back to article Mono swings .NET development into iPhone

Mono developers have shrunk their open-source implementation of the .NET runtime down to iPhone size. Novell on Monday unfurled MonoTouch, a commercial toolkit that allows developers to use Microsoft's development framework to build apps for Apple's ubiquitous mobile. MonoTouch consists of a suite of compilers, libraries, and …

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  1. MacroRodent

    Looks like iPhone is ridiculously restricted

    Makes me ever more eager to wait for the Nokia N900 ! It runs Linux and developers and tools are not going to be restricted in the Draconian way iPhone is (see http://blogs.gnome.org/tthurman/2009/09/03/writing-apps-for-the-n900-part-1/, http://blogs.gnome.org/tthurman/2009/09/06/writing-apps-for-the-n900-part-2-packaging/ ). No silliness about not allowing scripting languages or VM:s:

    use any language that has been ported to it. I expect Mono also will appear shortly. Might just be a recompile away.

  2. jubtastic1
    FAIL

    They did it for the lolz

    "But when it comes to the iPhone we felt that the developers are targeting a proprietary device with proprietary tools"

    So the iPhone port of the free open source version of the proprietary .Net runtime costs $400-1000 a year more than the free proprietary native iPhone SDK?

    This bold move will surely open the floodgates to development on Apple's fledgling device.

    God bless this ship and all who sink in her.

  3. John Sanders
    Grenade

    So what is Miguel waiting for?

    To release a compile to "static-native-code" version for Linux and Windows?

    I may buy a license then and use C#, but until then C++ does the trick.

    Lame, lame, lame, he would win to MS big time!, not to mention having something interesting in his hands... But you know, MS did not pay Miguel for that, just for the dynamic implementation.

  4. Matthew Ellen

    £0.99

    It's a good idea; writing C# is a lot easier than writing C. But the problem comes when the app writer tries to price their app. At $400+ per year will iPhone developers be able to sell their apps at a price people are willing to pay (less than $1)?

    If one were to stop paying, does that mean that you can no longer develop with mono for iPhone, or that you no longer get support?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    FAIL

    Unbelievable! First they create the development environment of a lot of peoples dreams, then they price it out of most peoples reach - epic FAIL!

    Surely what we all want is something that allows us to exploit this fantastic platform in a straightforward fashion, but in an affordable way.

    I guess that's what comes of getting to close to the M$ world. Never mind Miguel - you'll get the message one day.

  6. IndianaJ
    FAIL

    Nothing to gain really

    If you're using C# proficiently, then Objective C isn't that big a leap of faith.

  7. Goat Jam
    WTF?

    The Mind,

    It Boggles.

    What on earth is to be gained from using this over the iphone SDK?

    Surely this must have been done at Microsoft's behest?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    The iPhone is restricted?

    The whole bloody thing is restricted! Getting anything more that "hello world" to run on Mono is a futile task.

    Why people (err, like me) pursue with attempts to get Mono to do anything useful beats me. We need our heads examined.

  9. E Haines

    It's been done

    People have been using Mono on the iPhone for at least a year now; that's what the Unity engine uses.

  10. Gavin 6
    Go

    support for other devices?

    This could be a massive seller if support for other devices is added.

    Right now developers are forced to either pick a platform to develop for, or re-write their app in various languages depending on which platform is being targeted. If support for iPhone, Android and Nokia can also be added to MonoDevelop then it could be a big hit - write the code once in MonoDevelop, and have it automatically recompiled for all platforms.

    suddenly that $400 looks like a good deal, although no doubt only enterprise edition will support that.

  11. JeeBee
    FAIL

    Overpriced and undesirable

    It's not like Objective C is difficult, it's got square brackets and the API is different, but this won't change the API, just the language. Picking up a new language is easy (and Objective C is very Java-like, and hence C#-like), picking up a new, large, API is the hard part. This doesn't solve the hard part.

    Any programmer that demands to use their language of choice, or even IDE of choice, even where it isn't the obvious choice, needs to be sent off for some re-education in my opinion. Do tell me that this doesn't apply to most .NET programmers?

  12. Kotonoha
    Go

    I'll be getting this

    ...as soon as I get an iPhone.

  13. Tsvetomir Tsonev
    WTF?

    There's a place for that...

    ... in the footnotes of computer history.

    Apple won't support it for obvious reasons.

    Microsoft will not support it as they want the C# crowd to do Windows Mobile development.

    The Open Source community won't support it, as it's not open source.

    Novell, do you feel lonely already?

    By the way, Mono is already available for the N810, so I'm impatient to order the N900 after the price settles down a bit.

  14. Yaro

    Great. Now iPhones are infected?

    I see that Miguel de Icaza isn't satisfied with trying to tear Linux down with his beloved Mono patent poison. Now he's going after iPhone, too.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    .... i mean ...

    talk about YAWN

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