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Technology Review Profiles Miguel de Icaza
prostoalex writes "Technology Review has a feature story on Miguel de Icaza, currently Novell VP of Product Technology, but more known as the leader of Gnome and Mono projects. Miguel is the man Don Box would like to see joining Microsoft for his "amazing amount of raw energy". If you read through the Technology review article, you will see that de Icaza was actually turned down by Microsoft at some point."
[...] de Icaza took the interview as an opportunity to lecture managers on why Microsoft should abandon its multibillion-dollar business model and embrace open-source programming. Not surprisingly, de Icaza wasn't hired.
The blurb here makes it sound like he was begging on his knees for them to take him on. Not quite what the article describes. He's not the least "confused on what side he's on".
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Python, which also bears little resemblance to C#, also appears to run very nicely on .NET and pretty well on Mono. http://ironpython.com/. While they aren't all open source, there are also many other languages with compilers directed at the CLI: http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/lang/.
.NET because Java can be run on Mono via the IKVM project http://www.ikvm.net/.
Finally, there seems to be no reason to suppose that Java is somehow more flexible than
I'm not advocating the use of Mono (and I'm certainly not advocating the use of Windows), but arguments against it should be technically correct.
Kluge
Ahem...
Some languages map very nicely to the JVM or the CLR
/clr flag which is a very convenient
(the same developer that did Jython now has
a very fast implementation called IronPython that
was unveiled and demostrated at OSCON).
The problem is with languages that require pointers:
Fortran, C, C++ and some extra support is convenient
for some functional languages that the CLR
provides.
I mean, nothing really ground breaking, but the
CLR had a chance to learn from Java's limitations.
The new MS C++ compiler generates pure CIL executables
when using the
way of integrating existing C/C++ codebases with
managed codebases.
Miguel.
The "best" and "most up-to-date" implementation will always be on Windows
.NET apps are being written. People are using it. It's not like it's going to just go away if you ignore it. Being "up-to-date" isn't really a big deal either. People don't want to code for a moving target. Platforms reach a certain level of maturity which most people are satisfied with, (Java 1.1 to 1.2 was a big jump, and 1.4 to 1.5 "5" is another one, but between there the differences weren't so big) and that's all you need to keep up with.
.NET applications
.NET apps using other libraries than WinForms, such as GTK#, which in fact is what the Mono crew officially recommends.
Yes. But face it:
Windows.Forms isn't "standardized" by ECMA, and it's very Windows-centric. Mono needs Windows.Forms in order to run GUI-based
Not quite correct. You can make GUI-based
Even though Java is proprietary, Sun has bent over backwards for years to get the community involved and keep the community involved.
I'd say they've done a lousy job, from the OSS community standpoint. There is no good free implementation of Java yet. Because Sun is possesive when it comes to Java. NOT because of forking or anything like that.
If Sun was scared of forking, they'd make the Java Compatibility Kit freely available. It costs thousands of dollars, terms that no OSS developer could possibly agree to. Sure Sun wants a community, but only on their terms. Sure they're far better than MS, but they're not 'bending over backwards' either.
http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/tmp/two-stac
One is the Microsoft compatible one.
The other one is where we are pouring our energies:
An ECMA core with the following on top:
There are quite a few of other open source stacks
for the ECMA CLI today that range from research
to practically useful.
Miguel.
LOL, look at Adolph Hitler's recent submissions. A story by him was accepted but Slashdot editors have chosen to refer to him as "a user".
No, today we do not have Windows.Forms implemented
(I should update that graph with the latest version
where we point that out).
Windows.Forms will be available in a few months.
They extended Java to the point where you could write Java that would only run with MS JVM - I don't see why they couldn't do that with their own .NET as well, so alas your point does not settle my concerns.
Check out my PHP Url Validator
Insightful, my ass.
This clown has been posting the same drivel on slashdot since time immemorial and I don't believe a word he says.
Pragmatism as an ideology is not particularly pragmatic in the long term. Keep it in mind when you dismiss Free Software
If you really want to "get it" see the Samba project. That cat and mouse game has been going on for the better part of a decade. ... Mono can be blown up at any time simply with a patch.
.NET, on the other hand, is a publically documented development platform. (One that's an ECMA standard, no less!) Even if Microsoft wanted to pull a fast one and try to change something to make Mono incompatible, their hands are tied since changes that would be required to break Mono compatibility would also break every application that runs on .NET.
That's pure FUD, and shows a complete lack of understand of the issues involved.
Samba has had problems with SMB because SMB was an undocumented protocol that changed as new features were added. Not because Microsoft was making changes just to screw them.
Seriously, get a clue.
NO CARRIER
You are wrong.
;-)
I have never been detained, its a shame, because
the legend is a lot more interesting than the real
story
Miguel.