[Mono-devel-list] Idea: Bittorrent and Mono.

[Dave Mertens]

> >How interesting a BitTorrent client may seem. It doesn't belong in the
main
> >mono branch (Same with Mono.Posix en Mono.GetOptions).
> >These days I see more and more additions which build upon Mono. 
> >
> >I think it would be wise to create a PEAR alike repository where classes 
> >can
> >be developed which are not directly needed by the runtime. When a class
> >become very populaire, maybe than there's an option to distribute the
class
> >with the main Mono (or MCS) distribution.

> Just to clarify things, mbas (the MonoBASIC/VB.NET compiler) does require 
> Mono.GetOptions, so as the compiler is going into the core (thousands of 
> ASP.NET developers eager to use mono program in VB.NET exclusively), 
> Mono.GetOptions will probably go with the core. Besides, many other Mono 
> utilities does use Mono.GetOptions.

> Mono.Posix is required for xsp/mod_mono, so again it's will be a pretty 
> common requirement. Still, last time I saw, such assemblies where being 
> packaged in a separate package, for those that want just a minimal C#-only

> development environment.

Well, currently I see Mono growing really fast. But Before you know it, it a
complete OS..

First, there's mono. Mono is the runtime to run CLR-code. In my opinion this
package should be as limited as possible (meaning no compilers!). We have a
few mono projects in the pipeline, but compilers (for whatever language) for
forbidden on production servers for obvisous security reasons. The MS
runtime doesn't provide compilers (the SDK does)..
I see MCS as the SDK. So MCS should provide the mcs and vbas compilers and
some optional namespaces)

MCS is the SDK package for Mono. But MCS gets heavier with every release.
I'm a development manager and also responsible for deployment of my
projects. Security is these days a very hot issue. Everything that is not
needed but is installed is a potentional security risk. 
Currently mono doesn't come with the posibilty of disable certain
namespaces. I don't need Mono.Data.MySQL or Mono.Npgsql if I'm using SQL
Server or oracle. The split up of Mono and MCS it a very good thing. Having
tools such as mcs, mbas, nant, nunit on production servers are a hackers
paradise.. ;-)

I'm not saying that I'm almighty or it has to be my way, but I think I would
be wise not to make each namespace part of the main distribution because a
program *might* use it. As nant comes with mcs a solution could be:
- Make a nant task 'dependency' with an download url (maybe from the
mono-project website). If the dependency is not available on the (current)
system, nant could download the package, build it (using a build script for
that package, which could have dependencies on his own)) and installs it.

A tool for managing the packages would also be handy. A side from that a
also mentioned that common used namespaces could be inside the main
distributions.. 

Just my two cents,
Dave Mertens