[Mono-devel-list] Re: [Mono-list] Surveys: Mono 1.0 and Mono Conference.

[A Rafael D Teixeira]

>From: Bob Smith <bob at thestuff.net>

Just correcting a misconception...

>Why a monolithic release?

Yes, we can partition, but see...

>1. The core stuff. The JIT, meta data libs, and class libraries.
>This is really the heart of mono and will be needed for everything else.

Fine, but is a huge core, you'&#314;l see below...

>2. ASP.NET (Web stuff)
>Not necessary for non web builders. What percentage of machines have
>apache on them? I don't think Microsoft is going to go after mono over
>asp, but if they do, it would be good for them to target the asp stuff
>directly rather then all of mono.

ASP.NET can, AND ALREADY IS, kind of separate (xsp and mod_mono, are 
separate packages.
But we have to consider that not only Web Pages are dealt by it, but also 
Web Services.

>3. GTK# (Gui stuff)
>Why install GTK# on your web server? I know my web servers don't have X
>on them, so I'd rather not download it on that system.

Yes, it is already a separate install. But Mono, needs first to be adopted 
by developers, that will develop applications based on it, that then will be 
deployed, so Mono 1.0 have to have all tools and toolkits needed for the 
huge mass of developers out there...

>4. mcs, mbas, monodis, ilasm, etc (Development stuff)
>These tools are only useful to developers. Most users wont ever need
>them, so why have them install them?

That is the cited misconception...
ASP.NET compiles pages on the fly, so it needs mcs, mbas, and any other 
supported compiler, to be installed.
Some language runtimes also need ilasm, because only it gives access to the 
whole IL codes.
Also any application can do as ASP.NET and invoke those tools at anytime, 
because they are wrapped in the core libraries.

So 1 and 4, always go hand-and-hand. So only 2 and 3 can (and are) packaged 
separately, but as I said to get applications that need mono as a runtime, 
developers have to have lots of things readily available, so again Mono 1.0 
probably needs lots of tools and additional class libraries...

Best regards,


Rafael Teixeira
Brazilian Polymath
Mono Hacker since 16 Jul 2001
English Blog: http://monoblog.blogspot.com/
Brazilian Portuguese Blog: http://monoblog.weblogger.terra.com.br/

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