How to build a .net library with IKVM?

Question

I'm working with the Saxon library in .net. I recently submitted a report that there may be a bug, but I'd like to work with the source code myself. I downloaded the code from http://sourceforge.net/projects/saxon/files/Saxon-HE/9.5/saxon9-5-1-1source.zip/download.

The download is a zip archive with three folders: api, cmd, and net. The first two contain C# code files and the third contains Java codes files. I want to compile this code to .net, and I understand that it uses a library called IKVM to bridge the gap between .net and Java.

However, coming from a .net background, I don't even see a project file that I can open with Visual Studio. How am I supposed to compile this source?

Answer 1

In the saxon-resources download at

http://sourceforge.net/projects/saxon/files/Saxon-HE/9.5/saxon-resources9-5.zip/download

you will find a "build" directory containing Ant build scripts. You need to run build.xml with target "product-hen". Since the build scripts are designed to build the entire set of Saxon products, you may need to edit out parts that aren't needed. You will also have to make sure the dependencies are satisfied, in particular of course IKVMC itself.

Building Saxon, especially on .NET, is not for the faint-hearted. It can't be done within Visual Studio because VS does not support Java or IKVMC.