[Mono-osx] Delphi Prism and all those Cocoa bridges

[Ron Grove]

> I may be missing something but I do not see the advantage of Delphi Prism
> (which may just be a personal preference ).  Yes the CLR can
> be utilized through various languages.

Probably is personal preference.  Mine is for Pascal.

>  But the one language that is
> relevant (at least to me) is C#.  Not Pascal, C++ or VB.  Yes the syntax of
> object pascal may be similar and yes it may have additional features not
> found in C#.  But it is not C#.  I do not want to learn yet another
> language.


The one language that is relevant (at least to me) is Pascal.  Not C#, C++, VB.  Yes, the syntax of C# is similar to Delphi's Object Pascal because the same man was a major part of the design process, but it is not Pascal, etc.  

What's the point of bringing these religious language debates into this process anyhow?  We all have our biases and I'm sure everyone here knows this road leads nowhere.  RemObjects is a commercial organization who has committed time and resources to see success on the OS X platform.  Their commercial customers (like me) are also going to want to see them succeed.  So going down this path won't just cause language tensions but could also cause customers who are prone to overreaction when their financial interests are at stake (again, like me) to overreact and create a cycle of tension where there doesn't need to be any.  marc has even offered bounties to get things going the right direction.  I think this deserves a modicum of respect at least not to put down Oxygene.

> The "solution" I'm looking for is a native Mac IDE that integrates nicely
> with Interface Builder where the language is C#, utilizing one of the
> bridges, Monobjc, mobjc, etc.  My current environment is virtual Win7 Visual
> Studio, mobjc, and Interface Builder.

And I see no point in any development tool that doesn't respect the language agnostic goals of the CLR.  I personally prefer to see the GPL finally removed from MonoDevelop and IB integration plug-ins designed for use in it in a language agnostic manner so I can use the language of my choice, just like I can on Windows.  This would also provide opportunities for commercial organizations like RemObjects can provide innovative new solutions to their customers.  Seriously, why should I live with C# only restrictions with Mono tools when I don't have to on Windows.  Makes no sense to me.

>
> Thanks everyone for the ongoing discussions and opinions... I try to keep an
> open mind.


I do to, until my beloved Pascal is given short shrift...  I would just like to reiterate my belief that language agnosticism is a worthy goal in the CLR and IMO should be encouraged by the tools given the most focus by the community.

Thank you,
Ron