back to article .NET for Android prepares to get probed

Microsoft's .NET for Android - dubbed MonoDroid - has come a step closer. The Novell-backed MonoTouch project is about to start beta tests of a version of its open-source implementation of Microsoft's framework for use on Google's Linux operating system for devices. Final product for MonoDroid is expected in the fall, Novell …

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  1. GazElm

    How much?

    $2499 to be able to redistribute Mono code?

    You could just write things in Java for free, and write code that works on all platforms, not just a crippled version of a Microsoft Java ripoff.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Terminator

      Exactly

      Given that Java is cross(-more)-platforms than .NET in the first place, I see little point in this.

      UI code will regardless have to be re-written, leaving only support libraries to gain from cross-platform. Like .NET compared to .NETCF, Android's Java has some differences to standard Java, but a huge amount of standard Java libraries will work with it.

      If I was inclined to throw away $2500, I'd prefer to give it to charity than Novell or Microsoft and use the correct tool for the job (that would be the Android SDK.)

      Terminator, because he wasn't coded in .NET either.

  2. Tom 15
    Grenade

    Well...

    Well, it's not really £2.5k as it comes with 5 of the £250 dev licenses.

    As for .NET, yes it (and C#) are Java ripoffs but I have to say that C# has really overtaken Java in recent years in terms of functionality and use.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      @Tom 15

      Why do you have to say? Is it in your contract?

  3. Ebeneser
    FAIL

    Waste of time

    It always amazes me how companies find time to invest in projects that are clearly going nowhere. Mono should have been drowned at birth. The fact that it now threatens to infect android shows its true colours, these of something akin to a cockroach.

    1. James Hughes 1

      .NET on Linux

      I believe Mono is used on Linux (esp. Ubuntu) so you can write C# apps for platform. That's useful, surely?

  4. Filippo Silver badge

    is it as good as Mono?

    'cause in that case, I don't think it'll see much serious use.

  5. DrXym

    Mono tools demonstrates the FAIL of mono

    Why exactly do I need tools for MS Developer Studio to develop .NET apps for Mono? Either Mono runs .NET correctly or it doesn't. If it does then charging an obscene amount for tools is robbery and if it doesn't, then what the hell is the point of Mono in the first place?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Halo

    Why oh why....

    ...when Android already has App Inventor. Okay, App Inventor is not quite as slick as Visual Studio but it'll grow and evolve if people use it.

    1. Alan Bourke
      Megaphone

      Good luck

      creating anything other than toy applications with App Inventor.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Why would I ?

    I'm a .Net developer and I've been using it since beta 2.

    While mono is interesting, I can't see why I would pay extra for tools in order to work with a lesser version.

    Do they want to attract .Net Framework developers or are they trying to turn them off?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Gates Horns

      They wan't to destroy GNU/Linux

      They want to atract non .NET developers to Mono, and then when Mono gets shutdown by Microsoft, force them to buy Windows in odder to keep using the platform.

      $2,499 version is only safe one (until Microsoft shut it down, that is), rest ones are purposely patent infected and are a liability. Microsoft pays Novell per line of C# code and per Microsoft patent they infiltrate into Free Software ecosystem. When that code gets used, then Microsoft can go after big users, like recently Salesforce (and no so recently Amazon, TomTom and HTC) and make them pay royalties or sue them if they won't pay. Inject a Trojan via proxy like Novell, and then extort money. That is their tactics which they use to persuade people that Free Software is expensive and shouldn't be used. Profiting of other's people work.

      Name a crime, Microsoft did it.

  8. Mountford D
    Happy

    I'm going to get flamed for saying this but...

    I actually do like C#!

    Having been developing in Java for 6+ years, my job dictated developing applications for the ubiquitous Windows and .NET environment. I didn't fancy VB so it was VC++ or C# and the latter was closer to what I was accustomed to.

    Now sadly, I have come to really like it after two and a half years and much as I dislike Microsoft products, I have to confess I like the Visual Studio environment and the ease of stitching together .NET applications. "Horses for courses" I guess. It's back to good old Java and Eclipse or Netbeans when it comes to Linux apps as I found Mono a bit clunky in a Gnome environment the last time I had a go and suspect it would be the same in Android.

  9. LPF
    Thumb Up

    C# v Java

    Have used both in my work and C# is jave without the stupid bits. However microsoft are not starting to polute the lanuage with rubbish, LINQ which is a solution looking for a problem and now allowing people to break type checking :S

    1. Doug 3

      re: C# v Java

      hmmm, "However microsoft are not starting to polute the lanuage with rubbish, "

      don't you mean:

      "However Microsoft is NOW starting to pollute the language with rubbish"

      I'm thinking English is your 2nd language but that one letter makes a big difference in the meaning of the sentence.

  10. James Chaldecott
    Flame

    Trolls, check your facts!

    I've just headed over to the "Mono Tools for Visual Studio" purchase page to see what they're charging for. The $2500 enables you to redistribute Mono *without* having to comply with its usual LGPL license. That's basically for if you want to embed it as a scripting engine inside your own application (e.g I think various games already do this).

    As for "Why exactly do I need tools...": The tools enable you to remote debug under Mono on other architectures (Linux, Mac, etc) from within VS on Windows, if that's how you you prefer to operate. If you want to develop directly on those platforms, then you can use MonoDevelop for free.

  11. wobbly1
    FAIL

    Paid for and emulating a closed system versus...

    ...(beer)Free and open source? let me think for a nano-second ... sorry just got distracted again by Google app inventor for android... cost £0 learning curve so shallow it appears parallel to the bottom.

    I'm shuddring at the memory of the programmers development kit for Microsoft mouse C 1990. that took two programmers 1 night and 1 medium bag of weed to get a bamboo stick mouse pointer...

    nah, not again

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      So you basically admit...

      ...comparing Googles current offering to your experience on Microsoft 20 years back? That's a bit biased to say the least.

      1. wobbly1

        that just shows their long history of p*ssing off developers.

        Agreed it was merely the most egregious example, we switched away entirely from Microsoft's later visual studio when it became clear that we would have to junk our entire code base after some tinkering to the .net code base by Microsoft. that's within the last 7 years. many other examples available stretching back to 1979

  12. Nazar

    Performance issues?

    I was under the impression that Mono's performance lags considerably when compared to Microsoft's VM.

    Will Android handsets have the required CPU power to offer a good user experience? I am thinking of the lower end 500/600Mhz handsets.

    TBH, I'd rather invest in learning Scala for Android. I'm in my third week of writing my first Android app (coming to Java from Ruby and Delphi) and boy is Java verbose!!

  13. Doug 3
    Grenade

    all because of a non shipping Microsoft phone?

    What Microsoft Phone developers, what Microsoft Phone and let's remember that it is only partially compatible with Microsoft's C# and partially compatible with Microsoft's .NET API's.

    where's the icon for a wolf in sheepskin because that is all Mono is.

    grenade because this will blow up in your face.

  14. pan2008
    Thumb Up

    Same experience

    I came from a Unix env with some Mac, then started using Visual studio, SQL Server and I don't change it for anything, you are just so productive and everything works well and fast. I would like to see .NET in more platforms if works as well as windows.

    1. GazElm

      Re: if it works as well as on windows

      Putting aside the C# vs Java debate for the moment, .NET will NEVER work as well on other platforms as it does on Windows.

      It's not in MS' interest.

      (Java works well on every thing ;) )

  15. Alan Bourke
    Pint

    This is a hiding to nothing.

    If you don't want to code for Android in Java then look at the likes of RhoMobile (Ruby), Appcelerator or PhoneGap (Javascript) and others. Yes, with the exception of Appcelerator you'll be producing web apps that run in a browser but what the hell, that's probably where things are going anyway.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @LPF

    LINQ is the best thing that happened to .NET. IMO it's the point where .NET became emphatically 'better' than Java. LINQ is also the building blocks on which the Reactive Framework is built, which itself is a considerable leap forward

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