<a href="#gnome">Mono and GNOME</a><br>
<a href="#gui">Building GUI applications with Mono</a><br>
<a href="#msft">Mono and Microsoft</a><br>
+<a href="#platforms">Mono platforms</a><br>
+<a href="#compatibility">Compatibility</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>
Other higher level class libraries (ASP.NET, ADO.NET, WinForms) will
be released when they become stable.
+Q: When will Mono 1.0 ship?
+
+A: We are planning on releasing Mono 1.0 (Mono Core) which will ship all the
+ components of Mono that are known to be stable in Q4 2003.
+
+ This release will lack System.Windows.Forms and
+ Enterprise.Services, as they will not be production ready on this timeframe.
+
+ Mono 1.2 should come in Q2 2004 and include the missing components
+ libraries that will make Mono feature-compatible with .NET 1.0
+
Q: What major components will you include in Mono?
A: Hopefully everything that Microsoft ships on their Framework
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 some 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
date yet. The current approach is using the Wine Library to implement
it.
-Q: Hacking System.Windows.Forms.dll I've got this message while compiling
- in Linux:
- <br><br>** Message: Unknown heap type: #-<br><br>
- [...]<br><br>
- My code compiles just fine, no warning. Any clues?.
-
-A: <b>#-</b> is a format of the metadata tables that is not documented, it is
- produced in some cases by the ms compilers. Tell the compilers to
- produce ECMA-compliant binaries (disabling debug mode or whatever is
- needed). Or you can study the format and add support to the mono
- metadata loader:-)
-
<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.
+
+ Microsoft is interested in other implementations of .NET and are
+ willing to help make the ECMA spec more accurate for this purpose.
- Ximian representatives have also spoken with Sam Ruby at the ECMA
- TG3 committee to discuss the same issues.
+ 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?
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="compatibility"></a>
+** Compatibility
+
+Q: Can Mono run applications developed with the Microsoft.NET fraemwork?
+
+A: Yes, Mono can run applications developed with the Microsft .NET Framework
+ on Unix. There are a few caveats to keep in mind: Mono has not
+ been completed yet, so a few API calls might be missing; And in
+ some cases the Mono behavior *might* be incorrect.
+
+Q: Will missing API entry points be implemented?
+
+A: Yes, the goal of Mono is to implement precisely the .NET Framework
+ API (as well as compile-time selectable subsets, for those
+ interested in a lighter version of Mono).
+
+Q: If the behavior of an API call is different, will you fix it?
+
+A: Yes, we will. But we will need your assistance for this. If you find a bug
+ in the Mono implementation, please fill a bug report in <a
+ href="http://bugzilla.ximian.com">http://bugzilla.ximian.com</a>.
+ Do not assume we know about the problem, we might not, and using the bug tracking
+ system helps us organize the development process.
+
+Q: Can I develop my applications on Windows, and deploy on a supported
+ Mono platform (like Linux)?
+
+A: Yes, you can.
+
+ As of today, Mono is not 100% finished, so it is sometimes useful
+ to compile the code with Mono, to find out if your application
+ depends on unimplemented functionality.
+
+Q: Will applications run out the box with Mono?
+
+A: Sometimes they will. But sometimes a .NET application might invoke
+ Win32 API calls, or assume certain patterns that are not correct
+ for cross-platform applications.
+
<a name="pnpproject"></a>
** Mono and Portable.NET
It is easier to describe what is unique about Mono:
<ul>
+ <li> An advanced native-code compilation engine: Both
+ just-in-time compilation (JIT) and pre-compilation of CIL
+ bytecodes into native code are supported.
+
+ <li> A foundation for code optimization: The new code generator in
+ Mono builds on the experience of our first JIT engine, and enables
+ us to implement various advanced compiler optimization
+ tricks. With an SSA-framework, plenty of new optimizations are possible.
+
+ The current list of optimizations are: Peephole postpass,
+ Branch optimizations, Inline method calls, Constant folding, Constant
+ propagation, Copy propagation, Dead code elimination, Linear scan
+ global reg allocation, Conditional moves, Emit per-domain code,
+ Instruction scheduling, Intrinsic method implementations, Tail
+ recursion and tail calls, Loop related optimizations, Fast x86 FP
+ compares, Leaf procedures optimizations
+
<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.
+
+ Our new compilation engine is being ported to the PowerPC.
- <li> Supports Linux, Windows and Solaris at this point.
+ <li> Supports Linux, BSD, 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
+ selector which not only generates good code but
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.
-
- <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> Full support for remoting in the runtime.
<li> The C# compiler, the JIT engine and the class libraries are
- mature enough that the whole system is self-hosting. This means that
- we develop Mono completely with itself at this point.
+ mature enough that the whole system has been self-hosting
+ since April 2002. 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
+ By forcing ourselves to use our own code to develop our
+ tools, we bug fix problems rapidly, and the system is
+ overall more robust and tested than if we did not.
<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>
+ In general, Mono is more mature and complete since it has been used
+ to develop itself, which is a big motivator for stability and
+ correctness, while Portable.NET remains pretty much an untested
+ platform.
+
+Q: I hear Mono keeps changing the P/Invoke API, why?
+
+A: We are just fixing our implementation to be compatible with the
+ Microsoft implementation. In other words, the Mono P/Invoke API is
+ more complete when compared to the Portable.NET version, hence
+ various pieces of software that depend on this extended
+ functionality fail to work properly with Portable.NET.
+
<a name="webservices"></a>
** Web Services
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 inter-operation as an extension to the
- Mono classes so that we can integrate with Bonobo, just like
- Microsoft provides COM inter-operation 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?
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 editor and viewer. Currently, MonoDoc
- consists of a Gtk# application and is in heavy development. There is also a
- Qt# version of it.
-
+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: 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?
initially using the Microsoft implementation of the CLI and then
executed later with Mono.
+ We are recommending people to use and contribute to existing
+ projects like SharpDevelop, Anjuta and Eclipse.
+
Q: What kind of rules make the Common Intermediate Language useful for
JITers?
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. Useful 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 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.
+A: The XSP reference server is available and you can also use mod_mono
+ with Apache.
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).
+A: Yes. Mono has been self hosting since May 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
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: Is there a relatively straightforward way to repeat the steps taken
- 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 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.
-
Q: Is it possible to build a C# file to some sort of intermediate format which
can linked into a final module, like the traditional .c -> .o -> .so path?
-A: You could do: mcs /target:module file1.cs, mcs /target:module file2.cs,
- mcs /target:exe file1.dll file2.dll /out:mybin.exe
+A: You can use:
+
+ mcs /target:library file1.cs, mcs /target:library file2.cs,
+ mcs /target:exe file1.dll file2.dll /out:mybin.exe
+
+Q: Is there any plans for implementing remoting in the near future?
+
+A: The remoting infrastructure is in place. We have implementations
+ of the TcpChannel, HttpChannel and the Soap and Binary Formatters.
+ They are compatible with .NET.
-Q: Is there any plans for implementing remoting in the near future?, When will
- work in System.Runtime.Remoting.dll start?
+ However, some classes from the library may have a different binary
+ representation, because they may have a different internal data
+ structure, so for example you won't be able to exchange a Hastable
+ object between Mono and MS.NET. It should not be a problem if you
+ are using primitive types, arrays or your own classes. In any case,
+ could you post a test case?
-A: The remoting infrastructure is in place. Some of the channels and
- 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 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?
+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: Maybe well be doing some sort of automated build process + testing when
- the summer finish.
+A: Replace the __stdcall attribute with the STDCALL macro, and include this
+ in your C code for newer gcc versions:
-Q: I'm having a hell of a time and was wondering if you had any info on the
- availability of the Sybase .net provider?.
+ #ifndef STDCALL
+ #define STDCALL __attribute__((stdcall))
+ #endif
-A: the short answer is: no, it is not supported yet, but it will be soon.
- If you are intending to use this in a production environment, however,
- I suggest that you hold off on that for a while yet. It's good to play
- with, but I wouldn't trust it that much.
+Q: I want to be able to execute Mono binaries, without having to use the "mono"
+ command. How can I do this?
-Q: I would like that you or someone else implemented the service-stuff from
- windows for mono and then you could use that for easily building daemons.
- What are your plans about that?.
+A: From Carlos Perelló:
+
+ <i>I think that the best solution is the binfmt feature with the
+ wrapper that exists with Debian packages at:
+
+ <a href="http://www.debianplanet.org/mono/dists/unstable/main/source/admin/">http://www.debianplanet.org/mono/dists/unstable/main/source/admin/</a>
+
+ If you want use it with Big endian machines, you should apply a patch
+ (<a href="http://carlos.pemas.net/debian/mono/binfmt-detector-cli.c.diff">http://carlos.pemas.net/debian/mono/binfmt-detector-cli.c.diff</a>)
+
+ It works really good and lets you use wine also, it reads the .exe file
+ headers and check if it's a .net executable.
+
+ This way you just execute: ./my-cool-mono-application.exe and it works
+ without the need of any wrapper.</i>
+
+Q: I see funny characters when I run programs, what is the problem?
+
+A: (From Peter Williams and Gonzalo Paniagua):
+
+ This is Red Hat 9 (probably) using UTF8 on its console; the bytes are
+ the UTF8 endianness markers. You can do:
-A: Yes, we do need in fact someone with Windows experience to actually
- implement the Windows versions of those classes. The Unix case should
- be relatively trivial. Paolo has expressed his interest in the past in
- having a Mono.Posix.dll which would provide us with direct access to
- the Unix API, raw, without the .NET framework wrapping. Together
- with some utility classes and functions
+ LC_ALL=C mono myexe.exe
+
+ And they wont show up.
+
+ Alternatively, you can do:
-Q: Where is System.ServiceProcess?.
+ $ echo -e "\033%G"
-A: Well, we should implement it. And nobody has volunteered to do so, I
- think that this is a completely new namespace that could be taken on by
- an eager developer. It is also a pretty small assembly, so it should be
- fun to implement.
+ to enable UTF-8 on the console.
<a name="asp">
** Mono and ASP.NET
-Q: Is Mono supporting ASP.NET?
+Q: Does Mono support 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 5.
+A: Yes.
+
+ 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: 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: 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).
+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: Does anyone know the status of the C# apache module for linux?
+Q: Will you support Apache 1?
-A: mod_haydn is out there with the barebones support for embedding the Mono
- runtime in your web server. Once System.Web is mature, we can author
- the next step, but we are currently doing bug fixing on it and use a
- small external web server to test it.
+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: I got the mono CVS version, what's next?. How do I start playing with
- ASP.NET in Mono?.
+Q: Can I run Apache 1 and Apache 2 on the same machine?
-A: Once you get your CVS version of Mono running, get the `xsp' module,
- which contains a test server for ASP.NET, and start throwing .aspx
- programs at it (I suggest we test all of the demos from the asp.net
- quickstart tutorials first, and then move on to more complex
- applications).
+ 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).
+ You can also bind the two servers to different IP addresses on the
+ same physical machine.
<a name="ado">
** Mono and ADO.NET
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 implementation 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 converter?
be translated into the equivalent "meaning" in CLR-land.
</ul>
+ 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
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?
encourage you to make those classes operate correctly well in both
Mono and .NET.
+ Today Mono ships with a number of extra libraries that were
+ developed either by members of the Mono community, or other
+ groups.
+
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).
+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
but as a general rule, we will accept the code under the same
terms of the "container" module.
-Q: Is the Mono
-
-
<a name="patents"></a>
** Patents
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 technologies 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
Q: Is it possible to use Visual C++ with Mono?.
-A: Well, It's possible to run VC++ generated apps under Mono though.
+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
or if you think that you found a bug, etc. Please visit the
<a href="http://geneura.ugr.es/~jaime/deploy/mono-common-problems.html">Mono Common Problems</a> document and try there.
+** Credits
+
+ The FAQ contains material contributed by Miguel de Icaza, Jaime Anguiano, Lluis Sánchez.
\ No newline at end of file
projects / mono.git / blobdiff