[mono-vb] Future of Mono's VB.NET

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello,

> Let me put another possibility on the table. Why not base the new
> VB.NET compiler on the Boo infrastructure?
> 
> This would not require a fork at all but improvements and refactorings
> to a shared code base on a ongoing basis. There are already two
> languages based on the infrastructure (boo itself and the scripting
> language for the Unity Game Engine - UnityScript).
> 
> I'd love to see that collaborative development happening.

But isn't Boo still missing generics support?

It just feels to me that VB.NET and C# are close enough that a compiler
forked from gmcs is probably easier to do than reusing Boo, specially
considering the generic components.

Rafael did mention this Boo proposal, but I do not know enough about the
internals of Boo or what Boo exposes that would make this easier.

Finally, the other downside is that integrating the patches from mbas
into a new fork is mostly a straightforward task, while basing it on Boo
sounds like writing code from scratch.

Miguel.