[Mono-list] visualBasic.Net

[Jonathan Pryor]

Inline.

On Wed, 2002-11-13 at 10:23, Ben Hutchison wrote:
>  so will 
> > there be a 
> > vb support in mono, or is there already a vb support? 
> 
> I don't think there is current support for VB compilation. I believe the
> core effort on the language side is C#.

Not quite; A Rafael D Teixeira (rafaelteixeirabr@hotmail.com) is working
on a VB.NET compiler called `mbas'.  No idea when it'll be fully
functional, but it's in the CVS mcs module in the mbas directory.

There is also work on the Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll assembly.  I'm not
sure when that will be completed, either.

Both mbas and Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll are being coded in C#, though.

> > i know there are millions of vb-programmers like me, who 
> > would like to 
> > port there applications to linux, without the need to learn a 
> > perfectly 
> > new language and need to rewrite hundreds of thousands of lines.
> 
> You have that capability right now.
> 
> Unless you are intending to use Linux- or Windows-specific APIs (perhaps
> Windows.Forms?), there is no need either for a Mono VB compiler, nor a
> port process, to run your applications on Linux. (If you are using OS
> specific APIs, no VB compiler will help you anyway.)

There may be the use of the Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll assembly, which
could cause problems trying to run it on Linux.  Again, work is underway
to implement it, but if you don't use anything from that assembly there
should be no (fewer?) problems running it on Linux at present.

Note, however, that mono-0.16 complains if you don't have
Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll present, while newer CVS versions don't
complain until you actually use something from that assembly.  This has
been discussed on the list before.

> That's a key benefit of .Net: your Windows VB apps compile down to CIL
> (using MS compiler), just like C# does, which can run under Mono on
> linux, as is.
> 
> Ben

With a few restrictions (that you only use what's implemented on Linux),
that's true...

 - Jon