[Mono-docs-list] Proposed changes to monkeyguide Chapters 1 and 2

Aaron Weber aaron@ximian.com
Mon, 05 Apr 2004 18:25:03 -0400


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Hello. I'm working on the following changes for Chapters 1 and 2:

* Revise Preface

Chapter 1:

* Revise sections 1.1 and 1.2, "What is Mono" and "What is .NET"? 
* Delete Section 1.3, "History"
* Replace with Section 1.3, "Why Mono?"

Chapter 2: 
haven't gotten there yet. Need to replace "Mono Implementation" with
"Modules."  Goal for all revisions is to be focused on Mono only-- C#
and .NET in general have better docs elsewhere, as discussed in one of
the appendices. Also, Appendix C (Presentations) should be merged into
Appendix D, Additional Resources.

Anyone object? The attached diff is a pretty good idea of what sorts of
changes i'm contemplating, content-wise... I'll get EDasque or someone
to read it over for accuracy before I commit, of course.

Cheers!

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Hello. I'm working on the following changes for Chapters 1 and 2:<BR>
<BR>
* Revise Preface<BR>
<BR>
Chapter 1:<BR>
<BR>
* Revise sections 1.1 and 1.2, &quot;What is Mono&quot; and &quot;What is .NET&quot;? <BR>
* Delete Section 1.3, &quot;History&quot;<BR>
* Replace with Section 1.3, &quot;Why Mono?&quot;<BR>
<BR>
Chapter 2: <BR>
haven't gotten there yet. Need to replace &quot;Mono Implementation&quot; with &quot;Modules.&quot;&nbsp; Goal for all revisions is to be focused on Mono only-- C# and .NET in general have better docs elsewhere, as discussed in one of the appendices. Also, Appendix C (Presentations) should be merged into Appendix D, Additional Resources.<BR>
<BR>
Anyone object? The attached diff is a pretty good idea of what sorts of changes i'm contemplating, content-wise... I'll get EDasque or someone to read it over for accuracy before I commit, of course.<BR>
<BR>
Cheers!
</BODY>
</HTML>

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? mono-docs-diff.txt
Index: en/index.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /mono/monkeyguide/html/en/index.html,v
retrieving revision 1.75
diff -u -r1.75 index.html
--- en/index.html	3 Feb 2004 05:10:54 -0000	1.75
+++ en/index.html	5 Apr 2004 22:14:20 -0000
@@ -22,14 +22,13 @@
 	<ul class="menu">
 		<li>1.1 <a href="mono/dotnet.html">What is .NET?</a></li>
 		<li>1.2 <a href="mono/mono.html">What is Mono?</a></li>
-		<li>1.3 <a href="mono/history.html">Mono history</a></li>
+                <li>1.3 <a href="mono/why.html">Why Mono?</li>
 	</ul>
-	<h4 class="chapter"><a name="CHAP2" id="CHAP2"><b>CHAPTER 2</b> - Architecture</a></h4>
+	<h4 class="chapter"><a name="CHAP2" id="CHAP2"><b>CHAPTER 2</b> - Architecture and Platform Support</a></h4>
 	<ul class="menu">
 		<li>2.1 <a href="architecture/architecture.html">.NET Framework Architecture</a></li>
-		<li>2.2 <a href="mono/monoimpl.html">Mono Implementation</a></li>
-		<li>2.3 Comparing Mono and the .NET Framework</li>
-		<li>2.4 <a href="mono/monoenabled.html">Mono enabled platforms</a></li>
+		<li>2.3 Comparing Mono and the Microsoft Implementation of .NET</li>
+		<li>2.4 <a href="mono/monoenabled.html">Supported Platforms</a></li>
 	</ul>
 
 	<h2 class="part"><a name="PART2" id="PART2">PART 2 - Installing Mono and Choosing the IDE</a></h2>
@@ -205,11 +204,10 @@
 	<ul class="menu">
 	        <li>A <a href="appendencies/samples.html">Code Samples used in the document</a></li>
 		<li>B <a href="appendencies/sampleapps.html">Sample Applications</a></li>
-		<li>C <a href="appendencies/presentations.html">Presentations</a></li>
-		<li>D <a href="appendencies/resources.html">Links to other Resources</a></li>
-		<li>E <a href="appendencies/ecma.html">ECMA Standards</a></li>
-		<li>F <a href="appendencies/license.html">License</a></li>
-		<li>G <a href="appendencies/credits.html">Credits</a></li>
+		<li>C <a href="appendencies/resources.html">Links to other Resources</a></li>
+		<li>D <a href="appendencies/ecma.html">ECMA Standards</a></li>
+		<li>E <a href="appendencies/license.html">License</a></li>
+		<li>F <a href="appendencies/credits.html">Credits</a></li>
 	</ul>
 
 </body>
Index: en/preface.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /mono/monkeyguide/html/en/preface.html,v
retrieving revision 1.15
diff -u -r1.15 preface.html
--- en/preface.html	11 Jan 2004 21:17:37 -0000	1.15
+++ en/preface.html	5 Apr 2004 22:14:20 -0000
@@ -12,17 +12,16 @@
 </head>
 <body>
 
-<p>The Mono Handbook is a collection of guides and tutorials that
-should help you getting started with Mono. It covers the Mono
-runtime, the C# language, and tools like the debugger, certain parts of
-the class libraries, the Database layer ADO.NET, and the Website
-Framework ASP.NET, as well as Gtk#. It is not meant as the complete
-documentation of Mono.</p>
+<p>
 
-<h3>How to read this guide</h3>
+The Mono Handbook is a short introduction to the Mono runtime and tools like
+the debugger, some class libraries, and Gtk#.  It does not cover C# or the
+basics of the .NET framework, nor does it constitute the complete documentation
+for Mono. Additional resources are listed in
+<a href="appendencies/resources.html">Appendix C, Links to other Resources</a>.
+
+</p>
 
-<p>Beginners should probably read this guide in its entirety, but experts 
-will probably only need to read about the information they don't know already.</p>
 
 </body>
 </html>
Index: en/mono/dotnet.html
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RCS file: /mono/monkeyguide/html/en/mono/dotnet.html,v
retrieving revision 1.16
diff -u -r1.16 dotnet.html
--- en/mono/dotnet.html	11 Jan 2004 21:17:37 -0000	1.16
+++ en/mono/dotnet.html	5 Apr 2004 22:14:20 -0000
@@ -7,63 +7,50 @@
 	<meta name = "DC.Description" content = "People who contributed to this document" />
 	<meta name = "DC.Contributor" content = "Johannes Roith" />
 	<meta name = "DC.Contributor" content = "Jon Kessler" />
-
+	<meta name = "DC.Contributor" content = "Aaron Weber" />
 	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../style.css" />
 </head>
 <body>
 
 <h1>What is .NET?</h1>
-<p>.NET is a product family shipped by Microsoft in 2001 as a
-response to the successful Java from Sun and designed to 
-better integrate the different development environments 
-on windows like C++ and Visual Basic. From that perspective 
-it's not a Java clone, but rather an approach to better solve the problems
-COM was supposed to solve with some exciting new features added like language
-independence, great Database support, broad XML support, well-designed 
-WebServices and WebApplications support, and a big upgrade
-to the VisualBasic language, including  better object orientation.</p>
-
-<p>The "Microsoft .NET" name means in fact 3 things. It is important not to confuse
-them.</p>
-<ul>
-<li>The .NET Framework</li>
-<li>Services (MyServices, Passport)</li>
-<li>Other things with the label ".NET"</li>
-
-</ul>
-
-Mono is just a free implementation of the .NET Framework for Linux 
-and other systems. The .NET Framework is a "software platform" similiar
-to Java. The technical aspect will be discussed in "Architecture". 
-<p><b>Language independence</b>. Perhaps the most important factor
-is, that all languages "are created eval". Yes, that's the right
-word. There are not one or two languages that can be consumed by
-others, if you want language independence.
-Example: All Gnome APIs are written in C. This ensures that you
-can write an applicaton in Python by accessing these C libraries
-through bindings. But you cannot access Python programs through C.
-In the .NET world this is possible. Write in C#, MonoBasic, or
-whatever, you can  reuse those classes without any problems.</p>
-<p><b>Platform independence.</b> .NET code is not compiled to
-machine code, but has an intermediate form. You can copy binaries
-across platforms just like in Java. Only native code invocation can
-stop this, but it will disappear, when in time.</p>
-<p><b>Class library.</b> .NET has a big, big class library that is useful for
-almost any task. The high-level classes are especially interesting.
-XML-Support, Database-Support, WebServices-Support and 
-Webpages-Support are a few examples.</p>
-<p><b>The C# language.</b> C# is a very beautiful, clean, effective
-language.</p>
-<p><b>VB.NET language.</b> Microsoft has finally fixed the
-Basic language here. It is now just as feature-full as C# or any
-other .NET langauge, and Basic classes can be reused in C# as well as
-C# classes in Basic.</p>
-<p><b>Web applications.</b> With ASP.NET, Microsoft ships the next
-generation web page framework. It benefits from language
-independence, so finally you can write your web pages with pascal or
-C++ as well as LOGO and so on. Also, it's the first framework to
-break with 100% HTML code programming and makes HTML accessible using
-objects, while also introducing complex things like calendars.</p>
- 
+
+<p> The term ".NET" can be terribly confusing, because it represents a
+software development platform, several services, and a marketing and
+product branding initiative. In this guide, we will use it only in the
+sense of the software development platform.  That development platform
+is distinguished in several important ways:</p>
+
+
+<p>
+Perhaps the most important aspect of .NET is that it it is language
+independent. Other platforms offer one-way interoperation: GNOME
+libraries, written in C, can be accessed from Python, but that Python
+code cannot be accessed by other C applications. With the .NET
+framework, developers can mix languages and reuse code in any direction.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+.NET is also platform independent. As with Java, you can copy
+compiled bytecode from one platform to another and run it
+anywhere. Note that while you can access native system resources from
+.NET, their usage may limit you to platforms on which those resources
+are available.  </p>
+
+
+<p>
+ .NET also has an extensive basic class library, starting with
+high-level classes like XML-Support, Database-Support,
+WebServices-Support and Webpages-Support. With the .NET class library,
+you can develop new applications and extend existing ones easily and
+quickly.  </p>
+
+
+<p> Finally, .NET gives you access to the C# ("C Sharp") language, a
+clean and effective tool for developing in .NET and other
+frameworks. You'll see plenty of examples of C# code throughout this
+guide, but if you want a complete introduction, see Appendix C, <a
+href="appendencies/resources.html">Links to other Resources</a>.
+</p>
+
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Index: en/mono/mono.html
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retrieving revision 1.16
diff -u -r1.16 mono.html
--- en/mono/mono.html	11 Jan 2004 21:17:37 -0000	1.16
+++ en/mono/mono.html	5 Apr 2004 22:14:20 -0000
@@ -13,108 +13,24 @@
 </head>
 <body>
 
-
-<p>Mono is an open source implementation of the Microsoft .NET
-Framework.</p>
-
-<p>Mono includes the following: a compiler for the C# language, an ECMA-compatible
-runtime engine for the Common Language Infrastructure (also referred
-as the CLR) and class libraries, including both Microsoft.NET's libraries as
-well as many others.  The runtime can be embedded into your
-applications.</p>
-
-<p>As the project moved on several other tools were developed. A VB.NET compiler 
-called MonoBasic was added, Jscript.NET is in development at the time of this writing.
-Also a debugger, build tools, were created and there is ongoing work on an IDE.
+<h1> What is Mono?</h1> <p>Mono is an open source implementation of
+the Microsoft .NET Framework, based on the ECMA standards (as
+discussed in Appendix D, <a href="appendencies/ecma.html">ECMA
+Standards</a>).</p>
+
+<p>
+
+Mono includes a compiler for the C# language, an ECMA-compatible
+runtime engine (the Common Language Runtime, or CLR),and class
+libraries.  The libraries include both Microsoft .NET and third party
+class libraries, and the runtime can be embedded into applications for
+simplified packaging and shipping. In addition, the Mono project
+offers an IDE, debugger, and documentation browser.  </p>
+
+<p> 
+Mono ships under a free and open license, which is discussed in
+Appendix E, <a href="appendencies/license.html">License</a></li>. 
 </p>
-
-<p>Mono has implementations of both ADO.NET
-  and ASP.NET as part of its distribution.</p>
-
-<h2>Mono project background.</h2>
-
-	<p>The GNOME project's goal was to bring missing technologies to
-	Unix and make it competitive in the current marketplace for
-	desktop applications.  We also realized early on that language
-	independence was important, and that is why GNOME APIs were
-	coded using a standard that allowed the APIs to be easily
-	wrapped for other languages.  Our APIs are available to most
-	programming languages on Unix (Perl, Python, Scheme, C++,
-	Objective-C, Ada). </p>
-
-	<p>Later on, we decided to use better methods for encapsulating
-	our APIs, and we started to use CORBA to define interfaces to
-	components. We complemented it with policy and a set of
-	standard GNOME interfaces for easily creating reusable,
-	language independent components, controls, and compound
-	documents.  This technology is known as <a
-	href="http://developer.ximian.com/articles/whitepapers/bonobo">Bonobo</a>.
-	Interfaces to Bonobo exist for C, Perl, Python, and
-	Java.</p>
-
-	<p>CORBA is good when you define coarse interfaces, and most
-	Bonobo interfaces are coarse.  The only problem is that
-	Bonobo/CORBA interfaces are not good for small interfaces.
-	For example, an XML parsing Bonobo/CORBA component would be
-	inefficient compared to a C API.</p>
-
-<h3>The Common Language Infrastructure platform.</h3>
-
-	<p>Microsoft has created a new development platform.  The
-	highlights of this new development platform are the following:</p>
-
-	<ul>
-		<li>A runtime environment that provides garbage
-		  collection, threading and a virtual machine
-		  specification (The Virtual Execution System, VES).</li>
-
-		<li>A comprehensive class library. </li>
-
-		<li>A new language, C#.  Very similar to Java,  C#
-		  allows programmers to use all the features available
-		  on the .NET runtime.</li>
-
-		<li>A language specification that compilers can
-		  follow if they want to generate classes and code
-		  that can interoperate with other programming
-		  languages (the Common Language Specification: CLS).</li>
-	</ul>
-
-	<p>The Common Language Infrastructure platform is similar to the
-  	goals we had in GNOME of giving language independence to
-  	programmers.  It is more mature, documented, larger in scope,
-  	and has a consistent design.</p>
-
-	<p>Any API that is written using a CLS provider language can be
-  	used by any language that is a CLS consumer.  Compilers
-  	generate code in a format called Common Intermediate Language
-  	(CIL), which is an intermediate representation of a compiled
-  	program and is easy to compile to native code or compile
-  	using Just-in-Time (JIT) engines.  The restrictions placed by
-  	the runtime on the CIL byte codes ensures that it is possible
-  	to do a good job at optimizing the code in a JIT compiler.</p>
-
-<h3>ECMA standards.</h3>
-
-	<p>Microsoft has submitted the
-  	specifications of C#, the runtime, the metadata and the
-  	other various bits of the .NET development platform to the
-  	<a href="http://www.ecma-international.org">ECMA</a> for standarization.</p>
-
-	<p>You can get a copy of the specifications submitted to ECMA
-	from <a href="http://www.dotnetexperts.com/ecma">http://www.dotnetexperts.com/ecma</a>.</p>
-
-<h3>Mono: An Open Source Common Language Infrastructure implementation.</h3>
-
-	<p>Ximian has begun work on Mono, a project that aims to bring
-  	the Common Language Infrastructure platform to free systems.  </p>
-
-	<p>The .NET development platform is a very rich, powerful, and
-  	well designed platform that would help improve the free
-  	software development platform.  Just like the GNU project
-  	began to clone Unix sixteen years ago, we will be cloning the
-  	.NET development platform because it is a great platform to
-  	build on.</p>
 
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diff -u -r1.17 monoimpl.html
--- en/mono/monoimpl.html	11 Jan 2004 21:17:37 -0000	1.17
+++ en/mono/monoimpl.html	5 Apr 2004 22:14:20 -0000
@@ -1,4 +1,7 @@
+     <!-- Remove this entire section 
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+
+
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       xmlns:monodoc="http://www.go-mono.org/xml/monodoc">
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@@ -119,3 +122,4 @@
 
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+-->
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