Matt Ward

Debugging IronPython Code in SharpDevelop

MattWard — Sat, 30 May 2009 12:40:00 GMT

With SharpDevelop 3.1 you can now debug IronPython code with the IronPython Interpreter (ipy.exe).

Before you start make sure the debugger is set to use the Just My Code feature. From the Tools menu select Options and then click the Debugging category.

Ensure that the Just My Code feature is checked and that the Step over code without symbols is not checked. If the Step over code without symbols option is selected then stepping will not work properly and lines of code will be skipped over.

There are two ways to debug your code. You can use the Python menu or modify the project options. We will look at both of these alternatives. First open your IronPython project into SharpDevelop. Open your main file and make sure it is the active text editor window. Set a breakpoint somewhere in your code. Then from the Python menu select Run.

This will start ipy.exe which will run your code and the debugger should stop the execution at the breakpoint.

From this point you can do the usual debugging activities such as stepping through your code, viewing the callstack, adding items to the watch window, etc.

If you want to use a different ipy.exe then this can be specified in the Python Options dialog (Tools menu | Options).

To enable debugging when you press F5 or select the Debug Run menu option you can modify the project options. From the Projects menu select Project Options and then open the Debug tab. Here you should change the Start Action to Start external program and use the browse button to locate ipy.exe. In the Start Options add the following command line arguments, changing the name of your main file as required.

-D ${ProjectDir}\Program.py

Once these changes are saved you can then press F5 and ipy.exe will be run under the debugger instead of running the compiled executable.3

Issues

No support for debugging the executable produced by the IronPython compiler since it does not produce debug symbols (i.e. .pdb files).
When using ipy.exe you need to add references to .NET assemblies explicitly in your code except for System which is included by default. For example:
```
import clr 
clr.AddReference("System.Windows.Forms") 
```

Thanks

Thanks to David Srbecky, SharpDevelop's debugger expert and maintainer, for reviewing the code changes I wanted to make to the debugger and making sure nothing was broken. Adding support for debugging IronPython was straightforward and required 10-15 lines of new code thanks to the code already written by David.

Thanks also to Harry Pierson (IronPython Program Manager at Microsoft) who has written a great set of blog posts on creating an IronPython debugger in IronPython which gave me the reason why SharpDevelop's debugger was not working when debugging IronPython code.

IronPython 2.0 Forms Designer

MattWard — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:50:00 GMT

Support for designing Windows Forms in IronPython is now available in SharpDevelop 3.1. The original IronPython forms designer was removed when SharpDevelop 3.0 began supporting IronPython 2.0 which had removed support for generating IronPython code from Microsoft's CodeDOM. The forms designer has now been re-implemented to use the IronPython abstract syntax tree (AST) and no longer relies on the CodeDOM.

Creating a Windows Application

To create a Windows Application open up the new project dialog by selecting New then Solution from the File menu. Select the Python category to show the available project templates. Select the Windows Application project template, enter a name and location and click the Create button.

Designing Windows Forms

The Windows Forms designer is not yet complete so be warned that it could generate form code that will no longer compile.

The designer can be opened by opening a form in the text editor and selecting the Design tab at the bottom of the editor.

Once open in the designer you can add controls to the form by dragging the controls from the Tools window. In the screenshot below a label, text box and a button have been added.

Click the Source tab at the bottom of the editor to view the generated code in the InitializeComponents method.

Limitations

The IronPython forms designer is not yet complete and the following are some of the known limitations.

No support for project or local form resources.
No support for icons.
Incomplete support for ToolStripItems and menu strips.
Incomplete support for ListViewItems.
No support for TreeViewItems.
Incomplete support for non-visual components (e.g. Timers).
Controls needed to be fully namespace qualified.

Forms Designer Internals

For those interested in how the forms designer actually works at a high level we will now look at what the IronPython forms designer does when loading and then generating code for a form.

To show the form in the designer the following steps are executed.

The form's code is parsed and an IronPython AST (PythonAst object) is created.
The AST is then visited and each control is added to the forms designer and the control's properties are set.
The form's properties are set in the designer and the form is displayed.

To generate the code after the form has been designed the following steps are executed.

The form is obtained from the forms designer.
Each of the child components of the form have their properties checked to see if they need to be serialized. This can be done by getting all the property descriptors and then checking the ShouldSerializeValue method. If they do need to be serialized then code is generated for them and added to a StringBuilder.
After all the child components are added the code for the form is generated.
Finally the generated code is inserted into the text editor inside the InitializeComponent method, replacing any existing code.

Converting C# and VB.NET Code to IronPython

MattWard — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:07:00 GMT

SharpDevelop 3.1 now supports converting C# and VB.NET code to IronPython. It can convert a single file or an entire project. The code to convert between these languages is still under development and has some limitations.

Converting an Individual File

To convert a C# or VB.NET file, open it in SharpDevelop's text editor, then from Tools menu select Convert code to Python.

The code conversion is limited to converting classes so it will not convert an arbitary piece of code that is not inside a class.

Converting a Project

To convert a C# or VB.NET project, open it in SharpDevelop, then from the Project menu select Convert From C# to Python.

Once converted the project will most likely not compile straight away due to limitations in the implementation. At the time of writing converting a project has the following limitations:

Project's Main File is not set.
No code generated to call the project's Main entry method.
Namespace imports do include all the used classes.

Code Conversion Internals

Converting code to IronPython was originally supported in SharpDevelop 2.2 and was based on converting code to a Microsoft CodeDOM and then getting IronPython 1.0 to generate the Python code. In IronPython 2.0 this CodeDOM support was removed so the code conversion feature was removed from SharpDevelop 3.0 since that was using IronPython 2.0. In SharpDevelop 3.1 the code conversion has been rewritten to no longer use the CodeDOM support. It now works by executing the following simple steps:

The C# or VB.NET code is parsed using SharpDevelop's parsing library NRefactory and an abstract syntax tree (AST) is generated.
A visitor class then walks this AST and generates Python code which is added to a StringBuilder.
Once the visit is complete the generated Python code is then displayed or saved to disk.

NUnit 2.5 Support

MattWard — Sun, 10 May 2009 16:46:00 GMT

SharpDevelop 3.1 now supports NUnit 2.5.

A summary of which NUnit version is supported by SharpDevelop is shown in the table below.

SharpDevelop 3.1	NUnit 2.5
SharpDevelop 3.0	NUnit 2.4.8
SharpDevelop 2.2.1	NUnit 2.4.7
SharpDevelop 1.1	NUnit 2.2

NUnit 2.5 Changes

NUnit 2.5 has changed quite substantially compared with the previous 2.4.8 release, as outlined in the NUnit 2.5 release notes. The problems that we had when migrating SharpDevelop's unit tests to NUnit 2.5 were as follows.

Assert.IsInstanceOfType has been replaced by Assert.IsInstanceOf.
Your code will still compile and work if Assert.IsInstanceOfType is used but you will get compiler warnings.
NUnit.Framework.SyntaxHelpers namespace no longer exists.
All classes that were in this namespace have been moved to the NUnit.Framework namespace.
The Has.Count constraint no longer takes an integer parameter.
To fix this problem replace code such as:
```
Assert.That(classesCollection, Has.Count(1));
```
With the following:
```
Assert.That(classesCollection.Has.Count.EqualTo(1));
```
Overriding a [TestFixtureSetUp] method in a derived class using the new keyword no longer works.
Some of the SharpDevelop unit tests were overriding an abstract base test class [TestFixtureSetUp] method in a derived class by using the new keyword, as shown below.

Base class:
```
[TestFixtureSetUp] 
public void SetUpFixture()  
{ 
    // Setup code. 
}
```
Derived class:
```
[TestFixtureSetUp] 
public new void SetUpFixture()  
{     
    // Extra setup code. 
    base.SetUpFixture(); 
}
```
In NUnit 2.4.8 the SetUpFixture method in the derived class would be called when running the tests allowing it to execute some extra setup steps. In NUnit 2.5 the base class SetUpFixture method is called instead and the derived class method is never called. To resolve the problem we changed the base class so it used a virtual method and allowed the derived class to override this to execute its extra setup steps.

Base class:
```
[TestFixtureSetUp] 
public void SetUpFixture()  
{ 
    BeforeSetUpFixture(); 
    // Setup code. 
} 
 
public virtual void BeforeSetUpFixture() 
{ 
}
```
Derived class:
```
public override void BeforeSetUpFixture() 
{ 
     // Extra setup code. 
}
```

Using the Python Standard Library

MattWard — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:43:00 GMT

Here is a short walkthrough on how to use the Python Standard Library with SharpDevelop 3.0 and IronPython 2.0.

Prerequisites

You will need to have SharpDevelop 3.0 and Python 2.5 installed on your machine. These can be downloaded from the following locations.

Note that using Python 2.6 is not supported. The following section assumes that Python 2.5 was installed into the C:\Python25 folder.

Using the Python Standard Library

First we will create an IronPython console application in SharpDevelop. From the File menu select New and then Solution. In the New Project window select the Python category and select the Console Application template.

Give the project a name, select its location and click the Create button.

To use the Python Standard Library the project needs a reference to IronPython.dll, which should be added by default, and a reference to IronPython.Modules.dll. Open the Projects window, if it is not already open, by selecting Projects from the View menu. Right click the project's references and select Add Reference. In the Add Reference dialog first add a reference to mscorlib, this reference is needed since we are going to use the System.Console class to pause the console output. Then select the .NET Assembly Browser tab and click the Browse button. Locate the IronPython.Modules.dll file and select it. This file should be in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\SharpDevelop\3.0\AddIns\AddIns\BackendBindings\PythonBinding

Click OK to close the Add Reference dialog.

In the Program.py file change the code to the following:

# Add Python Standard Library to search path. 
import sys 
sys.path.append("c:\python25\lib") 
 
# Use Python Standard Library os module. 
import os 
print os.getcwd() 
 
# Wait for a key press before closing the console window. 
import System 
print "Press any key to continue..." 
System.Console.ReadKey(True)

The sys.path.append line adds the Python Standard Library to the search path. After that the os module is imported and the os.getcwd method is called to get the current working directory and this is output to the console window. The last three lines of code are just used to pause the console window so we can see the output.

Compile the above code by selecting Build Solution from the Build menu.

Finally run the application by selecting Run from the Debug menu.

WiX 3.0 AddIn for SharpDevelop 2.2

MattWard — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:53:00 GMT

If you want to use WiX 3.0 with SharpDevelop 2.2 now you can. SharpDevelop 2.2 will still ship with WiX 2.0 support however the WiX 3.0 addin has been backported. This WiX 3.0 addin for SharpDevelop 2.2 can be downloaded at the end of this post. It was built and tested using WiX 3.0.4714 which is the most recent release at the current time.

Installing

The simplest way to use the addin is as follows.

Download the wix3-binaries.zip file from SourceForge.
In SharpDevelop's WiX addin folder SharpDevelop\2.2\AddIns\AddIns\BackendBindings\WixBinding rename the original WixBinding.addin file to WixBinding.addin-bak.
Copy the contents of the bin folder in the Wix3Binding.zip file to SharpDevelop\2.2\AddIns\AddIns\BackendBindings\Wix3Binding.
Copy the contents of the doc folder in the wix3-binaries.zip file to the SharpDevelop\2.2\data\schemas folder. This updates the WiX schemas for use in the XML editor.
Rename the folder SharpDevelop\2.2\Tools\Wix to SharpDevelop\2.2\Tools\Wix-bak
Copy the contents of the wix3-binaries.zip file to the SharpDevelop\2.2\Tools\Wix folder.
Restart SharpDevelop.

Updating to Newer WiX Versions

Download the wix3-binaries.zip file from wix.sf.net
Copy the contents of the wix-binaries.zip file to the folder SharpDevelop\2.2\Tools\Wix.
Copy the contents of the doc folder to the SharpDevelop\2.2\data\schemas folder.
If there are any problems try re-compiling the source code and check the unit tests still work.

Compiling the Source Code

Copy the contents of the Wix3Binding zip file into the folder SharpDevelop\2.2\src\AddIns\BackendBindings\Wix3Binding.
Run msbuild WixBinding.sln.

Download Wix3Binding.zip

XML Editor Reuse

MattWard — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 14:00:00 GMT

It is always good to see that someone else finds the code that you have written useful enough to be reused in another application. Here we take a look at where SharpDevelop's XML Editor has been reused. The XML Editor was originally added to SharpDevelop 1.0 back in April 2005.

MonoDevelop

Some time ago I ported SharpDevelop's XML Editor so it could be used from inside MonoDevelop. Currently there is an addin available for MonoDevelop 1.0. MonoDevelop 2.0 now ships with this XML Editor after Michael Hutchinson from Novell integrated it in March this year. I also believe that it is being used to help provide at least some part of the autocompletion for ASP.NET. It will be interesting to see how Michael builds on and improves the XML Editor code.

Kaxaml

Kaxaml is a lightweight XAML Editor written by Robby Ingebretsen. Kaxaml version 1.0 and 2.0 use a modified version of SharpDevelop's XML Editor. Robby has replaced the user interface part so the autocompletion popup window now uses WPF. He has also modified it so the autocompletion popup window behaves the same as Visual Studio's XML Editor. For example, SharpDevelop automatically inserts the equals sign and double quotes an attribute name is autocompleted whilst Visual Studio will autocomplete just the attribute name and then automatically insert the double quotes after the equals sign is typed in.

Intellisense for Microsoft Expression Blend 2.5

Stefan Dobrev has written an addin to provide XML autocompletion for the as yet unreleased Expression Blend 2.5. This addin uses the XML Editor code from Kaxaml to provide the autocompletion. Stefan has modified this code slightly to add support for the Expression Blend's code editor.

IronPython 2.0 Beta Integration

MattWard — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:27:00 GMT

Support for IronPython 2.0 Beta 4 is now available with SharpDevelop 3.

Missing Features

Some of the features have been disabled compared to the IronPython integration in SharpDevelop 2.

Forms designer
C# and VB.NET code conversion to Python

Both of the above features involve converting code to and from a Code DOM. Support for the Code DOM is reduced in IronPython 2 so the above features have been temporarily disabled.

Compiling

IronPython 2.0 beta 4 re-introduced support for compiling python code to a .NET executable or dll and so SharpDevelop supports this. There is however one limitation. The working folder needs to be set to the folder containing the compiled dll or executable otherwise it will not be able to locate any local assembly references that are not in the GAC, for example IronPython.dll.

IronPython Console

There's now an IronPython console which can be used to type in IronPython expressions and have them evaluated interactively. It is currently missing code completion which will be implemented shortly. From the View menu select Tools and then Python Console.

Attach to Process

MattWard — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:16:00 GMT

SharpDevelop 3 supports attaching the debugger to a running process.

From the Debug menu select Attach to Process.

The Attach to Process dialog will show the managed processes by default. Select the process and then either double click or click the Attach button to attach to the process.

When you have finished debugging you can detach from the process by selecting Detach from the Debug menu.

WiX 3.0 Integration

MattWard — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 23:28:00 GMT

SharpDevelop 3.0 now supports WiX 3.0.

There are some changes to how things work compared to the WiX integration in SharpDevelop 2. The differences will be covered in the following sections.

WiX Project Templates

There are some new WiX project templates available. A basic empty project template and a template for each of the standard WiX UI library dialog sequences.

Adding WiX Extensions

WiX extensions are now displayed in the project browser instead of in the project options. They can be added by right clicking the WiX Extensions folder and selecting Add WiX Extension.

Project Options

The Library and Linking tabs have been removed from the project options since the WiX extensions can now be added from the project browser.

The Compiling tab has some new options as shown below.

The WiX Variables field can be used to override the standard WiX UI library settings. In the screenshot above the standard licence agreement and dialog background bitmap are being replaced with new ones.

The Suppress ICEs field is used to stop WiX from showing errors or warnings for particular Internal Consistency Evaluators (ICEs). After building your installer WiX now validates it against a standard set of rules which saves you from having to use another validation tool such as Orca.

Localized string files are no longer specified in the Application's tab. Instead add the file to the project and change its Build action to Embedded Resource.

Other Editors

If you want integration with Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 then please check out Justin Rockwood's Votive.

Rob Mensching has a list of WiX editors, including commerical ones, on his blog.

It also looks like a future version of Visual Studio will ship with WiX.

Porting an AddIn from SharpDevelop 2.2 to 3.0

MattWard — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 17:28:00 GMT

There have been some fairly large code changes on moving from SharpDevelop 2.2 to 3.0 and addins written for 2.2 are unlikely to work without some modification. We will look at the changes in the core parts of SharpDevelop and then look at one way to do the porting.

Not all the differences are covered in the next section just those types and methods that are likely to have been used by an addin.

ICSharpCode.Core

Type	Description
ICSharpCode.Core.AddInReference
bool RequirePreload	New property that specifies that when a type from an addin is created any addins that are needed by this addin will be preloaded if this flag is set to true. This corresponds to the new requirePreload attribute in an .addin file. <Dependency addin="ICSharpCode.XmlEditor" requirePreload="true"/>
ICSharpCode.Core.AddInTreeNode.TopologicalSort	Type is no longer public.
ICSharpCode.Core.FileUtility
bool IsValidPath(string path)	New method that determines whether a full or relative path is valid. This replaces the IsValidFileName method.
bool IsValidFileName(string fileName)	Renamed to IsValidPath.
static string NormalizePath(string fileName)	New method that gets the normalized version of the filename. Slashes are replaced with backslashes, backreferences "." and ".." are 'evaluated'.
ICSharpCode.Core.Properties
void ReadProperties(XmlReader reader, string endElement)	Method is no longer public but internal.

NRefactory

Type	Description
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.ArrayInitializerExpression	Replaced by the CollectionInitializerExpression type.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.BlockStatement
BlockStatement Null	The Null property now returns a BlockStatement instead of a NullStatement type.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.FieldReferenceExpression	Replaced by the MemberReferenceExpression type.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.MemberReferenceExpression	Replaces the FieldReferenceExpression type.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.InvocationExpression
List<TypeReference> TypeArguments	This property has been removed.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullArrayInitializerExpression	This type has been removed.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullBlockStatement	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullConstructorInitializer	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullEventAddRegion	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullEventRaiseStatement	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullEventRemoveStatement	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullExpression	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullPropertyGetRegion	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullPropertySetRegion	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Ast.NullStatement	No longer a public type instead it is now internal.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.IAstVisitor	Various new methods on this interface to support new types.
object VisitArrayInitializerExpression(...)	Method removed along with the ArrayInitializerExpression type. Replaced by the VisitCollectionInitializerExpression method.
object VisitFieldReferenceExpression(...)	Method removed along with the ArrayInitializerExpression type. Replaced by the VisitMemberReferenceExpression method.
ICSharpCode.NRefactory.Visitors.NodeTrackingAstVisitor	All TrackedVisit methods have been renamed and now include the name of the type being tracked (e.g. TrackedVisitAddHandlerStatement).

ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom

Type	Description
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.AbstractAmbience
bool IncludeBodies	Replaced by the new IncludeBody property.
bool IncludeBody	Replaces the IncludeBodies property.
bool IncludeHTMLMarkup	Replaced by the new IncludeHtmlMarkup property.
bool IncludeHtmlMarkup	Replaces the old IncludeHTMLMarkup property.
bool UseFullyQualifiedMemberNames	Replaced by the new UseFullyQualifiedMemberTypeNames property.
bool UseFullyQualifiedMemberTypeNames	Replaces the old UseFullyQualifiedMemberNames property.
String Convert(ModifierEnum)	Method removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.AbstractReturnType
int TypeArgumentCount	Replaces the old TypeParameterCount property.
int TypeParameterCount	Replaced by the new TypeArgumentCount property.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.AttributeArgument	Type has been removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.ClassFinder	The constructors now take a ParseInformation type instead of a filename.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.ConversionFlags
IncludeBodies	Replaced by IncludeBody.
IncludeBody	Replaces IncludeBodies.
IncludeHTMLMarkup	Replaced by IncludeHtmlMarkup.
IncludeHtmlMarkup	Replaces IncludeHTMLMarkup.
QualifiedNamesOnlyForReturnTypes	Enum value removed.
UseFullyQualifiedNames	Replaced by two new enums UseFullyQualifiedMemberNames and UseFullyQualifedTypeNames.
UseFullyQualifiedMemberNames	Replaces the UseFullyQualifiedNames enum value.
UseFullyQualifiedTypeNames	Replaces the UseFullyQualifiedNames enum value.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.CSharpExpressionFinder
int LastExpressionStartPosition	Property has been removed.
string FindExpressionInternal(string inText, int offset)	Method has been removed.
ctor(string fileName)	Constructor now takes a ParseInformation type instead of the filename.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.CtrlSpaceResolveHelper
ResolveResult GetResultFromDeclarationLine(IClass callingClass, IMethodOrProperty callingMember, int caretLine, int caretColumn, string expression)	Obsolete method removed. Should use the GetResultFromDeclarationLine method that takes an ExpressionResult instead of a string.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.DefaultAttribute
int CompareTo(IAttribute attribute)	Method removed.
string Name	Property has been removed. The attribute name can now be obtained from the Name property of the AttributeReturnType.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.DefaultCompilationUnit
List<IClass> GetOuterClasses(int caretLine, int caretColumn)	Method removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.DomRegion
int CompareTo(DomRegion region)	Method removed and replaced by the Equals method.
ctor(Location start, Location end)	Replaced by the static FromLocation method.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.ExpressionContext
bool IsAttributeContext	Property has been removed. Instead compare the ExpressionContext against the ExpressionContext.Attribute.
ExpressionContext GetAttribute(IProjectContent projectContent)	Method removed. To indicate that an expression is an attribute use the ExpressionContext.Attribute type.
ExpressionContext TypeDerivingFrom(IClass baseClass, bool isObjectCreation)	Method now requires an IReturnType instead of an IClass type.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.ExpressionResult
ctor(string expression, ExpressionContext context, object tag)	Replaced by the new constructor that also takes a DomRegion.
ctor(string expression, object tag)	Replaced by the new constructor that also takes a DomRegion and ExpressionContext.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.GacAssemblyName	Type removed. Code should use the DomAssemblyName instead.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.GacInterop
GacAssemblyName FindBestMatchingAssemblyName(GacAssemblyName name)	Method now uses DomAssemblyName types.
GacAssemblyName FindBestMatchingAssemblyName(string name)	Method now returns a DomAssemblyName type.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.GacInterop.AssemblyListEntry	Type has been removed. Code should now use a DomAssemblyName type.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.IAmbience
String Convert(ModifierEnum)	Method removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.IAttribute
string Name	Property has been removed. The attribute name can now be obtained from the Name property of the AttributeReturnType.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.ICompilationUnit
List<IClass> GetOuterClasses(int caretLine, int caretColumn)	Method removed. Code should now use the IClass's DeclaringType property. For example: IClass type = callingClass.DeclaringType; while (type != null) { ... type = type.DeclaringType; }
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.IProjectContent
IClass GetClass(string typeName)	Method removed. Code should now use GetClass(string typeName, int typeParameterCount) and pass 0 for the typeParameterCount.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.IResolver
ArrayList CtrlSpace(int caretLine, int caretColumn, string fileName, string fileContent, ExpressionContext context)	Method changed to use a ParseInformation type instead of a filename.
ResolveResult Resolve(ExpressionResult expressionResult, int line, int col, string fileName, string fileContent)	Method changed to take a ParseInformation type instead of a filename and the line and column parameters have been removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.IReturnType
int TypeArgumentCount	Replaces the old TypeParameterCount property.
int TypeParameterCount	Replaced by the new TypeArgumentCount property.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.MemberLookupHelper
IMethod FindOverload(IList<IMethod> methods, IReturnType[] typeParameters, IReturnType[] arguments)	Method now has an extra out parameter called resultIsAcceptable. This parameter is true if the resulting method is an acceptable match, false if the resulting method is just a guess and will lead to a compile error.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.NRefactoryResolver
bool Initialize(string fileName, int line, int column)	Method now takes a ParseInformation type instead of a filename.
IClass SearchClass(string name)	Method now takes an extra Location parameter which is used to search for a class at a particular location in the file. Code that does not need to specify a location should use Location.Empty.
IReturnType DynamicLookup(string identifier)	Method now takes an extra Location parameter. Use Location.Empty if no location can be specified.
IReturnType SearchMember(IReturnType type, string memberName)	Method removed. Instead of using this method call GetMember and then use the IMember's ReturnType.
IReturnType SearchType(string name)	Method now takes an extra Location parameter. Use Location.Empty if no location can be specified.
ResolveResult Resolve(ExpressionResult expressionResult, int line, int column, string fileName, string fileContent)	Method now takes a ParseInformation type instead of the filename. The line and column parameters are no longer required.
ArrayList CtrlSpace(int caretLine, int caretColumn, string fileName, string fileContent, ExpressionContext context)	Method changed to use a ParseInformation type instead of a filename.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.ProjectContentRegistry
IProjectContent GetExistingProjectContent(AssemblyName assembly)	Obsolete method has been removed. Use the overloaded method that takes a DomAssemblyName type instead.
IProjectContent GetExistingProjectContent(string itemInclude, string itemFileName)	Method removed. Use the overloaded method that takes a single string parameter.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Dom.ReflectionProjectContent
AssemblyName[] ReferencedAssemblies	Property removed and replaced by the ReferencedAssemblyNames property which returns a list of DomAssemblyNames.
IList<DomAssemblyName> ReferencedAssemblyNames	Replaces the old ReferencedAssemblies property.

ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Widgets

Type	Description
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Widgets.SideBar.SideTab
bool IsClipboardRing	Property removed.

ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop

Type	Description
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.ClassBrowserIconService
int CombineIndex	Field removed and replaced with SolutionIndex.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.DefaultEditor.Gui.Editor.CtrlSpaceCompletionDataProvider
bool ForceNewExpression	Property removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.DefaultEditor.Gui.Editor.SharpDevelopTextEditorProperties
bool CreateBackupCopy	Property removed.
bool UseAntiAliasedFont	Property removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.FileService
IWorkbenchWindow GetOpenFile(string fileName)	Method now returns an IViewContent type.
IWorkbenchWindow NewFile(string defaultName, string language, string content)	Method now returns an IViewContent type and the language parameter has been removed.
IWorkbenchWindow OpenFile(string fileName)	Method now returns an IViewContent type.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.AbstractBaseViewContent	Class has been removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.AbstractSecondaryViewContent
void NotifyAfterSave(bool successful)	Method removed.
void NotifyBeforeSave()	Method removed.
void NotifyFileNameChanged()	Method removed. Code should either use the TitleNameChanged event or the FileNameChanged event on the PrimaryFile.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.AbstractViewContent
event DirtyChanged	Event renamed to IsDirtyChanged.
string FileName	Property renamed to PrimaryFileName.
bool IsUntitled	Property removed. The property has been moved to the OpenedFile type which can be accessed via the view content's PrimaryFile property.
void Load(string fileName)	Method replaced by the Load method that takes an OpenedFile and a Stream.
void Load(OpenedFile file, Stream stream)	New method that is used to open a file in a view. The OpenedFile type contains information about the file, whilst the stream is the actual file data.
event Saved	Event removed.
event Saving	Event removed.
string UntitledName	Property removed. The untitled name is now stored as the filename.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.DefaultWorkbench	Class is now private and no longer publicly accessible.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.DriveObject	Class is now private and no longer publicly accessible.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.ExtTreeView
void ApplyViewStateString(string state, TreeView tree)	Method moved to the TreeViewHelper class.
string GetViewStateString(TreeView tree)	Method moved to the TreeViewHelper class.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.FileList	Class is now private and no longer publicly accessible.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.IBaseViewContent	Interface has been removed. Most of the interface has been moved to the IViewContent interface apart from the following methods which no longer exist. void Deselected() void Deselecting() void Selected() void SwitchedTo()
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.ICanBeDirty
event DirtyChanged	Event renamed to IsDirtyChanged.
bool IsDirty	Property setter is no longer defined in the interface. Only the getter is defined.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.IParseableContent	Interface removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.ISecondaryViewContent	Interface removed. All secondary view contents now implement the IViewContent interface.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.IViewContent
bool IsDisposed	New property that indicates whether the view has been disposed.
bool IsUntitled	Property removed. Code should check the PrimaryFile's Untitled property instead.
event Saved	Event removed.
bool SupportsSwitchFromThisWithoutSaveLoad(OpenedFile file, IViewContent newView)	New method. Determines whether switching without a Save/Load is supported when switching from this view to another view.
bool SupportsSwitchToThisWithoutSaveLoad(OpenedFile file, IViewContent oldView)	New method. Determines whether switching without a Save/Load is supported when switching to this view from another view.
IWorkbenchWindow WorkbenchWindow	Property moved from the now obsolete IBaseViewContent interface. Gives access to the workbench window associated with this view.
List<ISecondaryViewContent> SecondaryViewContents	Property now returns an ICollection instead of a list.
event FileNameChanged	Event moved to the OpenedFile class which is accessible via the PrimaryFile property.
event Saving	Event removed.
OpenedFile PrimaryFile	New property that gives access to information about the primary file associated with this view.
IList<OpenedFile> Files	New property that returns a list of files that are associated with this view.
event Disposed	New event raised when the view is disposed.
event TabPageTextChanged	New event raised when the tab page text at the bottom of the window is changed.
string FileName	The filename associated with a view is now accessible from the PrimaryFileName property.
string TabPageText	Gets or sets the tab page text at the bottom of the window. This property was originally on the now obsolete IBaseViewContent interface.
string UntitledName	Property removed. The UntitledName is now the same as the PrimaryFileName.
Control Control	Gets or sets the control associated with this view. Originally part of the IBaseViewContent interface.
void Load(string fileName)	Replaced by the Load method that takes an OpenedFile and a Stream.
void Load(OpenedFile file, Stream stream)	New method that is used to open a file in a view. The OpenedFile type contains information about the file, whilst the stream is the actual file data..
void Save()	Replaced by the Save method that takes an OpenedFile and a Stream.
void Save(string fileName)	Replaced by the Save method that takes an OpenedFile and a Stream.
void Save(OpenedFile file, Stream stream)	New method that is used to save a file in a view.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.IViewContentMemento	Class removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.IViewContentMementoCreator	Class removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.Gui.IWorkbenchWindow
IBaseViewContent ActiveViewContent	The ActiveViewContent property is now an IViewContent.
IViewContent ViewContent	Property removed. Use the ActiveViewContent property instead.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.IDisplayBinding
bool CanCreateContentForFile(string fileName)	Method now takes an OpenedFile type instead of a string.
bool CanCreateContentForLanguage(string language)	Method removed.
ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop.ISecondaryDisplayBinding
ISecondaryViewContent[] CreateSecondaryViewContent(IViewContent view)	Method now returns an IViewContent array since the ISecondaryViewContent interface is obsolete.

ICSharpCode.TextEditor

Type	Description
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Caret
Point Position	The Position property now uses the ICSharpCode.TextEditor.TextLocation type instead of the System.Drawing.Point type.
Point ValidatePosition(Position pos)	The method now returns and uses the ICSharpCode.TextEditor.TextLocation type instead of the System.Drawing.Point type.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.Bookmark
event LineNumberChanged	Event removed.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.BookmarkManager
event Changed	Event removed.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.DefaultFormattingStrategy
int FormatLine(TextArea textArea, int line, int caretOffset, char charTyped)	Method now no longer returns anything.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.DefaultTextEditorProperties
bool UseAntiAliasedFont	Property removed.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.IDocument
LineSegment GetLineSegment(int line)	The default implementation in the DefaultLineSegment class no longer allows the line number to be equal to the number of items in the IDocument's LineSegment collection.
Point OffsetToPosition(int offset)	Method now returns a TextLocation type.
int PositionToOffset(Point point)	Method now takes a TextLocation type.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.IFormattingStrategy
int FormatLine(TextArea textArea, int line, int caretOffset, char charTyped)	Method now no longer returns anything.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.ILineManager	Interface has been removed.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.ISelection
bool ContainsPosition(Point point)	Method now uses a TextLocation type.
Point EndPosition	Property now uses a TextLocation type.
Point StartPosition	Property now uses a TextLocation type.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.ITextEditorProperties
bool CreateBackupCopy	Property removed.
bool UseAntiAliasedFont	Property removed.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Document.LineLengthEventArgs	Replaced by the LineLengthChangedEventArgs type.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Gui.InsightWindow.IInsightDataProvider
char CharTyped	Property removed.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.TextEditorControlBase
event Changed	Event renamed to TextChanged.
bool CreateBackupCopy	Property removed.
bool IsUpdating	Property removed.
bool UseAntiAliasedFont	Property removed.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.ToolTipRequestEventArgs
Point LogicalPosition	Property now uses a TextLocation type.
ICSharpCode.TextEditor.Undo.UndoStack
void CombineLast(int actionCount)	Method removed. Similar functionality can be obtained by using the StartUndoGroup and EndUndoGroup method.
void UndoLast(int actionCount)	Method removed. Similar functionality can be obtained by using the StartUndoGroup and EndUndoGroup method.

How to Port

This section looks at one way to port an addin. This is the way that the IronPython addin was ported from SharpDevelop 2.2 to SharpDevelop 3.

Download the source code for SharpDevelop 3.0 and 2.2.

Copy the source code of your addin to a folder inside SharpDevelop 3.0.

Run three copies of SharpDevelop, one to view SharpDevelop 2.2's source, one to view SharpDevelop 3.0's source, one with your addin. In the other copies of SharpDevelop you should open SharpDevelop.sln for 2.2 and 3.0. This will allow you to quickly search for SharpDevelop classes when you find your addin code will not compile.

Compile your code and fix the code or comment it out as you try to work out what is wrong.

You do not have to convert the project to use .NET 3.5. SharpDevelop itself uses it, but some of the addins do not. With the IronPython addin I needed to change it to use .NET 3.5 since there were some assembly conflicts between what SharpDevelop was using and what the addin was using. Obviously changing to use .NET 3.5 will allow you to use any new features of this framework.

.NET Framework Differences

One change in .NET 3.5 caused me a few problems when porting the IronPython addin. This was a change in MSBuild.

After finally getting the IronPython addin to compile with the modified SharpDevelop 3 assemblies there was an assembly conflict for MSBuild. The ICSharpCode.SharpDevelop assembly now uses MSBuild 3.5 assemblies whilst the IronPython build task project and test project were using MSBuild 2.0. This was fixed by converting these two projects so they use the .NET Framework 3.5. This can be done by opening the project's properties, selecting the Compiling tab, then clicking the Convert Project to C# 3.0 button. In the dialog that opens we select the "Change target framework to .NET 3.5" and click the OK button. After making this change the addin compiled and worked however all the unit tests for the IronPython build tasks were failing with the error:

System.ArrayTypeMismatchException : Attempted to access an element as a type incompatible with the array.

The test code that was failing:

PythonCompilerTask compiler = new PythonCompilerTask(); 
TaskItem sourceTaskItem = new TaskItem("test.py"); 
compiler.Sources = new ITaskItem[] {sourceTaskItem};

The last line was failing when the unit test was run. The TaskItem type implements the ITaskItem interface so the code should have worked. The reason for this error is that both the build task and build task tests project were referencing the MSBuild libraries just using the reference name.

    <Reference Include="Microsoft.Build.Framework" /> 
    <Reference Include="Microsoft.Build.Tasks" /> 
    <Reference Include="Microsoft.Build.Utilities" />

Running MSBuild from the command line the actual assemblies being used were a mix of 3.5 and 2.0 versions.

"Python.Build.Tasks.csproj": 
/reference:"C:\Program Files\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\v3.5\Microsoft.Build.Framework.dll"  
/reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Build.Tasks.dll  
/reference:C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Microsoft.Build.Utilities.dll

Printing out the code base of the TaskItem and ITaskItem types whilst running the unit tests showed that the TaskItem was being taken from Microsoft.Build.Utilities assembly version 2.0 and the ITaskItem was being taken the Microsoft.Build.Framework 3.5 assembly. The TaskItem we actually needed was in the new Microsoft.Build.Utilities assembly version 3.5. Changing the project references so they used this new 3.5 assembly fixed the problem.

IronPython AddIn Internals

MattWard — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:54:00 GMT

This is a tutorial about how to create a language binding for SharpDevelop using the IronPython addin as an example. As well as covering how to create a language binding it will also look at how the addin used IronPython. The source code for the IronPython addin is available at the end of this tutorial. The tutorial will cover the following. * Syntax Highlighting * File Filters * Project and File Templates * Compiling a Project * Project Options * Code Folding * Class View * Creating a Forms Designer * Code Completion * Code Conversion ...(read more)

IronPython Integration In SharpDevelop 2.2

MattWard — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 16:02:00 GMT

Support for IronPython 1.1 is now available for SharpDevelop 2.2.1.2648. The IronPython addin is an early alpha release and is not an official part of SharpDevelop 2.2.1 so it is available as a separate download at the end of this post.

The addin will not work with SharpDevelop 3.0 nor IronPython 2.0.

Features

Code folding
Syntax highlighting
File and project templates for Console and Windows Forms applications
Code completion (limited)
Windows Forms designer
C# and VB.NET code conversion to Python

Please note that code completion, the forms designer and code conversion all need a lot more work.

Creating a Windows Application

Open up the new project dialog by selecting New then Solution from the File menu. Selecting the Python category will show two project templates. One will create a Windows console application and the other will create a Windows Forms application.

Once you have created a new project you will then need to add a reference to the IronPython assembly. Open the Projects window by selecting Projects from the View menu. In the Projects window, right click the project and select Add Reference. Select the .NET Assembly Browser tab and click the Browse button. Then browse to IronPython.dll. The addin includes this file so can either extract it from there or if you installed it from the sdaddin file then you should be able to find the IronPython.dll in the folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\[YourUserName]\Application 
    Data\ICSharpCode\SharpDevelop2.1\AddIns\ICSharpCode.PythonBinding

To build the application select Build Solution from the Build menu.

The built executables cannot be run with the debugger so instead select Run without debugger from the Debug menu. If you are running a windows app and nothing seems to happen then open a command line window and run it from there. This way you should see any errors reported from the IronPython runtime.

There are a few file templates which can be added to the project as shown below.

Designing Windows Forms

The Windows Forms designer is still in its early stages so please be warned that it may break the form's code or worse. Most of the Windows Forms controls work with the designer but things like adding columns to a list view will generate code that does not compile.

The designer can be opened in the usual way by opening the form in the text editor and selecting the Design tab at the bottom of the text editor.

Once open in the designer you can add controls to the form in the usual way from the Tools window. In the screenshot below a label, text box and a button have been added.

Click the Source tab to view the generated code in the InitializeComponents method.

Code Folding

Code folding allows you to collapse regions of a class.

Code Completion

Code completion is very limited currently. If you type a space after an import statement then you will get a list of namespaces available.

Code completion for classes is one area which has the most limited support. If you open Program.py you can get code completion for static classes such as System.Console but it does not work everywhere.

Code Conversion

To convert VB.NET or C# to Python open the file you want to convert and then select Convert code to Python from the Tools menu.

The code conversion is limited to classes so it will not convert an arbitary piece of code that is not inside a class. A C# class being converted to Python is shown below.

The code conversion is still at an early stage of development so it will fail on complicated classes.

Class View

Classes in the open solution will be displayed in the Class browser (Select Classes from the View menu).

From there you can double click a class or method and the text editor will display the corresponding code.

Standalone Python Files

The addin has support for standalone Python files. If you open a file with a .py file extension then a Python menu will appear.

From this menu you can run ipy.exe and have it execute the file. Any output from the Python script will be shown in the Output window.

By default the ipy.exe run is the one that ships with the addin. You can choose another IronPython console by select Options from the Tools menu. Selecting the Python option allows you to choose another IronPython console.

Installing the IronPython AddIn

Rename the IronPythonAddIn-0.2.1.zip file to IronPythonAddIn-0.2.1.sdaddin.
From the Tools menu select AddIn Manager .
Click the Install AddIn button.
In the Open File Dialog browse to the IronPythonAddIn-0.2.1.sdaddin file and click the Open button.
Click the Close button.
Restart SharpDevelop.

Future Work

Since SharpDevelop 2.2.1.2648 is the last release in the 2.x branch the next release of the IronPython addin will be for SharpDevelop 3.0 and it will support IronPython 2.0.

Python Links

Some of the Python tutorials and links used whilst creating the IronPython addin.

Python documentation by Guido van Rossum the author of Python.
Dive into Python book by Mark Pilgrim. The full text is available online.
IronPython homepage.

New Features in SharpDevelop 2.1

MattWard — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 18:27:00 GMT

Here is the list of features that have been added to SharpDevelop 2.1.

Feature	Description
Code Analysis with FxCop	Analyse your code with FxCop inside SharpDevelop.
Code Completion for Different Frameworks	When a particular .NET framework is targeted by a project you will get code completion for that framework. Currently .NET 1.1, Mono 2.0 and Compact Framework 2.0 are supported.
Code Navigation History	Allows you to quickly navigate backwards and forwards through visited code.
Compact Framework Support	New templates and code completion for the Compact Framework have been added.
Component Inspector	SharpDevelop includes the .NET Component Inspector created by Oakland Software. The Component Inspector allows you to explore any type in an assembly or COM component, create an instance of that type, execute its methods, change its properties, and monitor its events.
Custom Tool Support	A custom tool is a component that is run every time a particular file is saved. SharpDevelop ships with a ResXFileCodeGenerator custom tool that can be used to automatically generate a class that provides strongly typed access to a resource file. An addin can also extend SharpDevelop with its own custom tools.
Edit Solution Configuration	You can now add, remove and rename solution build configurations.
Go to XML Schema Definition	Whilst editing an XML document with an associated schema you can quickly navigate to the schema definition of the currently selected element, attribute or attribute value.
Hosting SharpDevelop - SharpDevelop for Applications	You can now host SharpDevelop inside your own application. This allows you to create your own IDE with support for addins without having to write the code from scratch.
Incremental Search	You can now search the active document incrementally. As you type in each character the document is searched from the current cursor position and the first match is highlighted.
Resource Toolkit	The resource toolkit provides code completion and tooltips for string resources when localizing an application.
SQL Queries	SharpDevelop includes a simple SQL query tool that allows you to run SQL queries and view the results.
Standalone SharpDevelop Reports	SharpDevelop Reports is now available as a standalone application as well as being integrated inside SharpDevelop.
Subversion Integration	SharpDevelop integrates with TortoiseSVN to provide support for Subversion.
Testing with .NET 1.1	If your unit test project targets .NET 1.1 then the tests will be run under this framework.
WiX Integration	You can create WiX setup packages and design WiX dialogs with SharpDevelop's forms designer.
XML Tree Editor	You can view and edit XML in a tree based editor similar to Microsoft's XML Notepad.
XPath Queries	You can run xpath queries on the active XML document and the matched items will be highlighted in the text editor.

Creating an Installer with SharpDevelop

MattWard — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 21:30:00 GMT

This tutorial will walk you through creating an installer from scratch using the integrated WiX support included with SharpDevelop 2.1. It takes you step by step through the process, from creating an empty WiX setup project, adding files to the installer, using the WiX dialog library, through to building and validating the installer....(read more)