[Mono-list] .NET Reflector and Mono compatibility

[Bart Read]

Hi everyone,
 
 
I'm writing because I want to give you a heads up about a problem we’ve
discovered with Mono compatibility in the new version of .NET Reflector, due
to be released in February.
 
At PDC back in November I assured the Mono guys we met that we would
continue to support running on Mono with .NET Reflector 6, though not .NET
Reflector Pro, since the Pro functionality is part of the Visual Studio
add-in. This is still my intention in the longer term. Unfortunately just
before Christmas we discovered a problem with our obfuscation that breaks
compatibility with Mono in builds of .NET Reflector 6, and we can't go back
to the old protection scheme due to other changes we've made.
 
At the end of summer last year we acquired the {smartassembly} obfuscator,
and we've been using it to protect .NET Reflector for the past two months or
so, which is what has caused the problem. As part of a larger batch of
updates and fixes, we're going to patch {smartassembly} so that it doesn't
cause compatibility problems with Mono, so this won't come up again.
Unfortunately those fixes won't be available before .NET Reflector 6 is due
to be released but, in the meantime, I'm anxious not to leave Mono users out
in the cold, without a working build of .NET Reflector, so I propose the
following:
 
(1)    We will release .NET Reflector 6/.NET Reflector Pro in its current
form, without Mono compatibility, towards the end of February.
(2)    At the same time, we will release a build of .NET Reflector that will
only run on Mono. This will probably be version 5.1.7.0. This will be
identical to the current 5.1.6.0 release, apart from the fact that it will
only work on Mono. It won’t contain any of the bug fixes we’ve added to
version 6, and it obviously won’t contain any of the Pro functionality in
the Visual Studio add-in, but it will do everything that the current 5.1.6.0
release can do.
(3)    We’ll make both builds available from the Red Gate website, and we’ll
add a sticky to our support forum about the Mono-compatible build, just in
case people miss the download link on the website.
 
Let me emphasise that this is something I regard only as an interim
solution. As soon as we’re in a position to do so, we’ll put out a 6.x build
that is protected by {smartassembly}, and will work with Mono, and thus Mono
users will get the benefit of the bug fixes we’ve added to the v6 release.
 
If you have any comments or feedback about this, please let me know.
 
 
Thanks,
 
 
 
Bart Read
.NET Tools Product Manager
Red Gate Software Ltd

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