back to article .NET for iPad stretches to Google's Android

Call it an unholy three-way, but .NET is coming to Google Android, potentially helping C# developers interested in creating applications for Apple's iPad. Novel has announced that MonoDroid, a software development kit (SDK) to build applications for Google's Linux OS using C# and the Common Intermediate Language (CIL), is …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    C# vs Java

    This seemed to have a point on the iPhone as Objective C is very different to C#, but C# and Java are so similar is it really that difficult for C# developers to learn Java? You're going to have to learn the API's anyway...

    I learned C# from Java in about a day (and, frankly, think most of C#'s "improvements" over Java are pretty dire, not to mention VS is awful compared to Eclipse).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Yeah right!

      "I learned C# from Java in about a day...."

      It took you that long!!

    2. Shakje

      I learned Java in about a week from C++

      So all these silly Java developers should just lump it and learn Objective C.

      The advantage is, depending upon how it's done in the background, it might be a lot easier to write portable code using C# and Mono than in Java (and having to write device specific GUI code etc.).

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Java_and_C_Sharp#Feature_comparison

      Look, there are advantages to both languages, but personally I find that C# makes for far more straightforward code, whereas Java seems to lend itself to sprawling projects with obscure classes. At the end of the day, as a Java developer there are things that you are used to that you'll argue to the death about (such as operator overloading) and there are things that I'll argue about because I have got used to them (such as operator overloading), I don't think either viewpoint is right, but I think the cross-platform possibilities of a Mono implementation are interesting at least.

      As to VS vs Eclipse, it's a matter of taste again. Personally I find the comparison to be very close, but I prefer VS, purely because I work in it day to day.

    3. Sentient

      Sentient

      In one day? You didn't learn it very well then. And about the VS vs Eclipse remark that's a pretty subjective since I love to work with VS and hate to switch to Eclipse for Java or PHP development. If I was serious about these languages I'd really look for an alternative first before settling on Eclipse. But that's just my opinion.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    If Novell would...

    If Novell would spend their resources promoting their own stuff, instead of MS's crap, then maybe they'd be a little better off financially.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Meh.

    Impementing vendor lock-in on a Java-based device. Do Not Want.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      What?

      "Mono is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework based on the ECMA standards for C# ."

      Vendor lock in? Nope.

  4. ChrisInBelgium

    Don't think so

    My guess would be, as the license stipulates the programs have to be written in C, C++ or Objective C, and NOT through another SDK, that the chances of having this banned are rather big, no? Will be interesting to follow!

  5. This post has been deleted by its author

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    excuse me!

    but if mono is allowed to run its VM on the iPhone then why can't we run a java VM?

    1. vic 4
      Troll

      Or flash!

      > why can't we run a java VM?

    2. John 62
      Gates Halo

      not a VM

      .NET on Windows and Mono on Linux run in what is to all intents and purposes a VM*, but C# on iphone compiles down to native code instead.

      * that sounds technical, but I don't have a clue about the details of the differences between the JVM and the .NET runtime

  7. Syd

    "it's become unclear whether MonoTouch is actually allowed on the Jobsian machine"

    Is anyone able to explain why there would any doubt whatsoever that it is NOT allowed? The Ts&Cs explicitly say "Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript".

  8. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    From what we've been told it must be barred.

    However, the new terms are mainly either to block Flash or to allow Apple to decompile or read your application source code, which is in a language that they understand. And then again, Apple could change their terms at any time.

    But Mono is just a pseudocode execution system, !sn't it? As is .NET's CLR? So presumably you could write a program with Apple-acceptable language and then, with a suitable compiler, compile the program to run on .NET and Mono as well?

    Or perhaps Apple also has a rule against that? Apparently they have a rule against mentioning in app descriptions that other code execution environments (e.g. other handsets)exist and that a version of your app has been favourably received on such. At least one developer got dis-app-eared from the store for doing that. "I am a jealous Jobs; thou shalt have no other handsets before me." (So why do people call it the Jesus Phone, that wasn't a Jesus line...)

    1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

      Although on second thoughts

      Jesus did nearly say "No app comes to the user, except through my online store." Nearly. "If you know what I want, you will know what's good for my users." John 14:6-7.

  9. Jimmy Floyd
    Jobs Halo

    Join us, be one of us

    "If Mono is allowed on the iPad, having it on Android as well will mean that developers can save time and effort porting their apps between devices."

    But why would you want to port it anywhere? iPad is the only platform for the future. Apple knows best. You are free, to do as they tell you.

    </creepy_sarcasm>

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    C# is better than Java

    Eclipse is okay, VS 2010 kicks the crap out of all other IDEs. C# in it's 4th generation is a superior language to Java.

    I don't know about JVM vs. CLR, but clearly Apple is not going to want to turn away millions of C# developers; one day, one of them might come up with an app worth downloading that actually does something productive.

    Even with these Novell SDKs, developing for iPhone or Android is still no where near as simple as developing for Windows CE devices.

    1. Steven Knox

      Irony is...

      Posting a comment favorable to Microsoft technologies with a screen name of "Bugs R US"

  11. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Jobs Horns

    My Jobs

    Is an *angry* Jobs

    That is all.

  12. Rattus Rattus
    Thumb Down

    Urgh

    Do not want. We really don't need to be giving .NET any encouragement, it should fade away quietly into irrelevance.

    1. Adam Azarchs
      Grenade

      Irrelevance?

      .Net is one of the most popular languages in the buisness world. There were more job postings looking for c# developers than for Java developers last year. If any language should fade away into irrelevance, it should be the designed-by-committee one.

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