Note: There are some instructions at the bottom of this document about how to run Visual Studio on MacOS.
In order to successfully complete this class, you'll need to have access to a copy of Visual Studio 2015 or 2017 (or later). The designated textbook does not contain a copy of this program, unfortunately. At this point, you have a number of options:
Cascadia community college provides free access to computers in the computer labs and in the hallways that have Visual Studio installed on them. If nothing else works you can always come to school and write your code here.
In order to use Visual Studio you will need to obtain a free Microsoft online account. There will be a link shown to you the first time you try to run Visual Studio here at school.
“Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 Community edition” can be downloaded for free from Microsoft's website ( https://www.visualstudio.com/thank-you-downloading-visual-studio/?sku=Community&rel=15). The website also promises a seamless upgrade to the Professional/full version (which is named "Visual Studio"), should you decide to go that route later.
The process of installing VS 2019 is slightly complicated. The complicated part comes from the fact that you've got a lot of options for exactly what you can choose to install. This document will walk you through the install process.
Note: 2019 is the current version of Visual Studio, but any recent version should work fine.
Cascadia Community College makes available a computer which you can connect to over the network and remotely operate as if you were sitting in front of it. You can use this computer to run Visual Studio. The advantage to this approach is that you don’t have to figure out how to install the software on your local computer. The big drawbacks are that it’s slow to establish the connection, the computer forgets all your settings each time you log out (so you’ll need to set up Visual Studio each time you want to work, which takes a while), you’ll need to figure out how to upload files to the computer and then download them when you’re done, and that the computer will erase any files you leave on the computer when you log out. Still, it might be handy for you, and it's a great backup plan.
Technically you’re actually connecting to a virtual computer that’s running inside a server, not to a real, physical computer. This is done using a technology known as VMWare Views.
I’m not sure what limits there are to the number of virtual computers that Cascadia can run at the same time. If too many other students try to connect to these Views at the same time you may not be able to connect!
There is a separate document that walks you through the process of downloading and installing the VMWare Views. It should be located on the website very close to where you found this document.
Lastly, you may have access to Visual Studio through other means or other channels (such as legally purchasing from a friend who works at Microsoft, from the campus bookstore, from Cascadia's MSDNAA (MSDN Academic Alliance) subscription, etc).
If you have your own, personal computer with Visual Studio installed (any version) you are encouraged to use that; if you don't, then you'll need to use the computers on Cascadia's campus. In any event I will try to help you as much as I can in order to resolve any issues that you have.
Once you have obtained the software, I would recommend trying Visual Studio out. The "Simple Console Application" exercise will walk you through the basics of creating a simple, C#, console application.
WARNING: Do NOT get 'Visual Studio Code'. This is only a text-editor and NOT a full IDE. You cannot compile or execute programs from within Visual Studio Code
Please keep in mind that Microsoft Word will sometimes use smart quotes in order to make things look better. Visually, a smart quote is tilted in the direction that one would normally do so, if one was writing this out by hand -- the opening quote tilts leftwards, and the closing quote tilts rightwards. Similarly, what appears to be a negative sign may in fact be a dash of some sort -- while things will look correct, Visual Studio will be confused by these symbols, and you'll get compile time errors.
This may cause problems if you paste text from MS Word directly into Visual Studio. You may have to go through and correct these problems by hand ; some people have had success by first pasting the text into Notepad, then copying from Notepad and pasting into Visual Studio.
Other options:
For this class, it is required that you obtain access to a copy of Visual Studio, and that you hand in your work in a Visual Studio project. However, as long as your code (including code that you write on quizzes and exams) works in Visual Studio and you’re handing in VS projects, you can use whatever software you want to do work in this class.
In particular, these options may be useful for you (note that the instructor hasn’t actually tried/used any of these, so if you choose to use one of these options, you will be on your own in terms of fixing problems, etc.)(Note also that if you choose to use one of these environments, you’ll still need to move your C# code into a normal, Visual Studio project before handing in your work)
Mono / MonoDevelop:
http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page / http://www.monodevelop.com/Main_Page
This is an open-source implementation of C#, and an open-source IDE
Option #1 for MacOS users: Use the excellent 'Rider' IDE from the JetBrains company
JetBrains is a company that's been selling it's amazing "IntelliJ" IDE for Java since like 2000, and recently (say, in the last 5+ years) expanded that software so that it works with Python (using JetBrain's PyCharm), C/C++, Go, etc.
I highly recommend JetBrains Rider, and have heard good things from students who have used it. It's free for your personal use. Sadly, the school would have to pay to install copies here on campus, otherwise I'd use it in classes officially :)
Option #2 for MacOS users: run Visual Studio on MacOS directly:
You can now download a version of Visual Studio that runs on MacOS natively (in other words,
it’s a ‘real’, normal Mac program).
You can find this new version at: https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/visual-studio-mac/
NOTE: Because this is brand-new I'm not very familiar with how it works. I'm unfamiliar both in the sense that I don't know how the program looks (i.e., what to click and where it is) and also in the sense that I'm not familiar with any problems it has.
On that note - you need to make the normal deadlines for handing in work, even if you're using this new Visual Studio on a Mac, and even if it (or you) have problems with it. In other words, make sure that you start your work early AND that you have a backup plan in case you encounter any problems.
If people do use this on their Mac I'd love to know how it goes. Any feedback (positive, negative, or indifferent) would be greatly appreciated!
(Especially because I don't have a Mac and therefore can't run it myself)
Option #3 for MacOS users: run Visual Studio on Windows in a Virtual Machine:
Another option on MacOS X is to run a virtual machine (such as Parallels), install a (legal) copy of Windows & Visual Studio onto that virtual machine, and then do your work on that.
You’ve got several options for doing this:
I've heard good things about running VirtualBox on Mac. VirtualBox is nice because it's free.
As of 2017 Spring, you can go to http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/ , then scroll down until you see " Get Parallels Desktop 12 for Mac Student Edition" in order to get Parallels at a discounted price.
Several students have said that they've had bad experiences with Apple's Bootcamp. Bootcamp is also free (it's included with your Mac, as far as I understand)
Once you've gotten the virtual machine installed you will need a copy of Microsoft Windows. You can download Windows from something called Microsoft Imagine, for free. You'll need access to the 'full' MS Imagine; in order to get that access you'll need to email the instructor and ask the instructor to send your email address to Microsoft in order to activate your MS Imagine memberhip. (Disclaimer: the instructor does not guarantee that the instructor will be able to get you registered, but the instructor will attempt to get you set up with Microsoft Imagine)
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Warning: The Kodiak Corner sells Windows upgrade discs, which will only upgrade an existing install of Windows (and therefore won't help you, since your virtual machine doesn't have Windows installed on it yet). |
Once you've gotten both the virtual machine software (Parallels, etc) and the operating system (Windows) you can then install them and you'll be running Windows on your Mac.