This page is likely outdated. Visit the new documentation for updated content.

Building MonoDevelop

NOTE: THIS IS NOT UP TO DATE, MANY OF THE BUGS LISTED HERE HAVE BEEN FIXED IN MONODEVELOP 3.x and 4.0 (aka XAMARIN STUDIO)

Detailed instructions for building MonoDevelop on OS X can be found in the following articles:

Building MonoDevelop

However, most users should use the binaries from the main download page.

Known Issues

This is a list of known Mac-specific issues in MonoDevelop. Older releases likely have many more known issues, so please upgrade to the latest version.

Many of these known issues correspond to existing MonoDevelop or GTK+ bugs, but some have not yet been filed. Note that the Mac native GTK+ (Quartz) is relatively new, and hence many Monodevelop problems are actually GTK+ ones.

Open GTK+ Quartz bugs can be seen here on GNOME BugZilla.

Open MonoDevelop bugs can be seen on Xamarin BugZilla.

Bugs marked as strikethough have been fixes that will be released in future versions of MonoDevelop or Mono.

Key Bindings

  • There is no Visual Studio keybinding scheme for the Mac
  • The keybinding manager cannot capture certain combinations, in particular those that trigger the dialog button mnemonics (Cmd-C, Cmd-O)  [GTK+ bug]
  • Some selection modifiers (Command, Control, Alt) do not match Mac behaviour, e.g.treeview selections.
  • Mac main menu cannot display keybindings with multipress (“Mode”/”Chord”) accelerators. Despite not being displayed, these are still functional.
  • Alt-arrow navigation by words doesn’t work in GTK text widgets; GTK doesn’t support binding the alt key (but the MD command system has a workaround).

Mac Integration

  • GTK+ theme doesn’t look like other Mac apps
  • File selector dialogs (Open/Save/SaveAs/Add) do not use Mac file navigation.
  • Window does not have document icon
  • MonoDevelop Window is SDI, not MDI.
  • Many file associations are missing.
  • MD has a separate recent file/documents list (FreeDesktop ~/.recently-used)
  • Dock icon’s menu can’t be used to select open documents
  • No detection of file handlers for “Open With” menu.

Misc

  • Control-click doesn’t emulate right-click
    [GTK+ bug, patch]
    [Bug 359734 - Control-click doesn’t map to right-click]
  • Context menu submenus can display on wrong monitor [MD Bug 501553] [GTK+ bug]
  • Mouse clicks on dialogs annd menus sometimes have no effect unless MD is defocused and refocused.
  • MD cannot restore maximize or fullscreen state correctly between sessions [MD bug 561726] [GTK+ bug]
  • Errors when opening context menus and configuration dropdown on PPC [MD Bug 547894]
  • Mouse grabs are not always released. Affects treeview disclosures and toolbar buttons. Click on the window decoration to reset grab tracking.

Source Editor

  • Doesn’t handle multi-press input methods, e.g. Opt-u, u for ü. This is because GTK+  hasn’t implemented IM modules for Mac.
  • Some keyboard layouts are not supported correctly.
  • No font fallbacks if font does not contain glyph [Pango Bug 608929]
  • MD crashes when using Menlo font [Pango]
  • Text editor crashes when cutting/copying and Launchbar/Quicksilver is handling clipboard.
  • Input methods are not supported, so many languages’ characters cannot be input.
  • Doesn’t render when QuartzGL is enabled: MD Bug 540583(GTK+ bug)

Drag-n-drop

  • Generally buggy [GTK+ bug #1] [GTK+ bug #2]
  • Shift-drag [GTK+ bug]
  • Drag-n-drop in the solution pad duplicates the item in the pad instead of moving it [GTK+ bug]
  • Drag-n-drop in the solution pad does not show the file icon [GTK-quartz limitation]
  • Drag-n-drop in the text editor does not show a preview of the dragged text [GTK-quartz limitation]

Disabled Addins

  • Gettext addin - need more gettext utils installed
  • Python, Vala, Java, Boo - untested

Misc Issues

MonoDevelop crashes when you copy text

Some popular Mac utilities trigger bugs in the GTK+ clipboard. In their options, you may be able to list MonoDevelop as a process they should not interfere with.

This affects MD 2.4 and 2.6 alpha 1, but git master has a workaround.

UPDATE: Fixed in Mono 2.10.3.

Utilities that are known to cause this problem include:

  • QuickSilver
  • Google Toolbar
  • LaunchBar
  • Typinator
  • PTHPasteboard
  • QuickKeys
  • Keyboard Maestro
  • Butler
  • ClipboardHistory