On Wed, Feb 06, 2002 at 02:30:40PM -0500, Robert Haeckl wrote:
> NewsForge has printed a followup response to theregister article. He
> explains the difference between ".NET" and the ".NET framework". The
> framework is a virtual machine (VM), and a C# compiler and associated
> libraries, and a common intermediate language (CIL). I read it quickly
> and these are points that stuck:
>
> -Icaza is building a .NET framework (called Mono), not necessarily a
> .NET implementation for Web Services.
> -The .NET framework VM can be a target for any programming language,
> using the CIL - apparently this is lacking with Java/JVM.
> -.NET framework is about increased programmer productivity.
> -GNU was based on historically proprietary technology, so what's the big
> issue with Mono?
> -Mono's C# compiler is written in C#.
> -Windows programmers will be able to cross over easily to unix
> platforms.
>
> Here's the link:
> http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/02/06/1536255&mode=nocomment
>
> Lots of questions come to mind...read the response and followup on the
> appropriate list.
>
de Icaza knows much more than I do about the .Net platform, and he may
well be right about a lot of it. It may be that Microsoft finally sat
down and did something mostly right (particularly when Miguel talks
about the bytecode implementation). And in theory, .Net as a cross
platform platform is a good idea, just like Java was. de Icaza talks
about developers loving this .Net stuff. I don't know how true that is.
My take is that there are still a lot of misgivings and hesitation, even
among the Microsoft shops.
Miguel wants to develop this .Net workalike on the Linux (and other)
platforms, where he knows Microsoft won't go. He wants to do it because
he admires the technology and believes that it will multiply the
productivity of coders. Well and good. But expect Microsoft to torpedo
this by playing the shell game with APIs or other little tricks. They
did it with SMB, they did it with Kerberos, and they'll do it with .Net
if they believe it "chokes off the air" from Mono.
SOAP/XML is another little piece of this. I don't know much about this,
but Microsoft's promotion of it is that they will do everything in XML
from now on, to make it easier for everything to interoperate with
everything else. Only problem is, from what I've read, they're torturing
XML. When you embed a lot of binary crap in XML, you defeat the whole
purpose of it. And as I understand it, this is what they're doing.
Bottom line is that while I laud Miguel's enthusiasm and his technical
proficiency, I think in the end he's going to get shafted by one of the
biggest shafters on the planet.
Paul
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