Question

I installed MonoDevelop on Linux and wrote a shell GTK+ application. When I compile and run the application shows up correctly in Linux. When I move the .exe over to Windows, I get a crash “Windows Not Responding”, so there is no stack trace. Then I figured I had to install Mono For Windows, so I did that, but no luck – I still crash.

More generally, I am having a hard time picturing what is going on here. Please disabuse me of whatever I get wrong:

1. People who started the Mono project wrote their own compiler (likely from scratch) to compile C# code. They modeled this after looking at the .NET Framework
2. They also wrote a CLR for their mono implementation of the byte code. Any architecture that wants to run this code will need the Mono Runtime, as only the Mono Runtime can run the code.

Do I have it right? Why doesn’t my program run? Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Three things stand out to me:

1. GTK+. GTK isn’t part of windows or mono on windows by default. You must install it separately.
2. Shell Application. That means something special in the windows world (an app that runs as part of (extends) the windows desktop shell, rather than as it’s own program), and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear that these don’t work cross platform very well or even at all. I’d assume you mean “Console Application” instead, but then why the need for GTK+?
3. Mono. Make sure you invoke the program using mono. Just because mono is installed doesn’t mean that’s how your program will run vs Microsoft’s own .Net implementation.