Create a Fully Featured Environment For Tcl/Tk Development Under Windows

I'll add my own two cents to this question:

I use the following SVN ignore pattern with TortoiseSVN and Subversion CLI for native C++, C#/VB.NET, and PERL projects on both Windows and Linux platforms. It works well for me!

Formatted for copy and paste:

*.o *.lo *.la #*# .*.rej *.rej .*~ *~ .#* .DS_Store thumbs.db Thumbs.db *.bak *.class *.exe *.dll *.mine *.obj *.ncb *.lib *.log *.idb *.pdb *.ilk *.msi* .res *.pch *.suo *.exp *.*~ *.~* ~*.* cvs CVS .CVS .cvs release Release debug Debug ignore Ignore bin Bin obj Obj *.csproj.user *.user *.generated.cs

Formatted for readability:

*.o *.lo *.la #*# .*.rej *.rej
.*~ *~ .#* .DS_Store thumbs.db 
Thumbs.db *.bak *.class *.exe *.dll
*.mine *.obj *.ncb *.lib *.log 
*.idb *.pdb *.ilk *.msi* .res *.pch *.suo 
*.exp *.*~ *.~* ~*.* cvs  CVS .CVS .cvs  
release Release debug Debug
ignore Ignore bin Bin obj  Obj
*.csproj.user *.user
*.generated.cs

I highly recommend using a VM. SharePoint is big. It requires multiple servers and lots of services. Basically its guaranteed to slow down any workstation you install it on. Other benefits of using a VM to develop:

• Undo disks
• Moving your dev environment from workstation to workstation
• easy back-ups

This is a pretty comprehensive guide to building a full featured SharePoint VM: http://www.pptspaces.com/sharepointreporterblog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=7537e639%2Db4e5%2D48b6%2D97c0%2Da75e44ee9be3&ID=28&Source=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Epptspaces%2Ecom%2Fsharepointreporterblog%2FLists%2FPosts%2FAllPosts%2Easpx

Although, if you are going to be doing a lot of SharePoint development I would build a parent VM with the OS, SharePoint, and database. Then create a child VM (differential disk) with dev tools (VS 2008, Office 2007, SharePoint Designer). That way, you can always roll back to a clean SharePoint environment if you need to.

Furthermore, I think the best way to do serious solution development is to spend the time and learn how to build your own solution files, and rolling your own features. NANT can be used to great effect for this. The existing crop of automated tools have limitations that you will inevitably run up against if you are doing anything a bit complicated.

Learning all of the moving parts of solution development is a bit daunting, but once you do it gives you a MUCH better picture of what SharePoint is doing under the covers.