[Mono-dev] VB libraries and compiler status?

[Jonathan Morgan]

On 4/17/06, Miguel de Icaza <miguel at novell.com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> >             I have some changes and additions to the
> > Microsoft.VisualBasic libraries.
> >             It looks like other than a few changes in the last week,
> > neither the libraries nor the compiler have been worked on in months.
> >             Are these still being developed?
> >             Who is currently in charge?
>
> Novell is no longer working on the VB.NET compiler.  It was originally
> one of the planned features for Mono 1.2, but we we decided to retarget
> our efforts.
>
> There were a number of reasons for this decision:
>
> * MBas became increasingly hard to maintain.  mbas was based on
>   a very old version of mcs, and did not get any of the later
>   improvements in mcs.

I have wondered why it was based on mcs as a new compiler.  I would
have thought that Microsoft made enough changes to VB.NET in order to
make it conform to the CLR that it could be translated fairly directly
to C#, in which case that would seem to me to be an easier and more
maintainable compiler (and it would also get all the improvements in
mcs).

> * The runtime is still there, and its today probably the most important
>   piece, as it allows existing VB.NET applications to run on Mono.

Can this runtime be accessed from C#, or is it purely used by the VB compiler?

Jon