NET 2002, and, having never used it before today (wiped my machine a while back and haven't used it since). So I go to start up VS.NET and do my business, and WHAM “Visual Studio.NET cannot load with the active version of the .NET Framework. You may commense your swearing now.” (error message embellished for effect).
I got really tired of the “coexistence” issues with the different versions of VS.NET, so I copied my existing VMWare image, and installed VS.NET 2002 on it, so that I don't have to worry about it anymore. Now I just share the source code drive on my machine, and I'm good as gold.
Here is the point of this rant. I hear that MS is going to have a separate build engine for Whidbey, based on XML configuration files and what not. That's really cool.... but will it be able to compile to different versions of the framework if you just have the SDKs installed? Cause that would be really cool. It would save a lot of hassles.