It seems that there is no way to download any open source project and
have it build and run under Visual Studio with no hassles, especially
if you are new to open source.
Some experts can probably do it after years of experience, but for even
experienced .NET developers who are new to open source it is extremely
difficult to get all the pieces together and get code to build. For
example: let's say you want to download GIMP source code and build it
in VS .NET.
Is there a web site that where one can download open source projects
that simply open and build in Visual Studio. It would preferably have
these features too (making it also a build and test farm as well):
1) Continuous Integration. If the open source is updated, then
"justworks for VS" web site gets updated with the changes as long as
the changes don't break builds or cause unit tests to fail.
2) Unit testing
3) Automation. I high degree of automation to keep the site current
so as to reduce the amount of labor required.
4) Collaboration. Like Wikipedia, members can log on and maintain the
sites.
5) Comprehensiveness. All available open source projects should be
listed on the site with a links allowing a member to configure a Visual
Studio compatible version of the project.
6) Monster builds and unit tests. Since so many open source projects
use each other as dependencies then making sure that they remain
compatible would be handy.
Please reply if you know of such a site or would be interested in
collaborating to set one up.