Miguel de Icaza (photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Xamarin boss Miguel de Icaza believes that the dismissal of the Mono team through Novell has ultimately proved a blessing. He had been entrusted with Novell to work on Mono. His start-up now carries on the commercial development. NET solutions for IOS and Android.
Mono is a free implementation of Microsoft’s. NET Framework. She works as a. NET for Linux or Silverlight for Linux (Moonlight), but also for Mac OS X, Sony’s Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii available. It also stands for iPhone, Android and iPad and ready for HTML developers – via MonoTouch, for Android and Mono Manos de mono.
In an interview with ZDNet de Icaza said that he had previously played with the idea of founding his own company to work on Mono. While Novell’s acquisition by Attachmate he had postponed these plans, however. “By leaving the notice, we had a clear cut. The plans for the new company is surprisingly quick to implement. A spin-out from Novell would probably have taken months.”
The focus, according to de Icaza, now no longer sure. NET applications to run unchanged on other platforms. It is more about enabling developers to leverage their existing NET experience and the power of C # to implement on other platforms -. Especially on mobile devices. Mono is not today, but what the developers originally envisioned explains General de Icaza. “But we now have thousands of paying customers, the Mono on the iPhone and Android have to use. We far more developers than we have ever had on the desktop.”
There are different benefits that appeal to the developers. “Some liked functions of language, while others require cross-platform applications or employ developers who want to use it productively on different platform,” said de Icaza.. Mono combine the advantages of NET and C #: “C # is unmatched as an innovative programming language”. Moreover, it is to get an option for Windows developers, their capabilities to other platforms. “You can take a lot of knowledge. You can take advantage of thousands. NET libraries again, they have created and tested.”
De Icaza believes that Microsoft underestimated the importance of. NET because it focuses on Windows. “We love it. NET far more than Microsoft,” he joked. “It’s rather like when your girlfriend denies her friends. Microsoft denies that Mac OS, iPhone, Android, Chrome OS and all that exists” Until six years, Windows has dominated the world. “The key was what Microsoft said. Now we live in a heterogeneous world.”
Microsoft support mono significantly stronger today than several years ago. “We’re all about. NET on all equipment to bring. There are a lot of people at Microsoft, where the well pleases. Microsoft has done much to help us through the open-source release. NET components we could use again in mono. We are therefore spared to catch up with things like DLR, F #, MVC, CMS Orchard. ” De Icaza estimates that the savings in development time for mono to two to three years. The fear of the open source community that Microsoft could assert his rights, he does not share.
“We believe that in the future. NET and C of # as” virtual machine after ECMA standard and C # ‘is considered to be public standards that are available everywhere, not just Microsoft technologies, “says de Icaza. “Today they still clings to a stigma outside the Microsoft world: that it is closed Microsoft technologies we want to change..”
De Icazas start-up plans Xamarin updates for mono, coming in the fall when new IOS 5 and Android APIs. In addition, a version of HP’s WebOS is being considered – in addition to working on an updated compiler. “I want to see what becomes of WebOS,” said de Icaza. It might also be a port of Moonlight on Mac OS. “Then we could make Silverlight apps in the App Store. Now nothing works with Silverlight on Mac App Store due to the external dependency.”
Microsoft had indicated their intention to move to Windows 8 in the direction of web apps. Despite fears among developers, it is unlikely that it. NET gives up.
