The future of VCMT: .net!

This started as a little project to learn C# and .net, Microsoft's new language and code framework.

It now has almost as much functionality as the old vcmt.

Some advantages:

• Much cleaner GUI design, because...
• developed in VisualStudio.net with integrated debugger and gui builder. Much more maintainable, extendable, accessible to other developers
• only one technology (vs. jscript, wsh, dhtml, html, ie, ...) 
• multi-language support in the basic framework (but it is all in C#, but easy to add modules in Java, C++, etc.).
• very functional connection to the OS provided by .net framework classes (file system, console commands, threads, ...)
• much more OO: 10 classes, most in a different file
• better separation between GUI (Form) classes and functional classes. (4 of each now)

Disadvantage?

Like the current version, Windows only. But:

• Every aspect (.net class library, C#) is an international (ECMA) standard.
• The compiler is already available as open source.
• The Gnome project (managed by Ximian)  has adopted it for their future development: See " mono ".

What is currently missing:

• recursive checkout, like glastpack
• broadcast
• CMT configuration support
• doxygen support
• ability to observe and interrupt compilations, sub-processes in general
• Lots of tests for unusual circumstances (necessary to avoid "it doesn't work" support)

Estimate for release

In alpha test now (that is, me.)

Beta version in a week or so, assuming presence of old vcmt to provide other functions. Probably a month to add above features, required for general release.

T. Burnett

Last Update:  06/01/2010