[Mono-list] class-status and ECMA-status

[Paolo Molaro]

[Note: I'm replying just so that the mailing-list archives won't
have misleading information without a proper answer. Please, after this,
don't feed the trolls.]

On 04/04/02 Gopal.V wrote:
> If memory serves me right, Piers Haken wrote:
> > Yes this would be nice, unfortunately I don't know of any existing
> > implementation of the ECMA standard. 
> 
> DotGNU Pnet is using ECMA spec's All.xml for the purpose -- but that
> meant splicing an XML parser , a PE/COFF loader and a match function
> between XML signatures and signatures from code. But I don't think
> you guys could do that in C# easily (without completing System.Xml
> or using Windows).

We already use our System.Xml implementation for the Gtk# binding.
It's certainly not complete, but I don't see a problem in parsing the
All.xml file from ECMA. Reflection makes for a nice PE/COFF loader
and our compiler (written in C# and self-hosting on linux) does
signature compares as its bread and butter. There is no need to use
windows for this task.

> > I believe that mono is heading more for .NET compatibility than ECMA
> > compliance. I'm sure that the ECMA standard will be modified eventually
> > to 'conform' to the .NET 'standard' ;-)
> 
> That's a bad attitude if I ever saw one . Are you hinting that ECMA is
> under the control of Microsoft !. And mono is going to ignore ECMA and
> support Microsoft's violations . Ye Gods , what more should I hear ?.

As someone said (I think it was Alan Cox): if you implement an IP stack
by the RFCs, it won't work. We want to write software that works.
We may provide a set of #defines that will make the library
ECMA-compatible, but no one stepped to the plate, yet.

lupus

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