I took some time to see if I can get Clarion addins loaded in SharpDevelop 5.1 - it seems possible, but due to version restrictions in the addins they don’t load - but it got me curious, as it seems that Clarion IDE is almost only a addin to SharpDevelop 5.1 - when can we expect them to upgrade?
I think it’s worth reframing the question slightly, because it’s probably not just about upgrading add-ins or moving from SharpDevelop 2.1 to 5.1.
My understanding is that SoftVelocity licensed SharpDevelop prior to 2.1.0.2447, but that around 2.1.0.2447 is where the codebases effectively stopped moving in both directions. From that point on, Clarion’s IDE appears to have evolved largely independently. If that’s the case, then Clarion isn’t really “on SharpDevelop 2.1” in the upstream sense anymore — it’s on a divergent codebase that originated there.
That has a couple of important consequences:
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It’s not only add-ins that would need upgrading
SharpDevelop add-ins are just the visible layer. The IDE itself depends on a set of ICSharpCode libraries (Core, TextEditor, SharpDevelop, NRefactory, etc.). If SoftVelocity modified or extended any of those internally — which seems likely given how tightly integrated the Clarion IDE is — then those libraries may no longer match the stock 2.1 versions anyway. -
“Upgrading to 5.1” isn’t an incremental step
SharpDevelop 5.x isn’t a drop-in upgrade from 2.x. Between those versions there were major architectural changes:- new editor stack
- reworked add-in model
- significant project system changes
- different threading and service lifetimes
Even unmodified SharpDevelop add-ins didn’t port cleanly from 2.x to 5.x, so a heavily customized fork would be a very large porting effort.
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SharpDevelop itself is no longer a moving target
Since SharpDevelop has been discontinued for years, moving Clarion to 5.1 wouldn’t buy long-term momentum anyway. It would still leave the IDE on a dead platform, just a slightly newer one.
So realistically, this isn’t a case of “will Clarion ever upgrade SharpDevelop?” so much as:
Clarion already became its own IDE years ago, using SharpDevelop as the original foundation.
Given that, a straight upgrade to SharpDevelop 5.1 (or any other SharpDevelop version) would likely require:
- porting large parts of the IDE core,
- reconciling forked ICSharpCode libraries,
- rewriting or heavily adapting internal tooling and add-ins.
That’s a major rewrite, not a version bump — which probably explains why it hasn’t happened and why it’s unlikely to happen in that form.
In short:
The limiting factor isn’t just add-ins or version numbers; it’s the depth of the fork and the architectural distance between where Clarion is today and where SharpDevelop ended up.
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Excellent response, Mark!