Why Doesn't .NET Include a Linker?

CrypticSpawn asks: "I read an article on Joel on Software it talks about Microsoft missing one important thing from the .NET infrastructure, and I wanted to know what Slashdot readers thought were Microsoft's reasons for leaving [a linker] out?"

Comments

Does Java have a linker?

[EddWo]

They don't have a linker because .Net is a virtual machine Jit compiler as well as massive class library.
It will just become part of the Windows platform, its already included with Tablet PC, Media Center, Server 2003, Windows Mobile 2003 and it will be a major part of Longhorn.
No one asks for a linker to statically link to user32 or GDI.

Re:silly objection, and- you can get a linker!

[kzeddy]

this linker shown above does nothing more than merge all the classes used by the application into one big assembly. it does not turn the code into native assembly or link into the assembly and mini hosting environment which is what joel is talking about. YOU STILL NEED .NET

How did this post get moderated up?

[Inoshiro]

All you had was wild speculation ending with, "I've never used .NET,"

Let's pause a second and see how programs work on a modern operating system.

There are 2 kinds of programs, typically, in an environment such as your PC: statically linked programs, and dynamically linked programs. Statically linked programs have the library calls included in the binary, wherease dynamically linked programs rely on library implementations stored in a system directory (like \windows\system or /usr/lib). The run-time linker resolves all the dependancies and loads the related libraries for every dynamic application you start (run the ldd command on a binary you have to see the libraries).

But a .NET program (or a Java program, or a batch file, or a shell script, etc, etc) isn't a binary. It's PCode. It requires an interpreter to parse its Pcode. To make the .NET program stand-alone, ala a statically linked binary, you'd need to include the interpreter, a set of all used class libraries, and any other parts of the environment that are required. A typical 1-3mb application would have to be distributed as a 30mb+ file.

When you want to run a Python program, you install a Pynthon interpreter. When you want to run a Java program, you have to install the Java runtime environment. When you want to run .NET programs, you need a .NET environment. It's not some crazy lock-in scheme, miyako, it's merely a fact of how virtual machines and Pcode work.

Before you sit down to learn about .NET, I think you should take off your aluminium beany and learn about how computers work.