Since Visual Studio 2013 Update 2, it is possible to create Portable Class Libraries (PCLs) that can reference Windows Runtime types (which was not possible before) as long as they only target Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 and no other targets.
I tried this in C# by adding a C# Class Library (Portable for Universal Apps) and it works, which means that you can consume and produce Windows Runtime types as if the project was a Windows App or Windows Runtime Component.
Since F# also supports PCLs and Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1 are supported targets, I would like to achieve the same with F# PCLs (if possible). While Visual Studio 2013 Update 4 does not offer creating F# PCLs that only target Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, it is possible to modify the .fsproj file of an F# PCL to match the .csproj file of a C# PCL with those targets that was created with Visual Studio. This requires changing the XML elements to the following:
<TargetFrameworkVersion>v4.6</TargetFrameworkVersion>
<TargetFrameworkProfile>Profile32</TargetFrameworkProfile>
and adding the following to an <ItemGroup>
<TargetPlatform Include="WindowsPhoneApp, Version=8.1" />
<TargetPlatform Include="Windows, Version=8.1" />
After these changes, I was able to consume and produce Windows Runtime types in the F# PCL as in the C# PCL (without complaints from Visual Studio in the F# PCL or C# (Universal) Windows App), but when I actually run the (Universal) Windows App I get the following exception when a function that uses Windows Runtime types is called in the F# PCL from the C# (Universal) Windows App:
An exception of type 'System.IO.FileNotFoundException' occurred in
[application name].exe but was not handled in user code
Additional information: Could not load file or assembly 'Windows, Version=255.255.255.255, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one
of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
When I check the references in the Solution Explorer of Visual Studio, the C# PCL shows a reference named Windows, which is missing from the F# PCL. The Reference Properties of that reference look like this:
I tried adding this reference manually to the .fsproj file of the F# PCL by adding
<Reference Include="C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Portable\v12.0\110C4FEFF2BA61C0746933A9ED6E248D\Windows.winmd" />
to an <ItemGroup>. After this, the reference does show up in the F# PCL in the Solution Explorer with the following Reference Properties:
but does not fix the problem. That is, I still get the same exception as before.
I also tried copying and pasting the Windows reference via the context menu of the Solution Explorer of Visual Studio, but it complains with an error message.
Do you know how to properly add the Windows reference to a F# PCL? This would be really awesome, because that would make it possible to write (Universal) Windows Apps almost entirely in F#! If you know for a fact that this is not possible, then could you please explain what is preventing this from being possible?
EDIT: improved formatting of exception message
You're making a portable class library. F# does not support windows store apps, so the only way you can use F# in such a situation is to call it from C#. If you manage to succeed, you'll be the first of anyone.
Related
I have installed Windows SDK on my Windows 10 laptop. However, there are assembly references to Microsoft.DirectX, Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D, Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX and Microsoft.DirectX.DirectInput in my code. These are generating the error - The type or namespace name directx does not exist in the namespace Microsoft when i compile my code. Do I have to point my code to the directx header files that are installed within the Windows SDK. These are available at C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Include\10.0.18362.0\cppwinrt\winrt\impl. If so, how do I point my code there. The directx files there are Windows.Graphics.DirectX.0, Windows.Graphics.DirectX.1 and so on and so forth. Should these be referenced instead of Microsoft.DirectX, Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3D, Microsoft.DirectX.Direct3DX and Microsoft.DirectX.DirectInput. If so, how?
The Microsoft.DirectX.* assemblies are the legacy Managed DX 1.1 assemblies that only shipped in the legacy DirectX SDK. They have nothing at all to do with the Windows Runtime APIs or C++/WinRT language projections. They never shipped in any Windows 10 SDK and are only deployed by the legacy DXSETUP package.
See this blog post and this blog post.
A recommended replacement is to use SharpDX or SlimDX.
SlimDX is no longer an active project, but it is still a good option for a direct replacement of legacy Managed DX 1.1
I have a MVC 2 project created in Visual Studio 2010 that use MvcSiteMapProvider.dll and works fine. But when loading the project in Visual Studio 2013, everything else work fine except it crashes at
Html.MvcSiteMap().SiteMapPath
The error message is
An exception of type 'MvcSiteMapProvider.MvcSiteMapException' occurred in MvcSiteMapProvider.dll but was not handled in user code
I believe that MvcSiteMapProvider.dll cannot be loaded correctly. I need help on this. Thanks.
Note that there is a separate DLL for each .NET framework version, and I suspect you are targeting the wrong framework. This can happen if you install MvcSiteMapProvider into your project and then change it to a different .NET framework version.
NuGet does not automatically upgrade/downgrade packages to the currently set framework version. This step must be done manually. The best way is to completely uninstall and reinstall the package as per this document. Also be sure to read this before attempting it.
But do note that if you do this NuGet will not remove any files you have changed (like Mvc.sitemap) and then prompt you whether to overwrite them. You should normally say no to each prompt to ensure your custom configuration is not overwritten.
Also note that it is not sufficient to use Assembly Binding Redirection with MvcSiteMapProvider because with each .NET framework version we create a separate build (DLL) that takes advantage of features that are not present in prior versions.
So the "Funscript" page here has a sample. Now I have loaded the sample into my Visual Studio 2012. I am not familiar with Visual Studio .NET and am only learning F# very recently. The last line in the sample pages which is:
do Runtime.Run(components=components, directory="Web")
always throws an error. In fact the Visual Studio IDE(Compiler) cannot seem to recognize Runtime.
If this was a language like Java, one would try to import a library and so I tried using System.Runtime, but still the Visual Studio IDE does not recognize and the line throws an error saying :
"The namespace or module "Runtime" is not defined.
Two questions
How can I get around this?
Is there any link that teaches
F# for the complete beginner that also involves loading external
libraries?
I figured this out. Funscript requires a launcher, which is talked about in the documentation. It is contained in Examples/Shared/Launcher.fs. If you use the .fsproj files that come with funscript, this is all handled automatically.
If you are compiling by hand, just add ../Shared/Launcher.fs before you compile your own file.
I know I can download the "April CTP" to get F# 2.0 for .NET 2.0. But I need FSC and F# Interactive for .NET 4.0. On a machine with VS 2010 installed, it ends up in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft F#\v4.0. Is there a redistributable for this?
If you installed Visual Studio 11 Beta or Visual Studio 2012, I recommend you check the following path, where you will find Fsi.exe and Fsc.exe.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\F#\3.0\Framework\v4.0
Others have provided good answers; I'll summarize and add one more bit (2nd bullet):
We don't have any polished story here yet. We're working on one.
In the case of the compiler, you may be able to get by with the fsc.exe in the April CTP (it is capable of referencing .NET 4.0 assemblies and building .NET 4.0 assemblies, even though the compiler itself runs on 2.0). (Note that for building project files, you might also need the right Microsoft.FSharp.targets imported; I haven't worked all that through...)
If you were to copy the right assemblies and targets files from a VS2010 install to another machine, that would work, but offhand I don't know if that violates the VS license.
The existing downloadable "redist" does only contain FSharp.Core.dll.
(possibly see also this for a similar discussion but no extra info, as well as this Connect request)
The redistributable, for the F# runtime, is available at the following link, but unfortunately doesn't include the compiler or F# interactive:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=5f0a79f8-925f-4297-9ae2-86e2fdcff33c&displaylang=en
If you already have VS2010 installed on the machine there shouldn't be no need to install it, as the compiler, fsi, and F# runtime will be installed with VS. It should be just a matter of adding the directory containing the compiler to the path, so the shell can find it (if you want to use the compiler/fsc from the command-line).
This is an old question, but I came across it and thought that I'd add an update for people who find it through Google:
The current version of the F# CTP (April 2011) includes both .NET 2.0 and .NET 4.0 binaries, including FSI.exe. On my install...
.NET 2 = C:\Program Files (x86)\FSharp-2.0.0.0\bin\
.NET 4 = C:\Program Files (x86)\FSharp-2.0.0.0\v4.0\bin\
I think that there is no standalone installation of F# for .NET 4.0 (similar to the standalone installation for .NET 2.0). The reason probably is that F# for .NET 4.0 is simply meant to be distributed only as part of Visual Studio 2010 and not separately (just like other core Visual Studio languages).
If you need to use fsi.exe and fsc.exe for .NET 4.0 on a machine that doesn't have Visual Studio installed, you'll probably need to copy them together with the referenced libraries. This shouldn't be that difficult - you only need assemblies from "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft F#\v4.0" together with FSharp.Core.dll (which should be added to the GAC) and (I think) also ISymWrapper.dll (but I'm not quite sure where this is located).
I am using WSPBuilder on Visual Studio 2010 to create a feature with a feature receiver assembly for SharePoint 2010. When I try to build the WSP using WSP Builder I get this message in the output window:
The assembly MyAssembly.dll is unmanaged. The assembly will be excluded from the WSP package!
The defined Project Assembly seems not to be a valid assembly!
Solution compatibility: SharePoint 2010
The resulting WSP that gets built does not contain my DLL.
My DLL is strongly named, and I cant think of any other obvious reasons why this is happening.
Any idea why WSPBuilder is not able to package my assembly in the WSP?
Ahh... Found the answer. My code was getting compiled against .Net Framework 4.0. Changed it to .Net Framework 3.5 and Voila! WSP gets built without any problems...