Mono

For CLI development on platforms other than Microsoft Windows, consider Mono, which is a platform you can download at www.mono-project.com. As with the .NET platform, Mono requires the full path to the C# compiler if it is not already in the search path. The default installation path on Linux is /usr/lib/mono/<version> and the compiler is gmcs.exe or mcs.exe, depending on the version. (If Mono is installed on Microsoft Windows, the default path is %ProgramFiles%\Mono-<version>\lib\mono\<version>\.)

One option for a Linux version that includes an installation of Mono is Monoppix. This builds on the CD-bootable Linux distribution known as Knoppix and is available for download at www.monoppix.com.

Instead of CSC.EXE, the Mono platform's compiler is MCS.EXE or GMCS.EXE, depending on the compiler version. Therefore, the command for compiling HelloWorld.cs is as shown in Output A.2.

Output A.2.

C:\SAMPLES>msc.exe HelloWorld.cs

Unfortunately, the Linux environment cannot run the resulting binaries directly; instead, it requires explicit execution of the runtime using mono.exe, as shown in Output A.3.

Output A.3.

C:\SAMPLES>mono.exe HelloWorld.exe Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya.