[Mono-osx] An open letter to the OS X Mono group.

[Andrew Satori]

To be honest, I think Apple has so far officially been a 'no comment'  
but I think Miguel would be better able to answer that question.  At  
one point, Erik Dasque was working with anyone that would listen at  
Apple, but I do not know what the results of that dialog was.

I know that I personally would contribute to an effort, as I deem  
Mono a 'need' for the Mac platform, even though at this point, I'm  
electing not to use it.  How much is a bit of a question, as I'm  
working to get my own startup off the ground, but certainly something.

Now, that said, I would not be suprised to find Mono bundled with  
Leopard, much like Ruby, Perl, Python or even toolkits like wxWidgets  
which are all default installs on Tiger, though I don't know how many  
people realize that. The problem with that is that it would be a  
stagnant version of Mono, which is moving faster than Apple releases  
are, so they would be out of sync within 90 days, probably sooner,  
and I haven't seen Apple actively patching up these tools.  10.4.9 is  
still running php4, with php5 having to be installed by hand, from a  
third party.  JBoss, 3.2, etc.  The ONLY non-Apple platform they keep  
relatively current is Java.

That begs the question, who within Apple has to be sold on Mono to  
make it happen?

Had we had this discussion 3 months earlier and built a plan, we  
could probably have grabbed some Summer of Code help, but that's not  
going to help at this point.

I think the best option at this point is to map out the projects and  
set some clear goals and milestones.  Build some infrastructure to  
manage and reach those goals, and work hard with the volunteers to  
make some of it happen.  Step one almost has to be getting some  
momentum behind Mono::Mac again.  IT was there for a while, but a  
series of events basically stalled Mono on the Mac.  Much of the  
group that established that momentum has had to move to other  
projects, and because of that, there was a loss of knowledge and  
impetus.

Miguel and Lupus have worked hard, along with CJ and a handful of  
other volunteers to keep the Mono::Mac versions more or less up to  
speed, but they aren't Mac users that are going to stress Mono in a  
Mac environment like real Mac users and developers will.

Ultimately, it falls to Mac users and developers to build the momentum.

Andy




On Mar 27, 2007, at 3:52 PM, Robert Mullen wrote:

> Thanks, this helps to evolve our thinking a little bit. We are  
> uncertain of the scale of development needed and this gives us at  
> least a finger in the air feeling of what development would look  
> like. It is not at all impossible to find a group willing to foot  
> the bill for such an effort as I can tell you without question that  
> we would be willing to contribute to such an effort once metrics  
> and controls were clear. What is really needed though has already  
> been alluded to and that is buy in from Apple themselves. Again it  
> would not be impossible without it but approaching other parties  
> hat in hand is much easier when a.) the hat is not empty and b.)  
> there is recognizable backing for the project. Has Apple stated an  
> official stance on Mono?
>