[Mono-list] Windows .NET application

[Jonathan Pryor]

On Sat, 2004-05-29 at 10:25, Martin Greig wrote:
<snip/>
> All my other necessary Windows apps work fine with Crossover Office, but I 
> have this one must-have app that won't install; or at least, it tries to 
> install .NET Framework V1.1, and fails.  This seems to be standard 
> experience with CX Office and .NET.  So, I wonder if Mono is the way 
> forward -- but how?

The current answer is that Mono *may* be the way forward, but not yet.

> If I try "mono setup.EXE" I get "cannot open assembly setup.EXE"

SETUP.EXE is probably an InstallShield Wizard.  It's not a .NET app, is
a native Win32 program.  Hopefully Wine can run it.

The unfortunate part is that the installer wants to install the .NET
Framework, which isn't going to install or run under Wine.

It sounds like the program's installer won't work under Linux yet.  I'm
not sure if this could change, except to make a Mono installation look
like a .NET installation to Wine, thus making the installers think that
the .NET Framework is already installed, thus avoiding the installation
of .NET v1.1.  I'm not sure what would be needed to create this form of
integration, though.

> , and if I 
> try the same "mono app.exe" in the program's directory of my Windows 
> partition I get the same error.  

This would imply that the application itself is not a .NET application. 
Alternatively, it could be a Managed C++ application, using mixed-code
assemblies (which contain both managed and unmanaged code).  Mono
doesn't support mixed-code assemblies, and even if it did, it's highly
unlikely that the unmanaged code within the assembly would execute under
x86 Linux (for one thing, all the library names would be different,
unless we "thunked" into Wine).  And forget about ever running this on
PowerPC...

> Is there some special installation trick 
> needed?  Or some special combination of Wine and Mono?  Or is Mono just 
> not ready for this yet?

In all likelihood, the app is not a fully managed app, makes heavy use
of native Windows features, and won't run under Mono+Wine.  At least not
any time soon.

 - Jon