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Old 7th October 2008
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mdh mdh is offline
Real Name: Matt D. Harris
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: West Virginia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by drhowarddrfine View Post
I'm awfully suspicious of any language that requires me to install a framework (Mono) to work. I understand C# may be nice but that's just no right. It also bothers me that Mono is, essentially, a framework for a different operating system, so it's all just a little strange.
Well, lots of languages require you to install a "framework" to work. In this case, mono is a suite including a compiler (just like GCC is for C), a set of libraries (like libc and other standard system libraries for C), and a virtual machine (OK, this is a bit different than C, but it's the same as, say, Java or Perl6). So it is, in fact, not dissimilar from other languages that have existed for a very long time. You need a compiler, libraries, and a VM. You don't need an interpreter, such as would be needed for ruby, python, et al.

As far as mono being a framework for a different operating system, I'd have to disagree. While Novell has strong ties to Linux due to their ownership of SuSE, Mono works just fine on FreeBSD, and there's a bsd-sharp development group which seems to be formally sanctioned by Novell. A lot of other open source projects are primarily developed on Linux, too, so it's nothing we aren't used to. This is why the ports system has support for lots and lots of patches per port.

In addition to Mono, there's also the DotGNU suite, though I'm not at all familiar with it personally. Might be worth looking into if you want to experiment with .NET development in C# on FreeBSD without using Mono, however.
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