
Please explain: why Mono? - tx

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tx
I have been seeing more and more articles and blog posts about Mono lately but
I fail to realize the importance of it. I wish I was rude enough to just email
to Miguel and ask him why has he dedicated so much time of his life working on
it, but I better ask people who's not related to Mono - you.

Seriously, what is their motivation? I mean Mono people's. What they are
doing, how I see it, is porting someone else's platform (Microsoft) which by
itself is in essense just a copy of another platform (Java)... which _already_
runs fine on Linux! Basicaly it lookts to me that Mono guys are just building
a _poor performing copy of copy of something original_ (Java platform) which
already is built and works just fine. And have been, for a long time alreay.
So long, that people are already getting bored with it.

Why??? Any ideas? \-- tx

P.S. I've been working with .NET for a while. Yes, it's rich and seem to have
every imaginable feature, so do Python/Perl/Ruby/Java with their libs (all are
1st class Linux citizens). Why would one want to port .NET to Linux is beyond
me...

~~~
mojuba
I was curious about C#, started reading about it and I stopped precisely at
the point when I saw this piece of code in their tutorial:

if (System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(s, sPattern,
System.Text.RegularExpressions.RegexOptions.IgnoreCase)) ...

So Miguel de Icaza wants to bring this mess to UNIX? This is ridiculous and so
un-UNIX.

(Though GNOME, too, was probably one of the messiest GNU projects so far)

~~~
dk
Yick, your reaction is understandable. But know that the following is far more
typical:

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

...

if (Regex.IsMatch(s, sPattern, RegexOptions.IgnoreCase))...

~~~
mojuba
Oh yes, I know ;) but I wouldn't say it is much less verbose than the first
example in terms of the number of words used, and besides, it's Microsoft's
tutorial, i.e. it's how they teach novice programmers to program in C#.

------
eduardoflores
In my opinion, Mono can make for linux what VB made for Windows: offer a
simple-to-learn, simpler-to-use development environment, specially for the
corporate world. Many managers prefer to use a "manager-safe choice" like
windows/.net to risk on opensource platforms. I think VB was key to the
windows commercial success and wide adoption on the mid-90's. Linux didn't had
something like that in that time. Many desktop and web apps are being
developed on .NET, and the possibility of running them on linux may give it a
place it didn't had before. .NET might not be a good choice for a internet
startup but it's certainly for corporate and desktop apps. And they can ride
over MS marketing pushing the adoption of .NET.

Besides, .NET is a pretty good platform and Miguel and the community are doing
an amazing job =)

