<a href="#msft">Mono and Microsoft</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="#devel">Development Tools and Issues</a><br>
<a href="#java">Mono and Java</a><br>
<a href="#extending">Extending Mono</a><br>
<a href="#gcc">Mono and GCC</a><br>
<a href="#performance">Performance</a><br>
<a href="#licensing">Licensing</a><br>
+<a href="#patents">Patents</a><br>
<a href="#etc">Miscellaneous Questions</a><br>
Q: What is Mono exactly?
A: The Mono Project is an open development initiative sponsored by
- Ximian that is working to develop an open source, Linux-based
+ Ximian that is working to develop an open source, Unix
version of the Microsoft .NET development platform. Its objective
- is to enable Linux developers to build and
+ is to enable Unix developers to build and
deploy cross-platform .NET Applications. The project will
implement various technologies developed by Microsoft that have now
been submitted to the ECMA for standardization.
A: The JIT engine is usable on Intel x86 machines. An interpreter
can be used on other non-Intel x86 machines.
- The class libraries are not yet mature enough to run real applications,
- but if you are interested in trying out Mono, you can definetly start
- testing things out as many programs run.
-
- The C# compiler has made significant progress, it can even compile
- itself now, but it can not yet be ran with our class libraries as
- they are missing some features.
+ The class libraries are mature enough to run some real applications
+ (the compiler for instance, and every day more and more applications
+ are natively developed with Mono).
Q: When will you ship it?
-A: It is premature to target a shipdate for the code, but we
- anticipate that it will be available some time in the middle of
- 2002.
+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.
+
+ Other higher level class libraries (ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Windows.Forms) 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, Windows.Forms), and
+ we encourage third party developers to create reusable components that
+ work on both Mono and Windows.
Q: How can I contribute?
Project white paper</a>.
the project.
+Q: Miguel said once that Mono was being implemented in COBOL. Is that true?.
+
+A: No. It was a joke.
+
<a name="ximian"></a>
A: When Mono is ready to be shipped Ximian will offer a commercial
support and services for Mono.
+Q: Does Ximian provide consulting services around Mono?
+
+A: Yes, Ximian does provide consulting services around Mono to
+ make it suitable to your needs. Porting the runtime engine,
+ customizing it, working on specific classes or tuning the code
+ for your particular needs.
+
Q: Will you wait until Mono is finished?
A: Mono will ship on various stages as they mature. Some people
Q: Will Mono enable GUI applications to be authored?
A: Yes, you will be able to build GUI applications. Indeed, that is our
- main focus. We will provide both the Windows.Forms API and the Gtk# AP(I.
+ main focus. We will provide both the Windows.Forms API and the Gtk# API.
Q: What is the difference between Gtk# and System.Windows.Forms?
of P/Invoke to call Win32 functions, your smart client applications
will run on Mono platforms.
+Q: Where can I learn mora about Gtk#?
+
+A: The following <a href="http://gtk-sharp.sourceforge.net>link</a> sends you to the page of the project.
+
+Q: What can I do with Gtk#?.
+
+A: Gtk# is becoming very usable and you can create applications and
+ applets like those you see in a GNOME desktop environment. It's
+ easy to install so it's worth a try.
+
+Q: How can I compile my HelloWorld.cs which uses Gtk#?.
+
+A: Try: mcs --unsafe -o HelloWorld.exe -r glib-sharp -r pango-sharp -r
+ atk-sharp -r gdk-sharp -r gtk-sharp -r gdk-imaging-sharp
+ HelloWorld.cs
+
+
<a name="msft"></a>
** Mono and Microsoft
A: Most of Mono is being written using C#, with only
a few parts written in C (The JIT engine, the runtime, the
- interfaces to the garbage collection system). The Portable.NET
- Project is using C for development.
+ interfaces to the garbage collection system).
+
+ It is easier to describe what is unique about Mono:
+ <ul>
+ <li> A self-hosting C# compiler written in C#, which is clean, easy
+ to maintain.
+
+ <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.
+
+ <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
+ 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.
+
+ <li> The JIT engine supports inlining, 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.
+
+ <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.
+ </ul>
<a name="webservices"></a>
** Web Services
A: Yes, although the serializing tools have not yet been planned, and
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 name="devel"></a>
** Development Tools and Issues
can interpret them as trivially as you can interpret JVM byte
codes.
+Q: Isn't it a little bit confusing to have the name of "XSP" (the same
+ as in the Apache Project) for the ASP.NET support in Mono?.
+
+A: In Mono, xsp is just the name of the C# code generator for ASP.NET
+ pages. In the Apache Project, it is a term for the "eXtensible Server
+ Pages" technology so as they are very different things, they don't
+ conflict.
+
+Q: What about using something like Jabber instead of the System.Messaging
+ namespace?.
+
+A: In short, MSMQ is not something like Jabber, but asynchronous messaging
+ through queues. Usefull queues do more than serialize messages, they are
+ also platform bridges.
+
+Q: Are you supporting XMLDocument and relatives?.
+
+A: Currently, we aren't implementing them yet. It would require updates to
+ most of the XmlNode derivatives so it's not a trivial task. We are
+ currently focusing on getting XPath support working.
+
+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
+ 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.
+
+<a name="asp">
+** Mono and ASP.NET
+
+Q: Is Mono supporting ASP.NET?
+
+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 3.
+
+Q: I have heard that their is a webserver developed with Mono. Is it true?.
+
+A: Yes. You can find it <a href="http://home.adelphia.net/~aljames/webserver.htm">here</a>
+ Read the README for more info.
+
<a name="java">
** Mono and Java
Microsoft has an implemenation of the Java language called J# that
can target the CIL execution engine.
+Q: Is it possible to write a JVM byte code to CIL convertor?
+
+A: Yes, it is possible. Here are a few starting point:
+
+ <ul>
+ * A byte code representation is really a flattened forest of
+ trees. Look at the Mono JIT engine to see how we compute
+ the basic blocks (this is used to figure out the "trees").
+
+ The forest is just an array of trees.
+
+ Indeed, run the JIT engine with -d (mono -d prog.exe) and
+ you will see how these trees look like.
+
+ You will have to do something similar for Java.
+
+ * Each "forest of trees" has a meaning. This meaning can now
+ be translated into the equivalent "meaning" in CLR-land.
+ </ul>
+
+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
+ binary-converter from Java-.class to IL and if there existing something
+ 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
+ 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.
+
<a name="extending"></a>
** Extending Mono
Windows. We do not expect many Linux-isms in the code, so it
should be easy to port Mono to other UNIX variants.
-Q: What about Mono on non X-based systems?
+Q: What about Mono on non Linux-based systems?
A: Our main intention at Ximian is to be able to develop GNOME
applications with Mono, but if you are interested in providing a
MacOS X for example), we would gladly integrate them, as long
they are under an open source license.
-Q: Will Mono run on Windows?
+Q: What operating systems/CPUs do you support
+
+A: Mono currently runs on Linux, Windows, Solaris and FreeBSD.
+ 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.
+
+Q: Does Mono run on Windows?
+
+A: Yes. The Compiler and the runtime both run on Windows.
+
+Q: When will mono and mcs compile 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: We hope so. Currently some parts of Mono only run on Windows
- (the C# compiler is a .NET executable) and other parts have only
- been compiled on Linux, but work on Windows with Cygwin.
+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
Q: Will Mono depend on GNOME?
defined API that splits the JIT from the GC system and the actual
byte code implementation.
+ We are using some pieces of ORP (Their code generation interface)
+ and we use it as a source of inspiration for optimizations. Paolo
+ and Dietmar consider ORP as being one of the best JIT engines out
+ there (and their research work and papers are very useful if you are
+ interested in JIT technology).
+
Q: What about using GNU Lightning?
-A: We are also researching <a
- href="http://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/lightning.html">GNU
- Lightning</a>.
+A: We are not using GNU Lightning. Our JIT is using an instruction
+ selector based on tree-pattern matching, and a code generation
+ interface that is very tied to the current architecture.
<a name="gcc"></a>
** Mono and GCC
but as a general rule, we will accept the code under the same
terms of the "container" module.
-<a name="etc"></a>
+<a name="patents></a>
+** Patents
+
+Q: Could patents be used to completely disable Mono (either submarine
+ 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.
+
+ 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.
+
+<a name="etc"></a>
** Miscellaneous Questions
Q: You say that the CLI allows multiple languages to execute on the
A: The runtime will support XPCOM on Unix systems and COM on Windows.
Most of the code for dynamic trampolines exists already.
+Q: Will Ximian offer certifications on Mono or related technologies?.
+
+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?
+
+A: Yes. You can find them <a href="http://java.thn.htu.se/~toor/">here</a>
+
projects / mono.git / blobdiff