I’ve installed NAnt 0.85 expecting it to work immediately in compiling MSBuild task. Unfortunately I painfully discovered that it doesn’t work like that. The MSBuild task produced an error complaining that .Net framework 2.0 failed.

It turns out that Visual Studio 2008 solutions standardly compiles to .Net framework 3.5 and NAnt 0.85 only compiles to .Net 2.0. After trying to find out where is exactly in the NAnt build file that specify the .Net version, it turns out that the settings is in nant.exe.config in NAnt /bin directory.

If you happens to find the same problem, you need to add the following code in nant.exe.config :

        <framework
       name="net-3.5"
       family="net"
       version="3.5"
       description="Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5"
       runtimeengine=""
       sdkdirectory="${path::combine(sdkInstallRoot, ‘bin’)}"
       frameworkdirectory="${path::combine(installRoot, ‘v3.5′)}"
       frameworkassemblydirectory="${path::combine(installRoot, ‘v2.0.50727′)}"
       clrversion="2.0.50727"
                    >

          <task-assemblies>

            <!– include .NET specific assemblies –>

            <include name="tasks/net/*.dll" />

            <!– include .NET 2.0 specific assemblies –>

            <include name="tasks/net/2.0/**/*.dll" />

            <!– include Microsoft.NET specific task assembly –>

            <include name="NAnt.MSNetTasks.dll" />

            <!– include Microsoft.NET specific test assembly –>

            <include name="NAnt.MSNet.Tests.dll" />

          </task-assemblies>

          <project>

            <readregistry

property="installRoot"

key="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\InstallRoot"

hive="LocalMachine" />

            <readregistry

property="sdkInstallRoot"

key="SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\sdkInstallRootv2.0"

hive="LocalMachine"

failonerror="false" />

          </project>

          <tasks>

            <task name="csc">

              <attribute name="exename">csc</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsnowarnlist">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportswarnaserrorlist">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportskeycontainer">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportskeyfile">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsplatform">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportslangversion">true</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="vbc">

              <attribute name="exename">vbc</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsdocgeneration">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsnostdlib">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsnowarnlist">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportskeycontainer">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportskeyfile">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsplatform">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportswarnaserrorlist">true</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="jsc">

              <attribute name="exename">jsc</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsplatform">true</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="vjc">

              <attribute name="exename">vjc</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsnowarnlist">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportskeycontainer">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportskeyfile">true</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="resgen">

              <attribute name="exename">resgen</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsassemblyreferences">true</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsexternalfilereferences">true</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="al">

              <attribute name="exename">al</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="delay-sign">

              <attribute name="exename">sn</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="license">

              <attribute name="exename">lc</attribute>

              <attribute name="supportsassemblyreferences">true</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="ilasm">

              <attribute name="exename">ilasm</attribute>

            </task>

            <task name="ildasm">

              <attribute name="exename">ildasm</attribute>

            </task>

          </tasks>

        </framework>

Most article suggest to script a build task using NAnt so that you can build your application from the command line. But why repeat yourself when the Visual Studio 2008 has already build it’s solution for you. Isn’t it doesn’t conform to the DRY principle?

So, in order to make NAnt and VS 2008 work together DRY-ly. We are going to need NAntContrib. So after you download NAnt Contrib, install it together with NAnt (I recommend their install method #2).

Here it is:

2. Copy the content of the NAntContrib bin directory to the NAnt directory

In order to make certain tasks available to every build file, you can copy the tasks assembly and
all its non-assembly dependencies to the "<nant>\bin\tasks" directory, and copy the assembly
dependencies to the "<nant>\bin\lib" directory.

However, as NAntContrib contains tasks that rely on COM Interop, it is only supported on the .NET
Framework (not on Mono). So, in order to avoid issues when running NAnt on Mono, you should copy
the content of the NAntContrib bin directory to "<nant>\bin\tasks\net" and "<nant>\bin\lib\net".
This will ensure that NAnt only loads the NAntContrib tasks when running on one of the MS .NET
Framework runtimes.

You should eventually end up with the following directory structure:

<nant>\
    bin\
        lib\
            net\
                CollectionGen.dll
                Interop.MsmMergeTypeLib.dll
                Interop.StarTeam.dll
                Interop.WindowsInstaller.dll
                SourceSafe.Interop.dll

        tasks\
            net\
                MSITaskErrors.mst
                MSITaskTemplate.msi
                MSMTaskErrors.mst
                MSMTaskTemplate.msm
                NAnt.Contrib.Tasks.dll
                NAnt.Contrib.Tasks.pdb (not available for releases)
                NAnt.Contrib.Tasks.xml

        SLiNgshoT.Core.dll
        SLiNgshoT.exe

Note: you might have to manually create the "tasks\net" and "lib\net" directories.

References

• NAnt
• NAnt Contrib
• Visual Studio 2008

After bloging for a while I started to find out that accessing my blog each time I want to write is time consuming so I try to find some blog software client.

It’s turn out that all I can find out there is a list of blogging software like the one they have at wordpress.org. Here it is:

Windows:

• BlogDesk
• BlogJet
• Blog Writer
• Chrysanth WebStory
• Deepest Sender (Extension for Firefox or SeaMonkey, Cross-platform - Deepest Sender will run on any OS that Firefox will run on)
• Ecto
• Elicit
• Flock
• JBlogEditor
• LIPIDr Blog Client (Freeware, Wordpress only)
• Post2Blog - detailed WordPress instructions
• Post2Blog Express
• Qumana
• ScribeFire (formerly Performancing)
• Semagic
• Zoundry Raven - new product as of Feb 2008.
• w.bloggar
• WB Editor
• Windows Live Writer - link to MS blog announcement for latest version, has d/l link
• WriteToMyBlog - web based

Mac (OS X):

• Ecto
• Flock
• JBlogEditor
• Journler (however blogging is being dropped soon from Journler)
• MacJournal
• MarsEdit
• QTM
• Qumana
• ScribeFire (formerly Performancing)
• TextMate
• WriteToMyBlog - web based

Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets

• DashBlog - detailed WordPress instructions
• RapidMetaBlog
• WordPressDash

Linux:

• BloGTK
• Drivel
• Flock
• Gnome Blog
• JBlogEditor
• QTM
• ScribeFire (formerly Performancing)
• WriteToMyBlog - web based

PalmOS:

• Plogit - open source
• Mo:blog - commercial
• Vagablog - open source

Siemens Phones:

• blog2go

Nokia Phones (Symbian S60 based):

• Wavelog - commercial