[lug] Opinions on E*Trade dumping Sun for Linux?

[Ed Hill]

On Wed, 2002-02-06 at 20:58, Bryan Field-Elliot wrote:
> 
> I'm curious if anyone in this group has played with .Net, either via
> Microsoft or via the Mono project?  I love Java and have used it
> exclusively for the last three years, but the .Net CLI architecture is
> admittedly compelling. 


Huh?  Compelling?  What exactly do you gain?

As a Java programmer, you loose the security model and the platform
independence.  So no more developing on Linux and running on (almost)
anything.  And if you're a C++ coder, with the castrated ".NET managed
C++" you loose multiple inheritance, dynamic typing, and generics
(b-bye, templates!).  And I doubt that any Mono/Ximian implementation
would fix these problems because the CLS/CLR (AFAIK) simply doesn't have
the design or expressive power to support them.

So before anyone gets carried away with unbridled optimism such as:

http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers/2002-February/msg00031.html
http://eiffel.com/doc/manuals/technology/bmarticles/sd/dotnet.html

they should learn about some of the non-trivial down-sides:

http://www.javalobby.org/clr.html


And keep in mind the unchanging goal of Microsoft: enslaving you to
their platform.  But don't take it personally!  Its just a business
model...  ;-)

Ed

ps - I'm afraid Alan Cox's assessment of Mono:

       "Be assured that the day they decide you are a nuisance 
        the VM will acquire a patented neat feature that kills 
        you off.  Just ask the Samba people."

     will come true.  For all Miguel knows, many such claims are 
     already submitted and slithering their way through the US PTO.


-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD
Post-Doctoral Researcher   |  Email:       ed at eh3.com, ehill at mines.edu
Division of ESE            |  URL:         http://www.eh3.com
Colorado School of Mines   |  Phone:       303-273-3483
Golden, CO  80401          |  Fax:         303-273-3311
Key fingerprint = 5BDE 4DA1 66BE 4F7B BC17  3A0C 932B 7266 1E76 F123
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