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Nat Demos Dashboard

pheared writes "Nat Friedman from Ximian gave a fairly in depth, quite hilarious (got embarrassing screensaver?), and somewhat impromptu, talk about his project "Dashboard" at OLS. From his blog: "The dashboard is a piece of software which performs a continous, automatic search of your personal information space to show you things in your life that are related to whatever you happen to be doing with your computer at the time." Neat stuff, but I don't think I will be warming up to Mono and C# any time soon."

23 of 274 comments (clear)

  1. Unnecessary commentary? by Osty · · Score: 3, Insightful

    From the submitter:

    Neat stuff, but I don't think I will be warming up to Mono and C# any time soon.

    Was this commentary really necessary? This software looks like neat stuff, just as pheared said, so why the barb? Could you at least give a reason for your statement? What, if anything, does it have to do with the article, save that the software in question was written using C# via Mono?

    Editors, I know you've explained why you won't edit user submissions before, and I know it's a losing battle to suggest you change, but this is a perfect candidate for editing. That remark had no business being left on the submission, and removing it would not detract from the story one bit. If there has ever been a perfect example of why editors should take their jobs seriously, this is it. Was pheared so unsure of the quality of his submission that he needed to try to stir up debate over Mono and C#, rather than let the story stand on its own? Or worse, were there really no other submissions for this story, or did the editors purposely choose this one submission because of the added barb at the end?

    1. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by CurlyG · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...What, if anything, does it have to do with the article, save that the software in question was written using C# via Mono?

      Err, it's written in C# via Mono. The author of the article is interested in the app but has reservations about that technology.

      What is so inappropriate about stating that? If anything it provides a good starting point to the discussion here.

      Getting your knickers in a twist because slashdot isn't a traditional media source and doesn't try to ape that style *is* inappropriate, and somewhat silly.

      --
      You know they call 'em fingers but I've never seen 'em fing. Oh, there they go.
    2. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ahahaha. Yes, just as SCO were concerned about their IPR three years ago, when Project Monteray collapsed on them. Just as Unisys made it clear right from the start that they wanted royalties for LZW in GIF. Yeah, I'm sure they would have done something by now. Thats right. Microsoft would never wait until a developer base had grown around C# among FOSS developers and then pull the rug out from under them and leave them with no choice but to switch to Microsoft .NET No, they'd never do exactly the same thing as they've done to countless others before, for example OS/2. No. Never.

      Pull my head out indeed.

    3. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by Taurine · · Score: 3, Insightful

      By writing Mono, and by writing unique and interesting software using it, these guys clearly have an agenda of creating interest and demand for C# on Linux. This is a big win for Microsoft, and pretty much of no help to Linux. Mono is always going to be on shaky ground legally, but it will let people begin their critical application development on Linux before deciding that for safety they need to move to Windows. If they wrote their application for Java instead, they would have less need to move off Linux, and should they wish to, a far greater choice of hardware and operating system environments to move to.

      Essentially Ximian are developing this software to grab some market share for something they hope will become big, without regard for the impact such a product could have upon the free software environment they will be sitting on top of. They are happily giving a leg-up to Microsoft while claiming to be purer than white due to the standards submission by Microsoft of a portion of the platform. Nothing prevents a full free software port of Java, and Sun would not risk an enormous loss of credibility by making substantial incompatible changes or moving against other Java providers. Standardising part of the C# environment is a marketting exercise, in practical terms it doesn't give your C# code a longer life than your Java code.

      So I'm happy to see the /. editors reminding everyone that this isn't just another piece of warm, fluffy, cute free software to configure && make && make install with open arms. Think before you endorse C#.

    4. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 3, Insightful
      these guys clearly have an agenda of creating interest and demand for C# on Linux

      Uh, no. The guy pushing Mono is Miguel, Dashboard is written by Nat. Large parts of Ximian are not using Mono, or not sure about it. Nonetheless, Nat decided to use Mono because he wanted to try it out, and decided he liked what he saw.

      This is a big win for Microsoft, and pretty much of no help to Linux

      I fail to see how having a language that doesn't suck and is good for writing desktop apps in is "no help at all to Linux". We have to move beyond C and C++ sometime, you know.

      Mono is always going to be on shaky ground legally

      What, just like Linux itself? Need I remind you that Linux is a reimplementation of a once proprietary OS written in a once proprietary language?

      If they wrote their application for Java instead.....[snip]

      Yes, but they didn't. Java had its chance at being the choice of desktop apps, and failed it. I'm still not sure why Java is any better than C# - both languages/environments have had to have their compilers and class libraries cloned by the free software community, except that Java is not ratified by ISO.

      Essentially Ximian are developing this software to grab some market share for something they hope will become big

      Er, no. Why don't you read up on how it got started? It started as Nat trying something he thought would be cool, and then a load of people helping out. There are enough conspiracy theories as it is, no need to invent more.

      Think before you endorse C#.

      The people writing this stuff aren't stupid. I can tell you, they are thinking about C#, and have decided that most peoples fears are groundless. That doesn't mean it's risk free! Oh no. It does mean that they think it's no more risky than any other part of free software is (cloning a UNIX kernel? reverse engineering Windows? GPLd MP3 players?)

    5. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by NynexNinja · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Could you at least give a reason for your statement?

      Who in their right mind would want to make their application execution 4-20 times slower by writing it in an interpreted language like C# or Java. If this wasn't bad enough, how can you require your users to download a 25MB library just to be able to run your "hello world" script. Thats retarded. I'll stick to C/C++ thank you.

    6. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by ultrabot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The reality, like it or not, is that a lot of our customers want us to use MS technologies for their projects.

      It's sad, really, that they don't understand that Java runs on win32 as well.

      I'm very pleased to be using C# instead of C++ for the reasons given in my previous post.

      Understandably, C++ being such a PITA to program. Given a choice between C++ and C#, I would use C# in a heartbeat. However, a more realistic choice is the one between C# and Java, and in that space Java is the winner, because of its cross-platform capability if for nothing else.

      Java is a huge step forward compared to C++, so your point (that C# is really just a MS proprietary version of Java) is a huge plus as far as I'm concerned.

      Again, you make the mistake of comparing C# with C++. It's the thinking MSFT wants to impose on people: compare it to C++, not Java. Kinda like advertising a new Xeon by telling how much better app support it has compared to an embedded CPU.

      --
      Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
    7. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by DukeyToo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What's funny to me is that I am sure that at one stage, someone said the same comments about C, compared to assembler.

      There are cases where assembler is an appropriate tool, and there are cases when C/C++ are appropriate. But in business code, there are many more where C# or Java are appropriate.

      --
      Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use - Mark Twain
    8. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by SteveX · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The reason Microsoft can ask developers to compare C# to C++ is because a developer can use C# to develop a Windows application. A developer can use Java to develop a Java applcation. There's a big difference.

      Java is "write once run anywhere", C# doesn't try to do that, and as a result, making a GUI application to run on Windows is much easier and the resulting app has access to more of the strengths of the platform it's built on.

      Any functionality I need in a Windows GUI application (like charting or generating a PDF or whatever) I can get as a COM object. There's a good chance that we (the company I work for) already has it somewhere. That same COM object works in C#, VB.NET, C++, even straight C. With Java you have to find Java code to do what you want, or you lose the one big benefit you get with Java - portability.

      If the goal is to write a "Windows Application" (and it often is), then there is generally a choice between C++, VB, C#, and VB.NET.

      - Steve

    9. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Your FAQ does

      How is Mono going to be a complete .Net implementation if you don't implement Windows.Forms? How will you implement Windows.Forms without steping on Microsofts toes?

      What will you do when Microsoft fails to submit future C# implementations to ECMA and ISO? What if they decide to change their RAND policy to charge just a few cents per copy of .Net implementations? Have you had a patent lawyer run a complete patent search for any possible submarines?

      The FAQ is a dead giveaway, item #3 specifically. It basically says "We know we're going to have to infringe some patents, so we're going to stick our heads in the sand and hope Microsoft do not notice"

      Did nobody pay any attention when Microsoft started to extend Java? Yeah, Microsoft would never subvert a published "standard"

    10. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by plasticmillion · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I am probably awfully stodgy but I prefer to know why an operation failed. Just telling the user "An IOException occurred" (or, even better, just assuming that it was due to the fact that the directory existed and ignoring it) isn't good programming practice where I come from.

      I'll type those 20 odd extra characters any day...

    11. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by cgibbard · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, I'm unfamiliar with Windows, not having used it in quite some time now (I'm a Debian user). I was sort of amazed that it would take 20 minutes and 10-15 lines of code for an experienced programmer to check if a directory exists and if not, create it. It took me about 5 minutes searching on MSDN to find the Win32 calls "GetFileAttributes" and "CreateDirectory". The following should work (I can't test it, I don't have Windows):

      if (!(GetFileAttributes(filename) & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)) CreateDirectory(filename, NULL);

      Which is admittedly not as pretty, but it is a single line of code.

      Also, what's wrong with simply calling CreateDirectory and checking for failure after the fact with GetLastError? You'd probably get back ERROR_ALREADY_EXISTS if the filename already existed.

      However, as has been mentioned, this is a matter of the library that you're using and not an intrinsic property of the language.

      There are plenty of nice programming languages out there if you're not going to tie yourself down to C/C++. Personally, I think that from a programming language perspective, C# is a bit boring. Too little credit is given to programming languages like Python and Ruby, both of which are very clean and nice to use. Both bring in nice aspects of OO and functional programming, and blend them in ways that make code easy to read and write. Better yet, get away from imperative languages for a while and try a functional language or two such as Haskell, O'Caml, or Erlang. (I highly recommend Haskell.) Writing code in a functional style takes a bit of getting used to, but once you've acclimatized, you probably won't want to switch back.

    12. Re:Unnecessary commentary? by IamTheRealMike · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The bottom line is that Java is, and has been for some time, a far better platform for Linux development than Mono.

      If so, then why do are there no popular desktop apps written in it? At all?

      I could say something annoying in a flamebait style like:

      FACT: Java on the desktop is dead, it had its chance, several times, and dropped them all.

      but ..... nah.

      The free software community has not produced anything like it. Cloning such technologies has been done before, and now it's happening again. If you really think Mono is evil and Java is our saviour, then I hope you have been hacking on the Java/GTK bindings, writing kickass software using them, and showing the world how it's meant to be done.

  2. Oooh, it the IP bogeyman, run run! by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If the Open Source/Free Software community runs scared every time IP is vaguely mentioned then it's the community that suffers.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  3. MOD PARENT DOWN by TCM · · Score: 2, Insightful

    plagiarism is hardly insightful.

    --
    Of course it runs NetBSD. BTC: 1NT7QvbetmANwaMzhpVL6
  4. Re:Nice to see the sideswipe at .NET (not) by nepheles · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's maybe a little ironic that large portions of the OS community are generally against C# and Mono, as it is a Microsoft technology. Mono is an OS clone of a mainly proprietary technology.

    ...Almost like a certain Operating System

    --
    ((lambda x ((x))) (lambda x ((x))))
  5. Re:Show me the money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Right here What, you don't think Windows.Forms are important?

    There is also nothing to stop Microsoft from any later version or .Net extensions without submitting it to ECMA and including patented methods. Microsoft have yet to publicly promise that this will not happen (In fact, they have been very cagey about wether this is possible).

    If you trust Microsoft, you're a fool. Look at what Sun had to go through with Microsoft "Java"

  6. why would you not support mono? by *weasel · · Score: 2, Insightful

    microsoft is finally supporting a community effort to port their technology to the open source community; if only by not suing, though most likely unwillingly.

    but why would you not throw everything you have behind mono? if anything, it will make a java-style write-once, run-anywhere implimentation no longer language specific, and no-longer a mess of cross-compatibility problems.

    with mono running, you could more easily make the case to business who run .Net sites and services to switch over to better linux solutions.

    and here's the big one: Businesses could distribute a single code package and customers could install it on whatever system (MS or OSS) that they like.

    this could easily bridge the desktop application gap. if support for linux systems is that easy, a real operating system war can begin - one based purely on technical merits, security and stability.

    and c# isn't that bad: it's not too different from c++, it's more java-like, and has a more unified set of system apis (unified as in unified across .net languages). it's removal of pointer juggling is an applaudable feature for a language that doesn't cough up much speed at all compared to pure compiled c.

    or should we just blindly support java, and shun all things .net - just because it has nothing to do with microsoft?

    --
    // "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
  7. Yeah, Like That's Proof by reallocate · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >> As always, if you think something doesn't suck then prove it.

    Says who? You?

    >> Everything I've seen of .NET has looked retarded...

    Oh, there's the proof.

    >> I don't like most things Microsoft...

    ..and, therefore, anything and everything associated with Microsoft is beneath contempt, by definition.

    Have you ever considered the possiblity that you might, sometimes, be wrong?

    --
    -- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
  8. Personally, I'm a fan by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful
    I think everything Ximian has done has been very nice both with respect to quality and to their contributions to free software. They are also very prompt and likeable when you email them with a question, which is why I'm fairly surprised to see people railing on them.

    Is it just with software that it's ok to "look a gift horse in the mouth?"

    It's pretty easy to avoid software you don't like and it's pretty rude to bad-mouth someone whose putting thousands of man-hours into something they release under the GPL.

    I'd like nothing better than a small, fast Debian installation that includes only the stuff I run so, since everything else is all crap anyway, so I'm going to complain in a public forum about how bloated Debian has become until someone listens to me and ditches emacs since vim is clearly a better editor and until someone throws all these new-fangled wms in the "trash-bin" since twm was my first wm love. And what the hell is /bin/tcsh...Jeez O'Mickey, did we lose a war or something????

    Do you see how silly you all sound?

  9. Re:He is reimplementing the Remembrance Agent ! by avdi · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Not exactly. While RA is quite a nifty tool, all it does is index your home directory and run searches against what it finds their based on the current document in Emacs. RA doesn't have the ability to note that you're having an IM conversation with someone, and automatically show you: their email address and other FOAF contact information; their last few blog entries; when you last talked to them; their schedule; etc. That's the kind of thing Dashboard is intended to do. Dashboard integrates semantic information from many different applications, rather than just doing a smart grep against your home dir.

    --

    --
    CPAN rules. - Guido van Rossum
  10. Ah, but that's exctly the point! by Lysol · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So what exactly is wrong with .NET? If you need to work on the Windows platform it's a godsend!

    Precisely. And that's where it will stay - on a Win platform. At least until Win is made much smaller (think Novell) and the platform becomes less important compared to the app and development technologies.

    Anyway, I have to say that I'm a huge Ximian fan. I think they've contributed a great desktop. So my hat's off to them.

    However, as someone who has done some hacking on dotGNU, I am pessimistic about the whole .NET thing.

    Besides domination, what is m$'s ultimate goal: lock in. This has been documented and has hit people over the head for years so I don't need to go into a lengthy discussion about it.
    Coupled with the fact that even from a clean room implementation standpoint, m$ will pull ip claims. No question about it. Especially when GNU/Linux starts making more and more inroads. I mean, if it's (.NET) supported on *nix, why go with costly m$?

    Like I said, I think Nat, Miguel and co. have done an excellent job. They're doing great things. But unless there is some strict, free, licensing agreement submitted along with the .NET ECMA stuff (to my knowledge, only C# has been submitted), then I just can't see how m$ will stay away from shutting Mono down.

    Also, while I think Mono is cool, I still have a problem supporting a language/platform that was created by a company such as m$ for the reasons they did. It still feels tainted and dirty to me. m$ has not become the largest software company in the world by being 'compatible'. There's a documented history that goes back well over a decade that proves this.

    Good luck guys! The dashboard looks reall cool, btw.

  11. Re:Nice to see the sideswipe at .NET (not) by 73939133 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    First, have they just said they would let the public use it, or have they actually licensed the patent for public use?

    They have done the same thing Sun has done with its numerous Java patents: they have stated that open source projects can use it. Can they go back on their word? Probably, just like Sun can. The real test will be for Mono to try to get something in writing from Microsoft permitting them to implement the .NET APIs. But it doesn't make much sense to do that before the patent has actually issued.

    I doubt you have reviewed all of Microsoft's current patent holdings, so what are you basing your opinion on?

    Patent "holdings" are public. I have looked through Microsoft's patents and patent applications, as have many other people; they are available at the USPTO site. Nobody has yet identified any problems.

    I fail to see how you can claim there's nothing to worry about with .NET.

    I didn't make any such claim. There are some minor concerns surrounding patent issues and .NET, not as serious as those surrounding Java, but you can legitimately worry about them if you like.

    What you keep doing, however, is confusing .NET with Mono and C#. Even if .NET were completely off-limits to open source implementations, Mono would still be a thriving and useful project and a great platform for writing Linux applications because most of the APIs people use for writing Linux applications are not based on .NET.