<a href="#ximian">The Ximian Role in the Mono project</a><br>
<a href="#gnome">Mono and GNOME</a><br>
<a href="#gui">Building GUI applications with Mono</a><br>
-<a href="#winforms">Mono and WinForms</a><br>
<a href="#msft">Mono and Microsoft</a><br>
+<a href="#platforms">Mono platforms</a><br>
<a href="#pnpproject">Mono and the Portable.NET Project</a><br>
<a href="#webservices">Web Services</a><br>
<a href="#asp">Mono and ASP.NET</a><br>
<a href="#ado">Mono and ADO.NET</a><br>
+<a href="#monodoc">MonoDoc</a><br>
<a href="#devel">Development Tools and Issues</a><br>
<a href="#java">Mono and Java</a><br>
<a href="#extending">Extending Mono</a><br>
<a href="#problems">Mono Common Problems</a><br>
A <a
-href="http://www.es.gnome.org/documentacion/articulos/mono-puf/mono-puf/">spanish
+href="http://www.es.gnome.org/documentacion/articulos/mono-puf/mono-puf/">Spanish
translation</a> is also available
<a name="basics"></a>
framework. Mono is an implementation of the development framework,
but not an implementation of anything else related to the .NET
Initiative, such as Passport, software-as-a-service, or
- corporate rebranding.
+ corporate re-branding.
Q: What technologies are included in Mono?
Q: Where can I find the specification for these technologies?
-A: You can find the work-in-progress documentation from the T3G ECMA
- group here:
+A: You can find the information here:
- <a href="http://www.dotnetexperts.com">http://www.dotnetexperts.com</a>
+
+ C# <a href="http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ecma-334.htm">http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ecma-334.htm</a>
+
+ CLI <a href="http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ecma-335.htm">http://www.ecma.ch/ecma1/STAND/ecma-335.htm</a>
Q: Will you implement the .NET Framework SDK class libraries?
Q: Will you offer an ECMA-compliant set of class libraries?
-A: Eventually we will. Our current focus is on interoperating
+A: Eventually we will. Our current focus is on inter-operating
with the Microsoft SDK, but we will also offer an ECMA compliant
set of libraries.
A: Different parts of Mono will achieve usability at different stages,
once we are comfortable with the compiler, we will release "Mono Core",
which contains everything needed to develop applications with the base
- class libraries. This should be available at some point during 2002.
+ class libraries, this will happen soon and in the meantime you can
+ download daily snapshots of our work. Also the full ASP.NET support is
+ close to completion.
- Other higher level class libraries (ASP.NET, ADO.NET) will
+ Other higher level class libraries (ASP.NET, ADO.NET, WinForms) will
be released when they become stable.
Q: What major components will you include in Mono?
A: Hopefully everything that Microsoft ships on their Framework
- (ADO.NET, ASP.NET), and
- we encourage third party developers to create reusable components that
- work on both Mono and Windows.
+ (ADO.NET, ASP.NET, WinForms), and we encourage third party developers to
+ create reusable components that work on both Mono and Windows.
Q: How can I contribute?
require only a subset of the technologies, those will ship first.
More advanced features will take more time to develop. A support
- timeline will be available in June 2002.
+ time line will be available in June 2002.
<a name="gnome"></a>
** Mono and GNOME
We encourage GNOME developers to continue using the existing tools,
libraries and components. Improvements made to GNOME will have an
- impact on Mono, as they would be the "backend" for various classes.
+ impact on Mono, as they would be the "back-end" for various classes.
Q: Will Mono include compatibility with Bonobo components? What is the
relationship between Mono and Bonobo?
CIL-enabled languages). System.Windows.Forms is an API defined
by Microsoft to build GUI applications.
+Q: Why not implement System.Windows.Forms on top of Gtk# or Qt#?
+
+A: There are several reasons for this.
+
+ First of all, Gtk+ and Qt are standard toolkits on Linux, and their
+ proponents want to use their favorite toolkits when writing
+ applications.
+
+ Related to this is the idea that System.Windows.Forms is
+ brain-dead in certain areas, such as internationalization.
+ System.Windows.Forms uses explicit sizes for all controls, as opposed
+ to Gtk+ and Qt which use a box/packing model, which can better deal with
+ the different string lengths different languages will have.
+
+ Next is compatibility. It is not possible to implement
+ System.Windows.Forms on top of Gtk+/Qt and have 100% compatibility,
+ because System.Windows.Forms exposes <i>lots</i> of Win32-isms, such as the
+ Win32 message loop. In order to maintain compatibility, Wine must be used,
+ and this is being done; see the
+ <a href="/winforms.html">System.Windows.Forms effort page</a>.
+
+ Additionally, Wine apps don't currently fit in -- visually -- with
+ Gtk+ or Qt apps.
+
Q: Will I be able to run my smart clients on systems powered by Mono?
A: As long as your applications are 100% .NET and do not make use
of P/Invoke to call Win32 functions, your smart client applications
will run on Mono platforms.
-Q: Where can I learn mora about Gtk#?
+Q: Where can I learn more about Gtk#?
A: The following <a href="http://gtk-sharp.sourceforge.net>link</a> sends you to the page of the project.
gtk-sharp/sample/DbClient, where there is a GTK# application that uses
System.Data. It does not use DataAdapter, but DataReader though.
-<a name="winforms"></a>
-** Mono and WinForms
-
-Q: Can you tell me why aren't you implementing WinForms?.
-
-A: (This is based in an original mail to mono-list written by Miguel de
- Icaza. You should read it for completion, but the core part is here).
-
- First, Windows.Forms is packed with quirks and is not that great of a
- toolkit in the first place. Up to the point of the unconfirmed rumor
- that Microsoft is working on a replacement for it.
-
- Once the runtime is done, we will very likely start contributing to
- the Gtk# project ourselves, and we will likely start doing feasibility
- work on getting Mono used by Gnome developers: full gnome apps and
- extending existing applications.
-
- Those interested in hacking on Windows.Forms are welcome to do so,
- but Ximian will not likely look at it in the near future; if there is
- enough demand, or I can be convinced that Windows.Forms is useful for
- something Ximian might re-evaluate our resource allocation for this
- task.
-
- By doing native ports, we could use the same API on all those systems.
- Also, Gtk is mature enough, we know this because we have built an entire
- desktop (and all sorts of very window system-specific hacks), and we
- have built a bunch of productivity applications with it.
-
-Q: What about VCL?.
-
- Someone mentioned VCL. The only problem with the VCL is that it can
- only be used for GPL applications (or I guess you could license it from
- Borland for your app), and would have to be ported from Delphi to C#
- (or someone would have to write a CIL compiler for it).
-
-Q: What about doing something like the eclipse project (www.eclipse.org)?
-
-A: The Eclipse toolkit is not a general purpose toolkit. It will require a
- lot of work before it is such a thing. It is a toolkit used to
- implement a development environment.
+Q: Do you have an estimate for when Windows.Forms will be released?
+A: We do not know, volunteers are working on this, but there is no set
+ date yet. The current approach is using the Wine Library to implement
+ it.
<a name="msft"></a>
** Mono and Microsoft
Q: Is Microsoft helping Ximian with this project?
-A: No. Ximian CTO Miguel de Icaza had a friendly conversation with
- Microsoft software architect David Stutz, but that's about the
- extent of the contact. Microsoft is interested in other
- implementations of .NET and are willing to help make the ECMA spec
- more accurate for this purpose.
+A: There is no high level communication between Ximian and Microsoft
+ at this point, but engineers who work on .NET or the ECMA groups
+ have been very friendly, and very nice to answer our questions, or
+ clarify part of the specification for us.
- Ximian representatives have also spoken with Sam Ruby at the ECMA
- TG3 committee to discuss the same issues.
+ Microsoft is interested in other implementations of .NET and are
+ willing to help make the ECMA spec more accurate for this purpose.
+
+ Ximian was also invited to participate in the ECMA committee
+ meetings for C# and the CLI.
Q: Is Microsoft or Corel paying Ximian to do this?
A: No. Microsoft proved with the CLI and the C# language that it was
possible to create a powerful foundation for many languages to
- interoperate. We will always have that.
+ inter-operate. We will always have that.
Even if changes happened in the platform which were undocumented,
the existing platform would a value on its own.
A: Once we have a complete VisualBasic runtime, yes.
-Q: Can mono run the WebMatrix ?
+Q: Can mono run the WebMatrix?
-A: No. That requires winforms (we don't have).
+A: No. That requires System.Windows.Forms support which is not
+ currently implemented.
-Q: Does mono have something like Passport ? (ie PassportIdentity class,somewhere
- in System.Web ?) . Will mono have a server side Passport/Similar framework
- for XSP as well as client classes ?
+Q: Does mono have something like Passport?
+ Will mono have a server side Passport/Similar framework for XSP as well as client classes?
A: Not yet, but the client side API for authentication is not the problem.
We will likely have a lot of other authentication APIs, like the Liberty
- Aliance APIs. The problem is people on the web provider end that might use
+ Alliance APIs. The problem is people on the web provider end that might use
this for authentication.
+<a name="platforms"></a>
+** Mono Platforms
+
+Q: What operating systems does Mono run on?
+
+A: Mono is known to run on Linux, Unix and Windows systems.
+
+Q: What architectures does Mono support?
+
+A: Mono today ships with a Just-in-Time compiler for x86-based
+ systems. It is tested regularly on Linux, FreeBSD and Windows
+ (with the XP/NT core).
+
+ There is also an interpreter, which is slower that runs on the
+ s390, SPARC and PowerPC architectures.
+
+Q: Can Mono run on Windows 9x, or ME editions?
+
+A: Mono requires Unicode versions of Win32 APIs to run,
+ and only a handful of *W functions is supported under Win9x.
+
+ There is Microsoft Layer for Unicode that provides implementation
+ of these APIs on 9x systems.
+
+ Unfortunately it uses linker trick for delayed load that is not
+ supported by ld, so some sort of adapter is necessary.
+
+ You will need MSLU and one of the following libs to link Mono to
+ unicows.dll <a
+ href="http://mono.eurosoft.od.ua/files/unimono.zip">http://mono.eurosoft.od.ua/files/unimono.zip</a>
+ or alternatively search the net for "libunicows".
+
+ No changes to Mono source code required, the only thing is to make
+ sure that linker will resolve imports to adapter library instead of
+ Win32 libs. This is achieved by inserting -lunimono before
+ -lkerner32/user32 in the linker's specs file.
+
+
<a name="pnpproject"></a>
** Mono and Portable.NET
It is easier to describe what is unique about Mono:
<ul>
+ <li> A Just-in-Time compiler engine. This is important for
+ making your applications fast.
+
<li> A self-hosting C# compiler written in C#, which is clean, easy
to maintain.
+ <li> Focus on the .NET Framework: we are tracking down the .NET
+ Framework API definition, as we believe it is the API people
+ will be most familiar with.
+
<li> A multi-platform runtime engine: both a JIT engine and an
interpreter exist. The JIT engine runs currently on x86
- systems, while the interpreter works on Sparc, StrongARM and
- PowerPC systems.
+ systems, while the interpreter works on SPARC, StrongARM,
+ s390 and PowerPC systems.
<li> Supports Linux, Windows and Solaris at this point.
<li> The JIT engine is written using a portable instruction
selector which not only generates good code (we are told
that we are faster than Rotor, but it is hard to tell) but
- is also the foundation to retarget the JIT engine to other
+ is also the foundation to re-target the JIT engine to other
systems.
The system employed is described in various compiler
books and it is very similar to what is described in the
- book that covers LCC, the Ansi C retargetable C compiler.
+ book that covers LCC, the ANSI C retargetable C compiler.
- <li> The JIT engine supports inlining, constant folding and propagation,
+ <li> The JIT engine supports in-lining, constant folding and propagation,
<li> Full support for remoting in the runtime, but the class
libraries are still behind.
<li> The C# compiler, the JIT engine and the class libraries are
- mature enough that the whole system is self-hosting, ie, that
- it can be fully developed with itself at this point.
+ mature enough that the whole system is self-hosting. This means that
+ we develop Mono completely with itself at this point.
<li> We are not yet done, and there is a lot of work left to be
done
<li> We have a great community of developers, without which Mono
would not be possible.
- <li> We will provide an ahead of time compilation mode in the
- future.
+ <li> We are working on an ahead of time compilation mode to
+ pre-compile code for the target architecture (this is part
+ of our new code generation effort).
</ul>
<a name="webservices"></a>
Q: Can I author Web Services with Mono?
A: You will be able to write Web Services on .NET that run on Mono and
- viceversa.
+ vice-versa.
Q: If Mono implements the SDK classes, will I be able to write and
execute .NET Web Services with it?
exposing it to other RPC systems (like CORBA) is really simple, and
does not even require support from an object.
- We will be implementing CORBA interoperation as an extension to the
- Mono classes so that we can integrate with Bonobo, just like
- Microsoft provides COM interoperation classes and support
- mechanisms.
+ <a href="http://remoting-corba.sourceforge.net/">Remoting.CORBA</a> is
+ a CORBA implementation that is gaining momentum.
+
+ Building an implementation of the Bonobo interfaces once this is ready
+ should be relatively simple.
Q: Can I serialize my objects to other things other than XML?
A: Yes, although the serializing tools have not yet been planned, and
-you would probably have to implement them yourself.
+ you would probably have to implement them yourself.
Q: Will Mono use ORBit?
-A: No. Mono will be using a new implementation of CORBA that isn't still started.
+A: There are a few advantages in using ORBit, like reusing existing code
+ and leveraging all the work done on it. Michael Meeks has posted
+ a few <a href="http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/mono-list/2002-September/008592.html">reasons</a>,
+ as well as some <a href="http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/mono-list/2002-September/008657.html">ideas</a>
+ that could be used to reuse ORBit.
+
+ Most users are likely to choose a native .NET solution, like <a href="http://cvs.gnome.org/bonsai">Remoting.CORBA</a>
+
+
+<a name="monodoc"></a>
+** MonoDoc
+
+Q: What is MonoDoc?
+
+A: MonoDoc is a graphical documentation browser for the Mono class
+ libraries. Currently, monodoc consists of a Gtk# application and is
+ in heavy development.
<a name="devel"></a>
** Development Tools and Issues
-Q: Will it be possible to use the CLI features without using bytecodes
+Q: I am having trouble compiling a new version of Mono from CVS, it
+ complains about my runtime being out of sync.
+
+A: Jonathan Pryor has provided the following answer:
+
+ To upgrade your class libraries and compiler, see the See
+ README.building in the MCS directory.
+
+ The single biggest source of confusion seems to be the "Your
+ runtime is out of sync" messages. Realize that this is *normal*
+ while BUILDING. Think about it: you're building a new class
+ library with the old runtime. If the new class library references
+ a function that the old runtime knows nothing about, the runtime
+ system issues this warning.
+
+ Basically what needs to happen is for a new mono runtime to be
+ compiled, then the corlib class library be compiled, and once this
+ is done, install the new runtime, followed by corlib.
+
+ Once this is done, you can continue building your entire
+ environment.
+
+Q: Will it be possible to use the CLI features without using byte codes
or the JIT?
A: Yes. The CLI engine will be made available as a shared library.
The garbage collection engine, the threading abstraction, the
object system, the dynamic type code system and the JIT will be
- available for C developers to integreate with their applications if
+ available for C developers to integrate with their applications if
they wish to do so.
Q: Will you have new development tools?
namespace?.
A: In short, MSMQ is not something like Jabber, but asynchronous messaging
- through queues. Usefull queues do more than serialize messages, they are
+ through queues. Useful queues do more than serialize messages, they are
also platform bridges.
Q: Are you supporting XMLDocument and relatives?.
Q: Is there any plan to develop an aspx server for Mono?.
-A: The webserver turned out to be very simple compared to the rest of the
+A: The web server turned out to be very simple compared to the rest of the
work. Gonzalo has got the page generator mostly done (a module called
xsp, who has nothing to do with the XSP term used in the Apache Project).
Patrik has done a lot of the work to get the ProcessRequest to work.
You can try to help in the final touches to the System.Web classes and
writing regression tests for the widgets we have.
-Q: Is there any way I can develop the class libraries using linux yet?
+Q: Is there any way I can develop the class libraries using Linux yet?
A: Yes. Some class libraries can be developed on Linux. Search for
Paolo's post (he lists which classes can be compiled fine now).
Q: Is there any way I can install a known working copy of mono in /usr,
and an experimental copy somewhere else, and have both copies use
their own libraries? (I'm still not very good at library paths in
- linux)
+ Linux)
A: Yes. Just use two installation prefixes.
independent of the Mono C# compiler, so that other compiler
implementations can later use it.
-Q: Is the current stage the implementation of mono_create_trampoline
- function? Hence the sparc-codegen.h is reasonably complete? Is
- mono/arch/x86/* the best reference material for this stuff?
-
-A: sparc-codegen.h is basically complete. We may want to add some
- convenience macros along the way, but it has all the stuff you need.
- And yes, or, the ppc/ dir, since the ppc call convention is more similar
- to the sparc one than the x86 one. The current issues with the sparc
- code are. roughly:
- 1) it needs to handle overflowing the out registers (the additional
- arguments need to be put on the stack)
- 2) it needs to flush the icache where the generated code is stored
- 3) it needs to implement mono_create_method_pointer to get delegates
- working
- 4) it needs a couple of updates (mono_method_pointer_get is no longer
- needed, for example)
-
Q: Would it be too terrible to have another corlib signed as mscorlib?
A: We rename corlib to mscorlib also when saving the PE files, in fact,
the runtime can execute program created by mono just fine.
-Q: How do I build corlib under Linux?
-
-A: You can build your own (see the web site on how to get the mcs
- project from cvs), but in order to build them using mcs you need a
- set of working class libraries. After building the runtime (using
- mono-build.sh) get them from the nightly build and put them (and
- mcs.exe) in your mono/install/lib directory. Then you should be able
- to do: cd mcs, then: make -f makefile.gnu, then: cp mcs/mcs.exe
- class/lib/*.dll ../install/lib Also, you should know that you can
- either get your dose of DLLs from MonoCharge, or from
- http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/runtime. MonoCharge is updated
- automatically, while the later is only updated when Miguel is around
- Once you have the DLLs, you can use `make -f makefile.gnu' as described
- before to self-host.
-
Q: Is there a relatively straightforward way to repeat the steps taken
- by Paolo to get Mono completely self-hosted on linux?
+ by Paolo to get Mono completely self-hosted on Linux?
A: To build the compiler and class libraries in Linux, run:
<ul><li>make -f makefile.gnu. To install them, run: </li>
- <li>make -f makefile.gnu install</li>
- <li>You can also specify a prefix:</li>
- <li>make -f makefile.gnu install prefix=/opt</li>
+ <li>make -f makefile.gnu install prefix=/opt/mono</li>
</ul>
+
If you want to produce and distribute a monocharge tarball, run:
make -f makefile.gnu dist
Of course you have to run these in the top level mcs directory.
formatters are not.
Q: I'm wondering if there are any plans to start using nant to build the
- class lib + test lib. i think that every project neeed/should use an
+ class lib + test lib. i think that every project need/should use an
automated build process and nant + a couple of tools enables this. is
the problem that the compiler can't run nant yet?
A: Maybe well be doing some sort of automated build process + testing when
the summer finish.
+Q: My C code uses the __stdcall which is not availble on Linux, how can I
+ make the code portable Windows/Unix across platforms?
+
+A: Replace the __stdcall attribute with the STDCALL macro, and include this
+ in your C code for newer gcc versions:
+
+ #ifndef STDCALL
+ #define STDCALL __attribute__((stdcall))
+ #endif
+
<a name="asp">
** Mono and ASP.NET
-Q: Is Mono supporting ASP.NET?
+Q: Does Mono support ASP.NET?
+
+A: Yes.
-A: Yes. The development of the support for ASP.NET comes in various stages,
- here is what Gonzalo has been working on: 1. The Parser. 2. Getting the
- parser to generate output compatible with ASP.NET. 3. Running the sample
- output with the real Microsoft runtime but using our generated page. 4.
- Running the sample with our classes with the .NET runtime. 5. Running
- our sample code with our classes with our runtime. This is the process
- we are following. Currently Gonzalo has reached point 5.
+ Mono supports ASP.NET, we have shown an unmodified IBuySpy
+ installation running on Mono as well as various other programs. You can
+ try it yourself downloading the XSP server.
Q: Do I need install cygwin to work on ASP.NET in mono or Linux is enough since
it is self host right now.
A: Linux is enough.
-Q: Any plan to make ASP.NET in mono works with Apache in linux?.
+Q: How can I run ASP.NET-based applications with Mono?
+
+A: You need the Mono runtime and a hosting web server. Currently we distribute a
+ small web server called `xsp' which is used to debug applications, or you can choose
+ to use Daniel's Apache 2 module.
+
+Q: Any plan to make ASP.NET in mono works with Apache in Linux?.
+
+A: Daniel has authored an Apache2 Module for Mono that hosts the ASP.NET runtime
+ and is available here: <a
+ href="http://apacheworld.org/modmono/">http://apacheworld.org/modmono/</a>
+
+Q: Will you support Apache 1?
+
+A: Modules developed for Apache 2 are not compatible with Apache 1.3
+ Daniel plans to support Apache 1.3 in the future but the current focus is on
+ Apache 2, because of the better support for threading and Windows.
+
+Q: Can I run Apache 1 and Apache 2 on the same machine?
+
+ You can always keep a copy of Apache 2 running in paralell with your Apache
+ 1.3 (either different port or using a reverse proxy).
-A: Yes, we have plans to do so, but we need to wait for Patrik's patches to
- HttpRuntime. Once that is there, writing a mod_mono should be trivial
- (look at mono/samples/embed for a sample embedded application).
+ You can also bind the two servers to different IP addresses on the
+ same physical machine.
<a name="ado">
** Mono and ADO.NET
transition (minimum code rewrite) to Mono's ADO.NET implementation? (For
example, strongly typed datasets versus untyped datasets, etc...)
-A: we are implementing all the classes in Microsoft .NET's System.Data, so
- you can be sure that things will work the same in Mono as with the MS's
- implementation. We'll maybe provide extra classes to fix some things
- we've found missing while developing ADO.NET in Mono, but if you keep
- using the MS's System.Data classes, things will work out of the box with
- no changes (or at least that's the plan :-)
+A: We are implementing all the classes in Microsoft .NET's System.Data, so
+ you can be sure that things will work the same in Mono as with the Microsoft
+ implementation.
+
+Q: Does Mono can to connect to Sybase by using Mono.Data.*?
+
+A: Yes. use Mono.Data.SybaseClient. First of all you have to create a
+ SybaseConnection, and then, from it, use it as any other
+ IDbConnection-based class.
<a name="java">
** Mono and Java
A: You can get very good tools for doing Java development on free
systems right now. <a href="http://www.redhat.com">Red Hat</a> has
contributed a <a href="http://gcc.gnu.org">GCC</a> <a
- href="http://gcc.gnu.org/java">frontend for Java</a> that can take
+ href="http://gcc.gnu.org/java">front-end for Java</a> that can take
Java sources or Java byte codes and generate native executables; <a
href="http://www.transvirtual.com">Transvirtual</a> has implemented
<a href="http://www.kaffe.org">Kaffe</a> a JIT engine for Java;
Q: Could Java target the CLI?
-A: Yes, Java could target the CLI. We have details on a <a
- href="ideas.html#guavac">project</a> that someone could take on to
- make this happen.
+A: Yes, Java could target the CLI, Microsoft's J# compiler does that.
- Microsoft has an implemenation of the Java language called J# that
- can target the CIL execution engine.
+ The <a href="http://weblog.ikvm.net/">IKVM</a> project builds a
+ Java runtime that works on top of .NET and on top of Mono. IKVM is
+ essentially a JIT compiler that translates from JVM bytecodes into
+ CIL instructions, and then lets the native JIT engine take over.
-Q: Is it possible to write a JVM byte code to CIL convertor?
+Q: Is it possible to write a JVM byte code to CIL converter?
A: Yes, it is possible. Here are a few starting point:
be translated into the equivalent "meaning" in CLR-land.
</ul>
-Q: Could mono become a hybrid cil/java platform?
+ See also the <a href="http://weblog.ikvm.net/">IKVM project</a>
+
+Q: Could mono become a hybrid CIL/java platform?
A: No. It is quite far from the philosophy of the project. The idea of Mono
is, to have only _one_ VM, on which all can run. And if there existing a
like J-Sharp on Mono, you can write programs in Java, which than can run
on Mono. You do not need two bindings (like your example: GTK-Sharp _and_
Java-Gnome). You need only _one_ of it (GTK-Sharp). Thats the idea of Mono.
- An other point is, that there are no people, who use OpenSource-JVMs. They
+ An other point is, that there are no people, who use Open Source-JVMs. They
all prefer Suns original. But for Unix there don't exist a .NET-Framework.
- So it is possible, that in the future Mono is the standard .NET for unixes.
+ So it is possible, that in the future Mono is the standard .NET for Unixes.
Q: Do you plan to implement a Javascript compiler?
-A: Yes. Eto Demerzal has started a Rhino port to C#.
- After this is completed, we will begin developing
- the Javascript compiler.
+A: Yes. The beginnings of the JScript compiler can be found on CVS.
+ Cesar coordinates this effort.
+
+Q: Can Mono or .NET share system classes (loaded from mscore.dll and other
+ libs) or will it behave like Sun's Java VM?
+
+A: What you can do with mono is to load different applications in their own
+ application domain: this is a feature of the CLR that allows sandboxing
+ applications inside a single process space. This is usualy exploited to
+ compartmentalize different parts of the same app, but it can also be
+ effectively used to reduce the startup and memory overhead.
+ Using different appdomains the runtime representation of types and
+ methods is shared across applications.
<a name="extending"></a>
** Extending Mono
encourage you to make those classes operate correctly well in both
Mono and .NET.
-Q: Is there any way I can develop the class libraries using linux yet?
+ Today Mono ships with a number of extra libraries that were
+ developed either by members of the Mono community, or other
+ groups.
-A: Yes. Some class libraries can be developed on Linux. Search for
- Paolo's post (he lists which classes can be compiled fine now).
+Q: Is there any way I can develop the class libraries using Linux yet?
+
+A: Yes. Mono has been selfhosting since March 2002.
Q: Is there any way I can install a known working copy of mono in /usr,
and an experimental copy somewhere else, and have both copies use
their own libraries? (I'm still not very good at library paths in
- linux)
+ Linux)
A: Yes. Just use two installation prefixes.
A: Our main intention at Ximian is to be able to develop GNOME
applications with Mono, but if you are interested in providing a
- port of the Winform classes to other platforms (frame buffer or
+ port of the Winforms classes to other platforms (frame buffer or
MacOS X for example), we would gladly integrate them, as long
they are under an open source license.
There is a JIT engine available for x86 processors that can
generate code and optimizations tailored for a particular CPU.
- Interpreters exist for the SPARC, PowerPC and StrongARM cpus.
+ Interpreters exist for the SPARC, PowerPC and StrongARM CPUs.
Q: Does Mono run on Windows?
-A: Yes. The Compiler and the runtime both run on Windows.
+A: Yes. You can get pre-compiled
+ binaries from <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/download.html">http://www.go-mono.com/download.html</a>
-Q: When will mono and mcs compile on Linux?.
+Q: Does Mono run on Linux?
-A: That happend a long time ago. Know you can download and compile
- them or even install them from already made binary packages for
- Windows and for Linux (RPM/DEB).
+A: Yes. You can get pre-compiled
+ binaries from <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/download.html">http://www.go-mono.com/download.html</a>
Q: Will I require Cygwin to run mono?
-A: No. While you'll need it to compile it, it runs without cygwin and does not even require cygwin1.dll
+A: No. Cygwin is only required to build Mono.
Q: Will Mono depend on GNOME?
A: You could try to check with the Darwin people, or the Fink people.
Mono/C# is self hosting on Linux/PPC which is the hard part, so it
- should be relatively simple to get it to work on macos
+ should be relatively simple to get it to work on MacOS
<a name="reuse"></a>
** Reusing Existing Code
heavily used part of our system.
A: Probably not. Crystal Reports are propriety. Someone may try to emulate
- the behaviour, but no-one has yet volunteered.
+ the behavior, but no-one has yet volunteered.
Q: Who about writing to the registry? As I understand it, Linux does not have
a counterpart to the registry. Should I avoid relying on that feature?
<a name="gcc"></a>
** Mono and GCC
-Q: Are you working on a GCC front-end to C#? A GCC backend that will
+Q: Are you working on a GCC front-end to C#? A GCC back-end that will
generate CIL images? What about making a front-end to GCC that
takes CIL images and generates native code?
href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html">MIT X11</a>
license.
+ The Mono runtime and the Mono C# Compiler are also available under
+ a proprietary license for those who can not use the LGPL and the
+ GPL in their code.
+
+ For licensing details, contact <a
+ href="mailto:mono-licensing@ximian.com">mono-licensing@ximian.com</a>
+
+
Q: I would like to contribute code to Mono under a particular
license. What licenses will you accept?
patents filed now, or changes made by Microsoft specifically to
create patent problems)?
-A: No. First, its basic functional capabilities have pre-existed too
- long to be held up by patents. The basic components of Mono are
- technologically equivalent to Sun's Java technology, which has been
- around for years. Mono will also implement multi-language and
- multi-architecture support, but there are previous technologies
- such as UCSD p-code and ANDF that also support multiple languages
- using a common intermediate language. The libraries are similar
- to other language's libraries, so again, they're too similar to
- be patentable in large measure.
-
- However, if Microsoft does patent some technology, then our plan is
- to either (1) work around it, (2) chop out patented pieces, (3)
- find prior art that would render the patent useless.
+A: First some background information.
+
+ The .NET Framework is divided in two parts: the ECMA/ISO covered
+ technologies and the other technologies developed on top of it like
+ ADO.NET, ASP.NET and Windows.Forms.
+
+ Mono implements the ECMA/ISO covered parts, as well as being a
+ project that aims to implement the higher level blocks like
+ ASP.NET, ADO.NET and Windows.Forms.
+
+ The Mono project has gone beyond both of those components and has
+ developed and integrated third party class libraries, the most
+ important being: Debugging APIs, integration with the Gnome
+ platform (Accessibility, Pango rendering, Gdk/Gtk, Glade, GnomeUI),
+ Mozilla, OpenGL, extensive database support (Microsoft only
+ supports a couple of providers out of the box, while Mono has
+ support for 11 different providers), our POSIX integration
+ libraries and finally the embedded API (used to add scripting to
+ applications and host the CLI, or for example as an embedded
+ runtime in Apache).
+
+ The core of the .NET Framework, and what has been patented by
+ Microsoft falls under the ECMA/ISO submission. Jim Miller at
+ Microsoft has made a statement on the patents covering ISO/ECMA,
+ (he is one of the inventors listed in the patent): <a
+ href="https://mailserver.di.unipi.it/pipermail/dotnet-sscli/msg00218.html">here</a>.
+
+ Basically a grant is given to anyone who want to implement those
+ components for free and for any purpose.
+
+ The controversial elements are the ASP.NET, ADO.NET and
+ Windows.Forms subsets. Those are convenient for people who need
+ full compatibility with the Windows platform, but are not required
+ for the open source Mono platform, nor integration with today's
+ Mono's rich support of Linux.
+
+ The Mono strategy for dealing with these tehcnologies is as
+ follows: (1) work around the patent by using a different
+ implementation techinque that retains the API, but changes the
+ mechanism; if that is not possible, we would (2) remove the pieces
+ of code that were covered by those patents, and also (3) find prior
+ art that would render the patent useless.
Not providing a patented capability would weaken the
interoperability, but it would still provide the free software /
open source software community with good development tools, which
is the primary reason for developing Mono.
+ The patents do not apply in countries where software patents are
+ not allowed.
+
+ For Linux server and desktop development, we only need the ECMA
+ components, and things that we have developed (like Gtk#) or Apache
+ integration.
+
<a name="etc"></a>
** Miscellaneous Questions
CLI allows "data-level interoperability" because every
language/component uses the same data layout and memory management.
- This means you can operate directly upon the datatypes that someone
+ This means you can operate directly upon the data types that someone
else provides, without having to go via their interfaces. It also
- means you don't have to "marshall" (convert) parameters (data
+ means you don't have to "marshal" (convert) parameters (data
layouts are the same, so you can just pass components directly) and
- you don't have to worry about memory managment, because all
+ you don't have to worry about memory management, because all
languages/components share the same garbage collector and address
space. This means much less copying and no need for reference
counting.
A: It's possible. But there is no plan about this. So the short answer is no.
-Q: Are there any Boehm's gc binaries?
+Q: Are there any Boehm's GC binaries?
A: Yes. You can find RPMs <a href="http://java.thn.htu.se/~toor/">here</a>, though
if your distribution provides the correct packages, you should use those.
Q: How can I report a bug?
A: The best thing is to track down the bug and provide a simple test to
- reproduce the bug. You can then add the bug to
- <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com/enter_bug.cgi">bugzilla</a> or
- simply send it to mono-list@ximian.com. Please provide info about
- what version of mono you're using and any relevant details to be
- able to repoduce the bug. Note that bugs reported on the mailing-list
- may be easily forgotten, so it's better to file them in bugzilla.
+ reproduce the bug. You can then add the bug to the
+ <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com/enter_bug.cgi">bugtracking system</a>.
+
+ Please provide information about what version of mono you're using
+ and any relevant details to be able to reproduce the bug. Note that
+ bugs reported on the mailing-list may be easily forgotten, so it's
+ better to file them in the <a href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com/enter_bug.cgi">bug tracking system</a>.
Q: Does mcs support the same command line options as the MS C#
compiler?
the right thing (but occasionally you may need to do it the other
way around).
+Q: Why are you going for a GtkHtml implementation?
+
+A: GtkHTML is just a lightweight HTML rendering engine that does not
+ support CSS, so we need it to look decent for those of us that will
+ be using the documentation in our day-to-day work on Linux. The
+ Web-based interfaces lack the agility that you get from a native GUI
+ tool to browse your documentation. Probably later on, we will write
+ scripts and generate a full documentation set that is web-browsable,
+ but we need a command-line and GUI tools that we can use natively on
+ Linux when disconnected from the Web (and that has better
+ interactions than a web page).
+
+Q: Is there a command-line tool that allows me to access .NET interactively?
+
+A: There are several but one that is free software and uses MCS is the one
+ Dennis Lu from Rice University is working on; a REPL C# interpreter.
+
+Q: Is it possible to use Visual C++ with Mono?.
+A: It's possible to run VC++ generated apps under Mono, but we do not
+ provide a Manager C++ compiler ourselves.
<a name="problems"></a>
** Mono Common Problems
projects / mono.git / blobdiff