[Mono-docs-list] The mono:: Cookbook

[John Gomez]

I'm thinking of starting an on-line book that will cover mono:: from the
inside out.  The book will be divided into three sections as follows:

Section I - mono:: Ingredients

The idea is to review the internal aspects of mono:: and how they are
implemented and affect the development process.  This will cover such
things as the JIT, GC, Threading internals, IL, type definition and
other core areas related to mono:: internals.  This section will also
cover the installation of mono:: and the current state of the project.

Section II - Basic Recipes

This section will cover key areas of mono:: application development and
present practical examples on how-to program with mono::   Such topics
as database access, reflection, networking support, use of forms, ASP
development, web services and other core topics that are required for a
corporate developer to understand in order to be productive using mono::
to solve application development issues.

Section III - Kitchen Utensils 

The last section will provide resources, tools and advanced topics.  For
example an outline of the class library, links to on-line resources,
advanced coding examples, performance tuning and optimization concepts,
implementing security, etc.

My goal is to develop a practical, yet fun, guide that allows a
developer to build full fledged applications with mono:: on Linux. One
thing I want to minimize in this guide is the comparison often made
between MSFT.NET and mono::  I want to basically develop a guide that
stands on its own and allows someone who is not familiar with MSFT.NET
to use this guide and known all they need to start developing with
mono::

Examples in the book will be primarily in C#, but given the on-line
nature of the guide I would be happy to create links to VB.NET examples
if someone is open to writing and documenting them.  

I am not sure if this type of guide makes sense, but I assume I will get
feedback (hopefully positive) from this mailing list.  I also am not
sure if a similar effort is underway, but if there is my goal is not to
compete, but simply to write something fun and practical that can be
used as a stand alone resource.  

If this makes sense, and I get good feedback (topic suggestions, links
to resources that might be useful, suggested code samples, etc.), I
should be able to get the first few chapters up for review in the next
few weeks.  I truly hope that this idea makes sense and that some of you
will be interested in reviewing the content as it is made available.

I look forward to your feedback and support.

John
mailto:jgomez@groupespada.com

My Background:

I spent three years at MSFT where I was primarily involved in developing
distributed systems and high-transaction systems.  I contributed to the
early incarnations of COR/COM+ 2.0 runtime and worked on projects
integrating COM/CORBA, as well as IE for UNIX.  I currently run a small
cyber-security firm (Group Espada) and write a monthly article on .NET
internals for .NET Developers Journal.

Lastly, this is my first involvement in an open-source effort, so I'm
still learning.  Any support on publishing this work, source control and
other things I should know, would be greatly appreciated.