¿What's wrong with Mono?

According to an article written by Richard Matthew Stallman, there is something dangerous in "dependent" in C#.

It may be curious that Stallman do worry about dependence on a particular programming language, because the programming language can be changed to another and get the same software (even identical at the binary level, with some help from the compiler). Still, Stallman says in that article, "The risk" is that Microsoft may want to bring C# implementations under a patent.

In my opinion if something of this were to happen, the least problem would be to change the language to an equivalent. But the truth is that this will not come to pass.

WHY DOES MICROSOFT NOT PATENTING C#?

If we do some memory, remember that .NET is a standard, however, somewhat less well known is that C# is registered to ISO, as a little searching on the Internet you can prove.

Microsoft can not issue that patent because:

1. Microsoft has put C# under ISO.
2. Existing implementations of third parties.
3. They can sue Microsoft for monopoly.
4. Microsoft likes that there are others implementations of C#, to attract developers to Visual Studio.

Perhaps what worries Stallman is that they does not say "free standard" but "open standard". But Stallman and the Free Software community should understand that there is no such thing as a "free standard" (as in free speech) because if everyone has the right to modify and adapt the standard to his choice then it is not a standard. At best we can say that is a technical recommendation or a suggestion, or a guide.

Perhaps what annoys Stallman is that Debian are using Mono, that Mono is from Novell and that nobody uses DotGNU. Mono is not against the GNU politics or philosophy and Stallman knows that.

.NET as standard

.NET framework is an open standard developed by Microsoft, its implementation is a set of libraries that contain functions to perform common tasks, so that programmers do not have to retype the repetitive parts of the program. In addition, .NET defines a standard way to communicate between two programs and programming languages called IL and C#.

Between implementations of .NET are Dot/GNU of the GNU project, Mono Framework of Novell (Owners of the distribution SUSE Linux) and .NET Framework from Microsoft. All three share the same basic structure, libraries and the same language equivalent. So that most programs to write for one of these implementations. NET will run in the other.

Despite being registered with an open standard ECMA and ISO, there are differences in implementations mainly because Microsoft has the lead in development and implementations Mono and Dot/GNU are lagging behind. On the other hand that Microsoft's implementation only works on Windows systems, while Dot/GNU focuses on systems derived from UNIX and Mono is intended to function on multiple platforms.

It is worth noting the similarity level architecture that .NET Mycrosistems and Sun Java have, with the difference that the latter is not an open standard. Also note that Microsoft and Mono have developed a tool for interactive applications, which competes with Adobe Flash. This tool is called SilverLight in the world of Microsoft and MoonLight in Mono.

Finally, .NET is the foundation of the Web development platform ASP.NET, direct competition from PHP and JSP. Likewise .NET is the framework for XBOX and XBOX 360 systems from Microsoft.

New blog

Hello, this is my new blog "C# dash & slash".

But, ¿who I am?

cl My name is Alfonso Ramos and I'm a independent Software developer and... new writer of blogs?

I'm writing a blog because of three big factors:

1. the first one is that mail is a mess, I've often found myself writing or reading a lot on my mail account that simply a blog would make things easier.
2. Second is that I wish to share some knowledge with ECMA-334 (I mean C#) and ECMA-335 (I mean (dot).NET-Framework, also Mono).
3. And third, because it's an opportunity to have a -bigger- name in Internet.

So, this brings a few obvious questions to the table:

¿What will I be blogging about?

I will be writing about, the things people write to me about, the things I do with computers (some projects and so), and what is happening in the Industry that affects me. and why not a few jokes if they come handy.

¿Why would you read my blog?

I don't know, that's up to you, I will not make any promises, neither give incentives whatsoever to come and read my ramblings and crazy stuff. But, then again... ¿Why not? if you have some time to spend (I know you have since you are reading this already) the odds are that you may find something interesting to read here, if not, well, that's ok too.

¿How can you contact me?

Via mail, the old system still works, so you can use it, find how to mail me from my profile. Still I'll do my best to avoid the need to force people to mail me (you know, this is a blog so you leave comments and stuff). About that, I'll be a "optimistic moderator" about messages, all messages are in by default but I reserve the right to delete any messages I find harmful or troublesome. This is opposed to pessimistic moderation, which is when you do not let any message in until is reviewed. I'll probably switch to that at some point in the future if this blog doesn't go too well. So, if you feel like telling me something please comment when possible, otherwise there is always the "old way" e-mail.

Edit: I've added a new contact section to this blog, look for it at the top menu.

My own faults

I have a few faults on my self about writing, this is the basic list:

1. I give too few links. That is, there are a lot of pages I may be referencing in this blog, but I'm not doing it because I forgot about it, or I'm just lazy.
2. I write a lot, if you let me. And you are leaving me. It may be trouble, then again it can be fixed easy by splitting what I write here in more than one post.

Edit: This is the english version of the Blog "C# porque no sé ++". I have writen that blog in Spanish. If you are a Spanish speaker I recommend you to visit it.

Now, if you find me committing any of the above sins, let me know. I try to fix the post or add new post to cover the problem. ¿How to? Try leaving comments in the post, or if that doesn't work go to use e-mail, get my e-mail information from my profile.

"C#" are ".NET" are tags births as twins!

This is a double birth, my first article oriented to content, is related to "C#", and ".NET", so I will give birth to both tags at the same time.

Now, the tag called "C#" will go to all that have any relation to the language, how to write something in "C#", examples and that kind of stuff, I'm open to write a lot of that in relative to that language in the near future.

Also, the tag called ".NET" will go for all that related to ".NET" this will include the part of Mono that's an implementation of ECMA-335. I think I will give birth to the "Mono" tag to all the articles that are specific to the progress of the Mono project... but that's another tale, that must be told in another moment.