Developer Tools

This page lists various alternative tools that are of interest to developers. Stars-Nova is developed in C# and requires a tool chain consisting of the .NET Framework and a C# compiler. The current solution has been tested and known to work with several Integrated Development Environments (IDE) on multiple platforms. For developers with Linux or Max OS X as their platform of choice MonoDevelop is a free, open source, IDE that works nicely with the cross-platform Mono .NET framework.

Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Standard / Professional / Team Edition is a non-free IDE for Windows
• Microsoft Visual C# 2008 Express Edition is a free IDE for Windows
• MonoDevelop is a free, open source, IDE for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, but it lacks a WinForms designer
• SharpDevelop is a free, open source, IDE for Windows (has not been tested with our solution)

Source Control

We use the [Subversion] (SVN) hosting service provided by SF.net to centrally manage the project source code. To connect to our SVN repository you need to install an SVN client such as one of the following:

• TortoiseSVN provides a handy Windows shell extension
• VsTortoise integrates with Visual Studio using TortoiseSVN
• AnkhSVN integrates with Visual Studio
• VisualSVN is a non-free (available for free to developers on open source projects that fulfill certain criteria) tool that integrates with Visual Studio using TortoiseSVN

Unit Test Runner

We have a few NUnit unit test projects that can be run to check that certain assertions about the way the application behaves still holds true. A test runner can be installed to make it possible to run these tests directly from within Visual Studio.

• TestDriven.NET's personal version is free for open source developers
• Gallio is an open source project with support for a number of test frameworks
• ReSharper is a non-free (available for free to developers on open source projects that fulfill certain criteria) productivity tool for Visual Studio that includes a test runner

StyleCop

We use StyleCop (for windows developers only) to ensure a consistent code layout. You can download StyleCop here.
To run StyleCop, open the stars-nova Visual Studio solution. Right click the solution and choose Run StyleCop from the menu. You will get a list of warnings for any style violations.
To see the StyleCop settings, double click the file Settings.StyleCop in the stars-nova folder.

ReSharper

The "certain criteria" that open source developers must fulfill to get a free license of ReSharper and/or VisualSVN includes:

• Applicant is an active member (ReSharper requires a project lead or commiter with minimum 3 months on the project)
• Active community (based on forum, issue tracker, commit history)
• Project has released updated builds on a regular basis

The ReSharper open source license would apply to all developers on the project so only one person has to apply. These and other tool offerings for open source developers from commercial companies might be something worth a closer look when we manage to push more regular releases.