Support the .NET Standard Library about diffplex

[mmanela]

Good news, I got it working in my branch https://github.com/mmanela/diffplex/tree/dotnetcore

[mmanela]

Just published a new package that targets netstandard 1.4

[mmanela]

What is needed to support DNX?

[giggio]

You would need to migrate from a .csproj/package.config project file structure to a .xproj/project.json file structure. With it, you don't need the nuspec files anymore, as project.json already does all that work. It is a considerable change, so you might want to check that more carefully.
To be fair, current 4.0 should already work with dnx. So, a better title would be "support dnx with .NET core". I will update that.

[mmanela]

If I am already a "portable" library does that not mean I work on core? Do I need the DNX project structure to target core?

[giggio]

No, a PCL will not work with .NET Core. You have to specifically target it.
If you use VS 2015 and try creating a Console Application (Package) you will see dnxcore as a runtime. You will see that you will not be able to add a reference to diffplex.

[mmanela]

It doesn't seem to list dnxcore here:

What do I need to do?

[giggio]

You are creating the incorrect project type. The dnx projects are still under the Web node, on the project creation tool. Look for the Console Application (Package) project on VS 2015.

[mmanela]

Ok, I can take a look at that.

[giggio]

This is what will happen if you try to target dnxcore:

Here is the project.json file contents:

{
  "version": "1.0.0-*",
  "description": "ConsoleApp2 Console Application",
  "authors": [ "giggio" ],
  "tags": [ "" ],
  "projectUrl": "",
  "licenseUrl": "",

  "dependencies": {
      "diffplex": "1.2.1"
  },

  "commands": {
    "ConsoleApp2": "ConsoleApp2"
  },

  "frameworks": {
    "dnx451": { },
    "dnxcore50": {
      "dependencies": {
        "Microsoft.CSharp": "4.0.1-beta-23409",
        "System.Collections": "4.0.11-beta-23409",
        "System.Console": "4.0.0-beta-23409",
        "System.Linq": "4.0.1-beta-23409",
        "System.Threading": "4.0.11-beta-23409"
      }
    }
  }
}

If you remove dnxcore50 it compiles and runs just fine.

[mmanela]

If I build diffplex for .net core can someone use it from .net 4.5 ?

[giggio]

Hm... That is a good question. I would say that probably not, at this moment.
If you checkout this document: https://github.com/dotnet/corefx/blob/master/Documentation/project-docs/standard-platform.md
You will see how these things will work together.
If you decide to target the new netstandard, everything would just work. But that is not done yet.

[nguyenm100]

I believe the above link references changes for rc2 (currently things are at rc1 with rc2 slated for 2/2016). In RC1, I believe you want to mark your (shared) assemblies as "donet5.4" (this changes to netstandard in RC2) to be completely neutral (and anyone can use it) and mark your app dnxcore50 to use dnx instead of (windows).net 4.6

The naming is horribly confusing :-(

[giggio]

Yes, the new .NET Standard will allow you to support .NET Core and .NET 4.5.

[russcam]

I have a working DNX build targeting dotnet and dnx451 - once I've run the tests, I'll submit a PR 👍

[Daniel15]

Any updates here?

[russcam]

@Daniel15 I got sidetracked on other things; I'll update the DNX version I have to use the new tooling and update the PR

[giggio]

I updated the description, we don't need DNX support anymore, we need .NET Standard Support. :)

[giggio]

@russcam when are you planning on updating this PR?

[mmanela]

I took a stab at changing diffplex into a netstandard dll but I am hitting issues. Would love someone who has more experience with this to help. I pushed my changes here: https://github.com/mmanela/diffplex/tree/dotnetcore

I attempted to convert DiffPlex, DiffPlex.ConsoleRunner, Facts.DiffPlex and Perf.DiffPlex to netstandard. I omitted the other two project for now to keep it simple. However, I am getting errors like:

@russcam @giggio @AArnott Could any of you help?

[russcam]

I got around to updating the PR #14 that I had for updating to DNX and have ported it over to using .NET Core 1.0 in #17. Additionally, I have added a Build project that uses FAKE to build the solution and run unit tests. Because FAKE is pulled in through nuget, it means a nuget restore needs to be done before the build.bat build script can run.

If interested, I can port nuget over to using paket and check in only the paket,bootstrapper.exe into the repository.

[mmanela]

@russcam With 2017 RC they no longer use the json files and its now using a simple version of project xml. In my branch (https://github.com/mmanela/diffplex/tree/dotnetcore) it looked pretty simple although I hit that odd dependency issue. I think we should move to this since this is where its going to be with the new release of VS.

[russcam]

@mmanela, ok. I'll need to install VS 2017 RC and take a look