[ruby-talk:21989] Re: Let's work on Windows support

On Wed, 2001-10-03 at 02:53, David Alan Black wrote:
> Hello --
> 
> On Wed, 3 Oct 2001, Furio R. Filoseta (tlf.) wrote:
> 
> > Come on, for Ruby developers in Windows environment. You may as well be
> > asking the rest of the posters to this thread why bother with Windows ?
> >
> > Oh, wait, that's it, isn't it ?
> >
> > -----Mensaje original-----
> > De: Albert Wagner [mailto:[e-mail]]
> > Enviado el: Martes, 02 de Octubre de 2001 08:07 p.m.
> > Para: ruby-talk ML
> > Asunto: [ruby-talk:21963] Re: Let's work on Windows support
> >
> > On Tuesday 02 October 2001 18:20, you wrote:
> > <snip>
> > >
> > > Given the enormous effort Microsoft is putting into .NET I think doing
> > > the .NET way would be all gain.
> >
> > For who?
> 
> I have briefly tried to understand .NET, and don't, so I may be wrong.
> But judging from the fact that there are .NET versions of different
> languages, I have to assume that .NET is yet another attempt by
> Micros**t to make everything run only on MS, and to destroy all
> branches of computer culture which don't rely on MS and use MS
> proprietary standards.  Unless there's been a shift in their corporate
> strategy unlike any other such shift in the history of corporations,
> that would be a reasonable assumption.
> 
> Therefore, I don't see how it can be good for Ruby.  I'm not trying to
> start an argument here; I'm just reasoning from what we know about
> Micros**t.

Simply put, .Net is a virtual machine that can run a byte-code-file, in
the same way the java virtual machine runs it's byte-code.  The big
difference between tja java vm and the .Net vm is that java vm was only
made for running java programs.  The .Net vm is made for running
programs from any programming language.  If you create a class in C# you
could run it from ruby and the other way around.  

Making a ruby to .Net compiler would mean alot for windows users
* Ruby-programs would run on any computer that has the .net vm
(expect      _every_ windows-computer to have that soon)
* You could write ruby-classes and access them from C# or other
languages
* You could access classes/functions that are written in other languages
from ruby.  This means for example
   * You can access soap-libraries
   * You can access com-libraries (or dcom or whatever the component
system is named now :) )
   * You can access GUI-libraries.  No more talk about what gui should
be the default and not look like the rest of the desktop.


For unix/linux there are several project trying to implement .Net.  The
one most likely to succeed is mono (www.go-mono.com).

For unix/linux this would mean almost the same as for windows-people
* Ruby-programs would run on any computer that has the .net vm
(expect      _every_ linux-distribution to include that in the future
(unlike java that some doesn't include)
* You could write ruby-classes and access them from C# or other
languages.
* You could access classes/functions that are written in other languages
from ruby.  This means for example
   * You can access soap-libraries
   * You can access bonobo-libraries (gnome's component system)
   * You can access GUI-libraries.  No more talk about what gui should
be the default and not look like the rest of the desktop.  For mono this
would be GTK+/Gnome.

If you only use the parts of .Net that are the same on both windows and
mono you would be able to create a program that looks like a
windows-program on the windows-box and a gnome-program on the
unix/linux-box and it would run equaly well on both system.

Ofcource, this is a dream.  But it might come true with other
languages.  I hope it does with ruby :)

I know some guy started on a .Net-project for ruby.  Unfortunaly his
page is in japanese and I don't understand any of it.  I'll be _very_
interested in finding out more about his project.  Anyone here that
knows japanise that can talk to him and tell me (or maybe he can tell me
himself??)??


/Erik

-- 
Erik B虍fors               | [e-mail]
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