[Mono-list] Windows.Forms, KDE

[Miguel de Icaza]

> I agree with Ajay.  I expected the announcement that Windows.Forms was not 
> going to be supported to ignite something of a firestorm, but it seems to 
> have gone over without even as much as a whimper.
> 
> Ximian's position appears to be that Mono exists to gain the advantages of 
> the .NET architecture, not to enable people to run Windows .NET applications. 
> Still, it's been implicit since the beginning that Windows.Forms would be 
> supported.

Well, you know the Open Source community: once a seed and a foundation
exists, things just develop normally.  

Windows.Forms will happen, with Gtk#, Qt# or Wine, but it will happen. 
But Ximian will not be focusing on this task, I believe our limited
resources are better spent in improving the pieces I feel confident we
can make a big impact on.  Windows.Forms would have a big impact, but I
am afraid that the impact might be in three years from now, and that
Microsoft might have already developed a new toolkit that does not have
the limitations of Windows.Forms.

> The argument that Windows.Forms couldn't be completed without using Wine, and 
> thus shouldn't be done is also a puzzlement to me. Why is the use of Wine a 
> bad thing? Is it an issue of licensing, code bloat, or the immaturity of 
> Wine? Is there something implicitly wrong with Wine?

Using Wine seems like a smart choice.  But further opinions require a
lot more study and research on the Windows.Forms internals.

> While being able to run Windows .NET applications on Mono isn't a primary 
> concern of Ximian's, I think that it has enough value that it should be 
> encouraged, rather than discouraged. The idea that Mono would support .NET 
> applications under Linux has been the part about Mono that's made it most 
> interesting for me and my co-workers.

The issue is not about encouraging or discouraging people, but
understanding the pros and cons of such a task.  

Miguel