[Mono-list] Not Self Hosting in .NET: cs-parser.jay - no.NETjay compiler.

[James Briant]

I would like to build and modify the MCS. I would also like to live in a
fantasy world where there are no C nor C++ compilers, and all tools are
written in C#. A world where OS suppliers include a basic C# compiler
instead of a C compiler in their platform SDK.

I do feel somewhat guilty in occupying everyone's time on what might seem to
some as a trivially solved issue (i.e install cygwin). But here it is:
providing cs-parser.cs will allow people to contribute to the project
without having to use C or C++.

Sincerely,
Jamie

PS Perhaps someone can just send me a copy of the cs-parser.cs generated by
the 0.16 release?

-----Original Message-----
From: Miguel de Icaza [mailto:miguel@ximian.com]
Sent: 24 October 2002 18:53
To: James Briant
Cc: mono-list@ximian.com
Subject: RE: [Mono-list] Not Self Hosting in .NET: cs-parser.jay -
no.NETjay compiler.


Hello,

> Thanks very much for taking the time to respond. I guess I must
> misunderstand what "self hosting" means. If you have a working gcc, then
you
> can build all the tools necessary to compile gcc. However if you have a
> working mcs or .NET compiler, you dont have all the tools necessary. I
> thought this was the definition of self hosting, but I guess I
> misunderstand. I do have MS's .NET, but I dont have gcc and cygwin has
> screwed up my system too often for me to bother, I'm afraid. Can you not
> just include the cs-parser.cs file for those of us who live in c# world
but
> not C world? I'd very much appreciate it.

The self hosting terms refers to the fact that our C# code (compiler and
class libraries) can be compiled by ourselves.

In Linux, that means that we can completely develop Mono on Linux
without using any Microsoft tools.

Now, if you are missing `make', it is not our job to provide a make
replacement, in fact, you will need GNU make from Cygwin to compile
Mono.  To take the example to the extreme, if you are missing an OS, we
are not going to provide one ;-)

If you do not want to install Cygwin, I suggest that you download the
binary packaging of Mono that is done on major releases (you can get
Mono 0.16 binaries from our web site for Windows).  But if you choose to
track a development branch you will have to get the tools required to
build it.

Miguel.