mono C# REPL System.Windows.Forms

Question

When I try to create a form from the mono C# REPL I cant get access to System.Windows.Forms classes

I can use other .net libraries from REPL with no problem.

Any thoughts?

Answer 1

You can use LoadAssembly and LoadPackage as needed inside of the REPL:

• LoadAssembly (string): Loads the given assembly, equivalent to passing the -r:NAME to the compiler.
• LoadPackage(string): Loads the given package, equivalent to passing the -pkg:NAME to the compiler.

Example:

csharp> LoadAssembly("System.Windows.Forms")
csharp> using System.Windows.Forms
csharp> LoadAssembly("System.Drawing")
csharp> using System.Drawing
csharp> class MyApp : System.Windows.Forms.Form
    {
        public MyApp()
        {
            Label label;

            ClientSize = new System.Drawing.Size(250, 250);

            label = new Label();
            label.Text = "A Mono CSharp REPL Window";
            label.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
            label.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleCenter;
            this.Controls.Add(label);
            Text = "Hello, StackOverFlow";
        }

        public static void Main()
        {
            Application.Run(new MyApp());
        }
    }
MyApp.Main()

FYI: If you are trying to generate dynamic GUIs, I would look at gsharp (from mono-tools) since it has a GTK pane and you can add/remove widgets to that pane.