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VS.Net Apps Can Now Run On Linux

Posted by Hemos on from the where-does-this-live-us dept.

MxTxL writes "EWeek is reporting here about a plugin for Visual Studio.Net, called Grasshopper, that allows web applications that once only ran on IIS to be run on Tomcat or other J2EE platforms. The Mainsoft Developer Zone has more details on how it works but basically it converts the MS Intermediate Language into Java bytecode. The developer is also a supporter of the Mono Project."

10 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. why from byte-code to byte-code? by castlec · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Was this only to take advantage of already existing VMs to create instantaneous cross platform usability? Are there plans to remove the byte-code to byte-code translation?

    --
    When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
    1. Re:why from byte-code to byte-code? by castlec · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I wasn't accusing VMs of being poor. It just seems like a lot of the effort of porting from one byte-code to another to use an already available VM would be better served by producing a native VM. Perhaps I'm wrong and it is just too complicated to mess with right now. My point is that it is an additional and unnecessary layer, not an attack on the use of a VM.

      --
      When I tell an object to delete this, am I killing it or telling it to kill me?
    2. Re:why from byte-code to byte-code? by Locutus · · Score: 2, Interesting

      it's only "unnecessary" if you are a multi VM vendor running a single Dev Environment. Microsoft and Mainsoft are doing this so that multi VM vendors/customers running different Dev Environments switch to the Microsoft IDE for their only Dev Environment. They'll kill off this multi VM capability later but right now, they are not telling you this.

      It's how they turned a bunch of UNIX software vendors into Windows software vendors back in the NT v3.5x days.

      To see how far they'll go, look at the Microsoft purchase of Softimage. After the sale, they were forced to produce a Windows version and then Microsoft pounded on them to drop the UNIX version. Too many customers stuck with UNIX and the UNIX port remained and is now also a GNU/Linux version.

      It's all part of the Microsoft game....

      LoB

      --
      "Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
  2. Re:oh well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Becuase it's not easier to port unless you want to make people install GTK or whatnot on their Windows/Mac boxes.

    The power of .NET has nothing to do with writing data-crunching algorithms. It's all about GUIs (and other such things) that older devel tools really suck at.

    There are other options of course, such as OpenStep, but .NET really is a good thing, even if it is MS-specific. .NET and the whole managed-code development model (which also exists in versions from Apple, Sun, and others) might well lead to more consistent, better user interfaces and shorter development times for desktop apps.

  3. Typical Slashdot! marking parent as Troll! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    He made valid points! He tried Mono and it (as we all know) has a lot of issues especially since its different from .NET which is a moving target.

    One of you blaimed the guy for firing the engineer who tried something new which is something he never said!

    I've been using Linux since 1995 and in recent years we get all these assholes saying community this and that and loudmouth trolls. He is not one of them, frankly the Linux/OSS movement has gone downhill with Sun bashing and even MS are starting to look good. More so in recent years I notice how XP is getting better while Linux distros are bloating up and becoming unstable...

    The parent is not a troll he made a critical remark and those of you who moded him down are facist assholes!

  4. Re:Great switch by BarryNorton · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I'm sorry replying to myself, but moderation these days is in the hands of incompetents.

    To defend my point, the JVM is undeniably technically inferior to Microsoft's CLR (read 'Technical Overview of the Common Language Runtime' - say what you like about Microsoft, but Erik Meiker is a fine researcher, whom I know from the Haskell community).

    Furthermore I've worked with Tomcat for a number of years now (though not with IIS for a while), and it is an appalling and unstable piece of software.

    If the moderators choose to judge everything on a political level, so be it, but my point remains, on a technical level (putting aside the political and economic) this is not a move forward...

  5. Java kicks .NETs arse by cspring007 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why? You ask.
    Well, off the top of My head i can think of these Reasons:
    1. Java and the developnent platform is FREE.
    2. Java has an On-Line users manual that is top notch.
    3. Java is not Microsoft
    4. Java has way better 3rd party SDKs (I.E. eclipse) than .NET
    5. Java is not Microsoft

  6. Re:Maybe im missing something here.. by cosinezero · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Many companies run their entire enterprise on .net, already. We do, and have since v1.0. .NET performs VERY well, however it does suffer from a ton of sub-par developers migrating from ASP/VBScript/VBA(office dev) who don't understand the power they've been handed.

    I will however readily admit that I've very little experience in java enterprise development, but if java can outperform some of the amazing features of .net managed code, I would be surprised.

  7. Re:Nothin' but .NET by m0rph3us0 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'd kill to be able to efficiently run ASP.NET on Linux.

    VS.NET is an excellent dev environment with good tools but Windows 2003 is clunky as a server. And MS SQL is a lot of money for a whole bunch of features most people never use. (I'm talking about federated databases, clustering, etc., NOT transactions, stored procs, etc)

  8. Re:I see failure! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
    You're trolling. Every JIT compiler does conversions at the byte code level; and many do it in multiple stages (like hotspot). Some JIT compilers also have internal intermediate stages (gnu's thingy - is it called RTL?). Having one more intermediate stage in this translation will have no effect on the overall reliability compared to more mundane things like a monolithic vs micro kernel.

    Large IT implementations especially are the one that can trust it, because they do extensive testing of their own and maintain *INCREDIBLY* complex non-supported enironments such as legacy cobal mainframe apps where all the original authors have retired and all the companies involved are long gone. Large IT installations are also the ones where the economies of scale dictate that they can support F/OSS and their own software (think amazon, yahoo, google) more effectively than paying a vendor to do so.

    Small companies that have no IT shop will use the Microsoft version.

    Midsized companies that depend on their Microsoft partnership for sales leads, etc will use the Microsoft version to maintain a good relationship between the companies (the company I'm currently at falls in this category). Microsoft is incredibly important to us to get our foot in the door at many clients.

    Large companies use whatever architecture their in-house IT group standardized on. If that's Java, it'll mean running the .NET stuff in a Java framework through a tool much as described here.