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diff --git a/web/faq b/web/faq
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--- a/web/faq
+++ b/web/faq
@@ -1,18 +1,42 @@
+Basics
+The Ximian Role in the Mono project
+Mono and GNOME
+Building GUI applications with Mono
+Mono and Microsoft
+Mono and the Portable.NET Project
+Web Services
+Development Tools and Issues
+Mono and Java
+Extending Mono
+Portability
+Reusing Existing Code
+Mono and GCC
+Performance
+Licensing
+Miscellaneous Questions
+
+
+
** Basics
-Q: Is Mono the same as Microsoft's .NET initiative?
+Q: What is Mono exactly?
-A: It is not.
+A: The Mono Project is an open development initiative sponsored by
+ Ximian that is working to develop an open source, Linux-based
+ version of the Microsoft .NET development platform. Its objective
+ is to enable Linux 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.
- .NET is a company-wide initiative at Microsoft that
- encompasses many different areas. The .NET development framework,
- Passport, Biztalk, new server products, and anything that is
- remotely connected to .NET gets the ".NET-stamping" treatment.
- Some components of Microsoft's .NET initiative have been announced
- and some others are in the works.
+Q: What is the difference between Mono and the .NET Initiative?
- Mono is a project to implement several technologies developed by
- Microsoft that have now been submitted to the ECMA Standards Body.
+A: The ".NET Initiative" is a somewhat nebulous company-wide effort by
+ Microsoft, one part of which is a cross-platform development
+ 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.
Q: What technologies are included in Mono?
@@ -30,20 +54,18 @@ A: Mono contains a number of components useful for building new
* A compiler for the C# language. In the future we
might work on other compilers that target the Common
Language Runtime.
-
- Windows has compilers that target the
- virtual machine from
- a
- number of languages: Managed C++, Java Script,
- Eiffel, Component Pascal, APL, Cobol, Oberon, Perl,
- Python, Scheme, Smalltalk, Standard ML, Haskell,
- Mercury and Oberon.
+
+ Windows has compilers that target the virtual machine from a
+ number of languages: Managed C++, Java Script, Eiffel,
+ Component Pascal, APL, Cobol, Oberon, Perl, Python, Scheme,
+ Smalltalk, Standard ML, Haskell, Mercury and Oberon.
+
The CLR and the Common Type System (CTS) enables applications and
- libraries to be written in a number of languages. Classes and
- methods created in one language can be used from a different
- language.
+ libraries to be written in a collection of different languages that
+ target the byte code
This means for example that if you define a class to do algebraic
manipulation in C#, that class can be reused from any other
@@ -65,45 +87,58 @@ Q: Will you implement the .NET Framework SDK class libraries?
A: Yes, we will be implementing the APIs of the .NET Framework SDK
class libraries.
-Q: What does Mono stand for?
+Q: Will you offer an ECMA-compliant set of class libraries?
-A: Mono is the word for `Monkey' in Spanish. We like monkeys.
+A: Eventually we will. Our current focus is on interoperating
+ with the Microsoft SDK, but we will also offer an ECMA compliant
+ set of libraries.
-Q: When will you ship it?
+Q: What does the name "Mono" mean?
+
+A: Mono is the word for `monkey' in Spanish. We like monkeys.
-A: We do not know when the code will be shipped. The more
- contributions we get to the project, the sooner it will ship.
+Q: Is Mono usable?
- A rough estimate is that we might be able to run our C# compiler on
- Linux by the end of the year. That means running the Windows
- Executable generated by a Microsoft .NET compiler on the Linux
- platform.
+A: The JIT engine is usable on Intel x86 machines. An interpreter
+ can be used on other non-Intel x86 machines.
- We expect that doing GUI applications will require more work on the
- class libraries. That could take another six months.
+ 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.
+
+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.
Q: How can I contribute?
A: Check the contributing section.
-Q: You guys should innovate instead of copying.
+Q: Aren't you just copying someone else's work?
-A: In this particular case, we see a clear advantage in the platform
- and we are interested in using the features of the CLI on open source systems.
+A: We are interested in providing the best tools for programmers to
+ develop applications for Free Operating Systems. We also want to help
+ provide the interoperability that will allow those systems to fit in
+ with other standards.
- We have decided that we should spend our limited resources towards
- implementing an existing specification instead of designing and
- implementing our own.
+ For more background, read the Mono
+ Project white paper.
+ the project.
- Designing and implementing our own would be possible, but it doesn't make
- sense to do that just because the specification comes from a
- proprietary vendor.
-** Ximian
+
+
+** The Ximian Role in the Mono Project
Q: Why is Ximian working on .NET?
-A: We are interested in providing the best tools for programmers to
+A: Ximian is interested in providing the best tools for programmers to
develop applications for Free Operating Systems.
For more information, read the project contribute to this effort.
+A: Of course not. Ximian a supporter of the Mono project, but the only way
+ to implement something of this size is for the entire free software
+ community to get involved. Visit the contributing
+ page if you'd like to help out.
Q: What pieces will Ximian be working on?
-A: We will focus on building a development and execution
- environment.
+A: We will devote most of our resources to work on the pieces which are
+ on the critical path to release a development and execution
+ environment. Once the project is at a stage where it is useful in
+ the real world, it will achieve a critical mass of developers to
+ improve it further.
- The idea is to get Mono to a state of that would allow
- third parties to actually be able to use it real-world development.
+Q: Will Ximian offer Mono commercially?
-Q: Why does Ximian even care?
+A: When Mono is ready to be shipped Ximian will offer a commercial
+ support and services for Mono.
-A: We like the features that the CLI and its related technologies
- bring to the table. An exciting addition to the developer toolkit.
- The goal of Mono is to bring this technology to non-Windows
- platforms (although we hope Mono will also run on Windows, for
- debugging and comparative purposes).
+Q: Will you wait until Mono is finished?
+A: Mono will ship on various stages as they mature. Some people
+ require only a subset of the technologies, those will ship first.
-** Licensing
+ More advanced features will take more time to develop. A support
+ timeline will be available in June 2002.
+
+
+** Mono and GNOME
+
+Q: How is Mono related to GNOME?
+
+A: In a number of ways. This project was born out of the need of
+ providing improved tools for the GNOME community, and will use
+ existing components that have been developed for GNOME when they
+ are available. For example, we plan to use Gtk+ and Libart to
+ implement Winforms and the Drawing2D API and are considering
+ GObject support.
+
+Q: Has the GNOME Foundation or the GNOME team adopted Mono?
+
+A: Mono is too new to be adopted by those groups. We hope that the
+ tools that we will provide will be adopted by free software
+ programmers including the GNOME Foundation members and the GNOME
+ project generally.
+
+Q: Should GNOME programmers switch over to Mono now?
+
+A: It is still far to early for discussions of "switching over." No
+ pieces of Mono will be ready within the next six months, and a
+ complete implementation is roughly one year away.
+
+ 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.
+
+Q: Will Mono include compatibility with Bonobo components? What is the
+ relationship between Mono and Bonobo?
+
+A: Yes, we will provide a set of classes for implementing and using
+ Bonobo components from within Mono. Mono should allow you to write
+ Bonobo components more easily, just like .NET on Windows allows you
+ to export .NET components to COM.
+
+Q: Does Mono depend on GNOME?
+
+A: No, Mono does not depend on GNOME. We use a few packages produced by
+ the GNOME team like the `glib' library.
+
+Q: But will I be able to build GNOME applications?
+
+A: Yes, we will enable people to write GNOME applications using Mono.
+
+
+** GUI applications
+
+Q: Will Mono enable GUI applications to be authored?
-Q: What license is Mono on?
+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.
-A: The C# Compiler is released under the terms of the GPL. The
- class libraries are under the LGPL. The runtime libraries are
- under the LGPL.
+Q: What is the difference between Gtk# and System.Windows.Forms?
-Q: Will you accept code under the XXX License?
+A: Gtk# is a set of bindings for the Gtk+ toolkit for C# (and other
+ CIL-enabled languages). System.Windows.Forms is an API defined
+ by Microsoft to build GUI applications.
-A: If the XXX License is compatible with the license we use in that
- specific piece of code, then yes. If you want to use the BSD license, make
- sure you use the BSD license without the advertisement clause (The
- `Ousterhout License').
+Q: Will I be able to run my smart clients on systems powered by Mono?
-** Mono and .NET
+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: If applications use Mono, does that mean that I have to pay a service fee?
+
+** 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.
+
+ Ximian representatives have also spoken with Sam Ruby at the ECMA
+ TG3 committee to discuss the same issues.
+
+Q: Is Microsoft or Corel paying Ximian to do this?
+
+A: No.
+
+Q: Do you fear that Microsoft will change the spec and render Mono
+ useless?
+
+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.
+
+ Even if changes happened in the platform which were undocumented,
+ the existing platform would a value on its own.
+
+Q: Are you writing Mono from the ECMA specs?
+
+A: Yes, we are writing them from the ECMA specs and the published
+ materials in print about .NET.
+
+Q: If my applications use Mono, will I have to pay a service fee?
A: No. Mono is not related to Microsoft's initiative of
- software-as-a-service.
+ software-as-a-service.
-Q: If you implement .NET, will I depend on Microsoft Passport to run my software?
+Q: Is the Mono Project is related to the Microsoft Hailstorm effort? Is
+ Ximian endorsing Hailstorm?
-A: No. The .NET Framework is a runtime infrastructure and collection
- of class libraries. Passport may be required to access certain web
- services written for that framework, but only if the programmer
- chooses Passport as the authentication mechanism.
+A: No. The Mono Project is focused on providing a compatible set of
+ tools for the Microsoft .NET development platform. It does not
+ address, require, or otherwise endorse the MS Passport-based
+ Hailstorm single sign-on system that is part of Windows XP and
+ other services.
-Q: Is .NET just a bunch of marketing slogans?
+Q: Will Mono or .NET applications depend on Microsoft Passport?
-A: Although the `.NET initiative' is still quite nebulous, The .NET Framework
- has been available for some time. Mono is not an implementation of the .NET
- initiative, just the development framework.
+A: No. MS Passport is unrelated to running .NET compatible applications
+ produced with the Mono tools. The only thing you will need is a
+ just-in-time compiler (JIT).
Q: What is a 100% .NET application?
@@ -175,117 +298,83 @@ A: A `100% .NET application' is one that only uses the APIs defined
applications would in theory run unmodified on Windows, Linux,
HP-UX, Solaris, MacOS X and others.
-Q: But Microsoft will release a port of the real thing under the
- `Shared Source' license, why bother with anything else?
+Q: If Microsoft will release a port of their .NET platform under the
+ `Shared Source' license, why should I bother with anything else?
-A: The Shared Source implementation will not be usable for commercial
- purposes. We are working towards an implementation that will grant
- a number of rights to recipients: use for any purpose,
+A: The Shared Source implementation will be expensive and its uses
+ will be tightly restricted, especially for commercial use. We are
+ working towards an implementation that will grant a number of
+ important rights to recipients: use for any purpose,
redistribution, modification, and redistribution of modifications.
This is what we call Free Software
-** Passport
-
-Q: Is this a free implementation of Passport?
+Q: Is Mono a free implementation of Passport?
-A: No. Passport is part of Microsoft's Hailstorm initiative. Mono
- is just a runtime, a compiler and a set of class libraries.
+A: No. Mono is just a runtime, a compiler and a set of class
+ libraries.
-Q: Will the System.Web.Security.PassportIdentity class, mean
+Q: Will the System.Web.Security.PassportIdentity class mean
that my software will depend on Passport?
-A: No. That just means that applications might use that API to
- contact a Passport site.
+A: No. Applications may use that API to contact a Passport site, but
+ are not required to do so.
As long as your application does not use Passport, you will not
need Passport.
- It might even be possible to implement that class with
- a set of dummy functions, or use an alternate Passport implementation.
+Q: Will Mono running on Linux make Passport available for Linux?
- We do not know at this time whether the Passport protocol is
- documented and whether we will be able to talk to
- passport.com
-
-** Mono and Windows
+A: No. However, the Passport toolkit for Linux-based web servers is
+ available from Microsoft.
Q: Will Mono allow me to run Microsoft Office on Linux?
A: No, it will not. Microsoft Office is a Windows application. To
- run Windows applications on Intel Unix systems refer to the Wine Project
-
-** GNOME
+ learn more about running Windows applications on Intel Unix systems
+ refer to the Wine Project.
-Q: How is this related to GNOME?
+
+** Mono and Portable.NET
-A: In a number of ways:
+Q: What are the differences between Mono and Portable.NET?
- * Mono will use existing
- components that have been developed for GNOME when it makes
- sense. For example on X systems, we will use Gtk+ and
- Libart to implement Winforms and the Drawing2D API.
+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.
- For database access, we will use LibGDA (not really
- depending on GNOME, but related to).
-
- * This project was born out of the need of providing improved
- tools for the GNOME community.
-
- * We would like to add support to our CLR implementation to
- deal with GObjects (in GNOME 1.x, they are called
- GtkObjects), and allow Mono developers to provide GObjects
- or use and extend existing GObjects.
-
-Q: Has the GNOME Foundation or the GNOME team adopted Mono?
-
-A: Mono is too new to be adopted by those groups. We hope that the
- tools that we will provide will be adopted by free software
- programmers including the GNOME Foundation members and the GNOME
- project generally.
-
-Q: Should GNOME programmers switch over to Mono?
-
-A: Mono will not be ready even within the next six months, and a
- complete implementation is probably one year away.
-
- 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 will provide the "backend" for various
- classes.
-
-Q: Will Mono include compatibility with Bonobo components?
-
-A: Yes, we will provide a set of classes for implementing and using
- Bonobo components from within Mono.
-
-** Mono and the Web
+
+** Web Services
-Q: Is Mono a way of running Java applets?
+Q: How is Mono related to Web Services?
-A: No.
+A: Mono is only related to Web Services in that it will implement the
+ same set of classes that have been authored in the .NET Framework
+ to simplify and streamline the process of building Web Services.
-** Web Services
+ But most importantly, Mono is an Open Source implementation of the
+ .NET Framework.
-Q: Is Mono just a new way of writing Web Services?
+Q: Can I author Web Services with Mono?
-A: No.
+A: You will be able to write Web Services on .NET that run on Mono and
+ viceversa.
-Q: If this implements the SDK classes, will I be able to write and
- execute .NET Web Services with this?
+Q: If Mono implements the SDK classes, will I be able to write and
+ execute .NET Web Services with it?
-A: Yes, you will.
+A: Yes. When the project is finished, you will be able to use the
+ same technologies that are available through the .NET Framework SDK
+ on Windows to write Web Services.
- When the project is finished, you will be able to use the same
- technologies that are available through the .NET Framework SDK on
- Windows to write Web Services.
+Q: What about Soup? Can I use Soup without Mono?
-Q: What about Soup?
-
-A: Soup is a library for GNOME applications to create SOAP server and
- SOAP clients.
+A: Soup is a library for GNOME applications to create SOAP servers and
+ SOAP clients, and can be used without Mono. You can browse the
+ source code for soup using GNOME's Bonsai.
Q: Can I use CORBA?
@@ -303,7 +392,8 @@ 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.
-** Development Tools
+
+** Development Tools and Issues
Q: Will it be possible to use the CLI features without using bytecodes
or the JIT?
@@ -316,14 +406,34 @@ A: Yes. The CLI engine will be made available as a shared library.
Q: Will you have new development tools?
-A: Hopefully Free Software enthusiasts will contribute tools to
+A: With any luck, Free Software enthusiasts will contribute tools to
improve the developer environment. These tools could be developed
- initially using Microsoft implementation of the CLI and then
+ initially using the Microsoft implementation of the CLI and then
executed later with Mono.
+Q: What kind of rules make the Common Intermediate Language useful for
+ JITers?
+
+A: The main rule is that the stack in the CLI is not a general purpose
+ stack. You are not allowed to use it for other purposes than
+ computing values and passing arguments to functions or return
+ values.
+
+ At any given call or return instruction, the types on the stack
+ have to be the same independently of the flow of execution of your
+ code.
+
+Q: Is it true that the CIL is ideal for JITing and not efficient for
+ interpreters?
+
+A: The CIL is better suited to be JITed than JVM byte codes, but you
+ can interpret them as trivially as you can interpret JVM byte
+ codes.
+
+
** Mono and Java
-Q: What about using Java? After all there are many languages that
+Q: Why don't you use Java? After all, there are many languages that
target the Java VM.
A: You can get very good tools for doing Java development on free
@@ -342,18 +452,36 @@ A: You can get very good tools for doing Java development on free
wide variety of programming languages, and has a set of rules
designed to be optimal for JITers.
-Q: What kind of rules make the Common Intermediate Language useful for
- JITers?
+Q: Could Java target the CLI?
-A: The main rule is that the stack in the CLI is not a general purpose
- stack. You are not allowed to use it for other purposes than
- computing values and passing arguments to functions or return
- values.
+A: Yes, Java could target the CLI. We have details on a project that someone could take on to
+ make this happen.
- At any given call or return instruction, the types on the stack
- have to be the same independently of the flow of execution of your
- code.
+ 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:
+
+