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.NET, C-sharp, and Mono

Revision as of 12:18, 18 August 2010 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (Microsoft irrevocably promises not to assert any Microsoft Necessary Claims against you for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation, to the extent it co)

C# is a programming language developed by Microsoft. Mono is a software implementation of C#, developed by Novell with assistance from Microsoft. Microsoft has asserted that it has patents on C# and related libraries.[reference needed]


Mono

What is it?

Mono is an implementation of the C# programming language and the Common Language Infrastucture as described by ECMA-334 / ISO/IEC 23270 and ECMA-335 / ISO/IEC 23271.

What reassurances has Microsoft offered?

The ECMA-334 and ECMA-335 are covered by the Microsoft Open Specification Promise and the Microsoft Community Promise, which says:[1]

Microsoft irrevocably promises not to assert any Microsoft Necessary Claims against you for making, using, selling, offering for sale, importing or distributing any implementation, to the extent it conforms to one of the Covered Specifications, and is compliant with all of the required parts of the mandatory provisions of that specification ("Covered Implementation"), subject to the following: [...]

Avoiding Mono

Avoiding C#

There is a langauge called "Vala" which aims to have the utility of C# without the patent problems.

However, since Vala is a "partial" implementation[reference needed]

of C#/.NET, Vala may be at more at risk of Microsoft's patents than Mono is.  Microsoft's patent promise only applies to "any implementation [that] is compliant with all of the required parts of the mandatory provisions of that specification".

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links

References