As most of you probably know, MSBuild is the new XML-driven build tool provided with .NET Framework 2.0. You do not need to install Visual Studio 2005 to get and use MSBuild. I’ll never understand why Microsoft went away from nmake and make files when they moved to Visual Studio .NET from the old C/C++ compilers. It was a big design mistake and one that has made it difficult to create automated builds or build scripts of any significant complexity. Thankfully they finally decided to clone nAnt and give us a real build tool again.
In any case, the real point of this post is that .NET 1.1 projects have just as much, if not more, to gain from MSBuild as .NET 2.0 projects do, and that has just become much easier. The “MSBuild Extras – Toolkit for .NET 1.1” is now available. If you’ve been using nAnt, this is a great way to prepare for .NET 2.0 and take advantage of MSBuild’s power today.
Also of interest, you’ll find that the download for this toolkit is on a Microsoft site called CodePlex, stated to be “Microsoft’s community development” site. I’m not quite what this means to GotDotNet, which has filled exactly that role for many years now. Perhaps Microsoft is hoping to create their own SourceForge in CodePlex. It will be interesting to see how it is ultimately used, but it seems to be picking up a bunch of interesting projects.
