[Mono-osx] Opinion Please - honest answer? Java or .Net

[Geoff Norton]

On Thu, 2008-08-28 at 11:03 -0400, Liam Coughlin wrote:
> I wasn't going to ring in on this, but I really don't want you to be  
> steered in an inappropriate direction from a business stand point,  
> only to have it reflect badly on the mono community in the end.

If you're going to do so, please ensure you get your facts correct.

> Currently, windows forms requires GTK and X11 -- X11 may not be  
> available, and is an odd dependency to have for a "native" mac  
> implementation.  splitting your development between windows forms and  
> coacoa# means you're going to have to implement an artificially strong  
> separation of tiers in your app, and then maintain two separate UI's.

Winforms requires X11 to be installed, which is the default since 10.5.
It does not require Gtk at all.

> 
> Currently, the mono/mac stack has a number of core deficiencies in  
> it's tool-chain; gtk#, X11 requirements to start and is missing  
> certain core tools ( like a debugger ) that makes supporting any non- 
> trivial application challenging at best.

I'm not sure what you mean about Gtk#, its now available on the Mac.

> In short, I'd surmise that mono is not yet ready to support commercial  
> applications on the MAC platform ( it's much further along on linux  
> and windows has the actual .NET runtimes ).  If your company has the  
> expertise though, and is willing to live on the bleeding edge of  
> development with all of the risk and difficulty that implies, by all  
> means, use mono -- such enterprises is how core source inspiration for  
> developing innovative technologies.  Just be aware of what you're  
> getting into.

There are several companies using Mono on the mac today.

-g