DotGNU Ported to PocketPC

t3rmin4t0r writes "The Pocket PC# group has ported DotGNU Portable.net to PocketPC. This is a significant step because the .NET Compact Framework SDK is heavily licensed, unlike the .NET SDK available for free from MSDN. Thanks to PocketPC#, now you can build Window.Forms C# applications for PocketPC without submitting to Microsoft's exhorbitant SDK licensing fees. Portability to embedded/low-end hardware is one of Portable.net's stated goals. DotGNU Portable.net also works on 9 major CPU architectures according to gentoo's portage. The Darwin-ports features a cool package with Windows.Forms for Mac OS X. Handhelds like iPAQ or Zaurus have also ports (the iPAQ one features Windows.Forms). Esoteric hardware like the Sony Playstation 2 or the Microsoft XBox can also run Portable.net."

Comments

Good News!

[CommanderData]

This is great for people looking to develop on handhelds and smartphones such as myself. Programming for these devices really brings me back to the good old days in the 80s where one person could create a killer app or game!

Re:Good News!

[CommanderData]

You'd be suprised at the types of games you could make. You don't need to run the latest Quake or Unreal 3D engine to make a game entertaining. I know the CLR adds another layer of abstraction, but I also know that the 2D graphics and bitblt routines contained in the CLR are usually optimized to run on the hardware provided.

DotGNU may not be there yet, but don't discount the power of the newer handhelds out there, which are now reaching speeds of 500mhz. No doubt faster than the hardware some people are using to read this post!

Patent s

[Anonymous Coward]

isn't DOT NET full of patents though (not that its gonna effect 90% of the globe)
doesnt it strike anyone as odd that i have to pay MS to make their product successful

licensing means its never yours so why bother

Take a lesson from IBM, Novell

[RoundSparrow]

These two companies have been beaten by Microsoft playing the game better then them.

So what are they doing 15 years later? Playing back with Linux.

Open Source is not about free for these guys, it is increasing becoming a corporate game (Novell and IBM) with big profits.

Mono / dotGNU is about trying to treat the application developers equal. This is a chance to start over with Java-like technology.

Like it or not, don't ignore C# / dotNet. It likely has more users than Sun got in 10 years, anyone have numbers to share on that?

Cost of Compact Framework?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd never heard of a runtime fee associated with .Net compact framework.

Is this a lack of research or is there truth to this?

Re:Cost of Compact Framework?

[michael.creasy]

Lack of research.
Windows Mobile Developer Resrource Kit All the SDKs on DVD/CD. I clicked through to order and the price of the kit was $0.00

Re:Cost of Compact Framework?

[Aphrika]

The problem is that there's no SDK for the .NET CF 1.0, meaning you have to develop for it in Visual Studio 2003.

However, the reason is that they ran out of time, evidently a whole different kettle of fish from 'heavy licensing requirements' that's touted in the story. That's basically FUD.

So without an SDK, the only licensing requirement you have to satisfy to develop for it is a Visual Studio.NET 2003 license, there is no licensing attached to the runtimes. However, an SDK is pencilled in for the .NET CF 2.0 release.

Clickage..

[hot_Karls_bad_cavern]

Take a look at the screenshots page. Spin through those shots and just try to keep a smile off of your face. Seeing OSX, windows, and foss all on the same screen and system? C'mon, it wasn't that long ago that all of this was just little dreams in some heads. Seriously, the linux kernel and gnu software have started what i see as pretty serious revolution. Did it not strike anyone that MS is finally, and visibly showing concern about the gnu/linux advances? This is really exciting stuff, well, to me anyway.

i know i'm wandering, but think about it, longhorn is a long way off, linux is moving....and very fast, i might add, and besides the ridiculous prices, OSX/Apple will be the only real competitor in the next few years. This nonsense involving Sun's current flip-flopping is merely hope confused with death throes.

So, the window is open and with more tools like DotGNU wrapping systems together, damn, i'm looking forward to what will happen in the next few years. Good stuff, i think.

Re:Yet again Open Source plays catch-up.

[aussie_a]

What are you talking about? This is slashdot. There's no room for intelligent debate here.

Then create a login/sign in, post what you think. If you're not a depraved moron most people will like some of your comments, so you're likely to get up to at least a 1 (if I can do it anyone can) at which point some people will have to mod you down (but it means they'll read you). If enough people do this people might change.

On the other hand bitching about it as an AC gets achieves nothing.

How long...

[JessLeah]

...before the Nastygram(TM) from MS's lawyer corps arrives?

Some screenshots

[Simon (S2)]

here, here, here and here.

A dangerous idea

[Decaff]

This is using open source to provide free marketing for Microsoft. First, take a microsoft technology (.Net), then spend a lot of time and effort duplicating a subset of .Net, which will never be a complete implementation as Microsoft haven't given out all the libraries. Microsoft then have cut-down versions of '.Net' distributed on a range of systems, with no effort required from them, and they can say 'for the real, full, professional .Net experience come to Windows'. I view the .Net clones as persisting the (wrong) impression that open source software is an amateurish attempt to copy professional software.

There are better ways. Why not use Java? Its free, and there are many Java clones that are full-featured and run on Pocket-PC and PalmOS.

If you don't like Java.. why not actually be innovative and develop a new portable bytecode and languages to run on it? If not a new bytecode, why not help the work on parrot? Why not show that in VM technology open source coders can do more than simply play catch-up with Microsoft?

DotGNU and Parrot : The Real Story

[Gopal.V]

DotGNU Support in Parrot CVS | Parrot Support in DotGNU CVS

*g* -- I like parrot -- In fact I want Parrot to become the FreeSoftware VM :)

Re:Yet another clone from the OS world

[ites]

C is an ANSI standard language and has been implemented by hundreds of groups and companies, including all the major OS vendors.

Unix was largely standardised as POSIX long before Linux existed.

Both these (and many other technologies, such as parser generators, editors, networking) form basic layers of what has become a huge and sophisticated pyramid of applications.

Layers like .NET and this implementation are attempts to define, control, and open (or close) these basic layers. So if you take .NET seriously (which I do not, but that's a personal opinion), an open source equivalent is obvious and necesssary. Proprietary platforms extract a huge tax on their developers and customers: the lesson of Bell Labs' inventions and how they ended-up changing the world shows that gcc, Linux, and the thousands of other "clones" represent heroic and vital investments in reducing the cost of IT so that its benefits can reach beyond the elite.

If you are still using the same applications as in 1983, then you have some catching up to do. In 1983 I was using vi and assembler and some C, and seriously, things have changed a little bit since then...

What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hehe..:)

Who writes these news?

"The Pocket PC# group".. Author of this port is me, Vitaliy Pronkin.. I'll think about changing my name to "Pocket PC# group" :)

More.. This port doesn't allow you to write .net CF applications FOR PocketPC (you already can do this for a long time) - it allows to write them ON PocketPC, I ported only C# compiler and tools.

Regards,
Vitaliy Pronkin
pub-at-mifki.ru