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Last post Author Topic: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?  (Read 17112 times)

Edvard

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #25 on: January 06, 2011, 01:18 PM »
Why not something like Python or Ruby?
Sure, it's not going to cross over easily from your previous knowledge of Basic, but it fits the bill for easy-to-learn with just enough power to get things done.

Also, at risk of finding myself within critical ballistic trajectory of kinetically impelled mephitic S. Lycopersicum fruiting bodies, let me suggest something more advanced but along the lines of what you asked for: A community-based and maintained programming language...

D
http://www.digitalmars.com/d/index.html
D is a systems programming language. Its focus is on combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages like Ruby and Python. Special attention is given to the needs of quality assurance, documentation, management, portability and reliability.

The D language is statically typed and compiles directly to machine code. It’s multiparadigm, supporting many programming styles: imperative, object oriented, and metaprogramming. It’s a member of the C syntax family, and its appearance is very similar to that of C++.

Although virtually unknown except for a few folks who appreciate what it's trying to do, it fits your idea of a language somewhere between "Those from academia with radical new paradigms and those from large corporations with a focus on RAD and the web."
A steeper learning curve than your beloved VB of course, but HEY; while we're being different and all, why not give it a look-see?

Eóin

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #26 on: January 06, 2011, 01:47 PM »
I would imagine D is a wonderful language, it's probably the language C++ should be. But then it's not C++, so it doesn't have the anywhere near the same level of compiler support or library breath.

kyrathaba

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #27 on: January 06, 2011, 08:27 PM »
Microsoft's Shared Source CLI (codenamed "Rotor") enables .NET application development on Mac and FreeBSD.  Couple this with Mono, and you've got four of the most common platforms that can be targeted by .NET apps.  I confess Mono is unfinished (yet very nice, even at its current incarnation).

Renegade

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #28 on: January 06, 2011, 08:48 PM »
Microsoft's Shared Source CLI (codenamed "Rotor") enables .NET application development on Mac and FreeBSD.  Couple this with Mono, and you've got four of the most common platforms that can be targeted by .NET apps.  I confess Mono is unfinished (yet very nice, even at its current incarnation).

Ahem...

Date Published:
11/5/2002

Pretty useless in 2011.

It would have been nice to see MS maintain it though. But, then I suppose that's why we have Portable.NET and Mono now.

Semi-related -- I just saw that a bunch of namespaces I'd like to use are not available in MonoDroid, e.g. System.Drawing. :(
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

kyrathaba

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #29 on: January 06, 2011, 08:52 PM »
Wow, I'd have figured they'd have ported the Drawing namespace as a top-priority...

Renegade

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #30 on: January 06, 2011, 09:13 PM »
Wow, I'd have figured they'd have ported the Drawing namespace as a top-priority...

Well, there's Android.Drawing, but it's just not the same. I need to do more investigation though. Spent a few hours the other day on it, but it doesn't look like I can reuse some code.

The available assemblies are (in MonoDroid):

I18N.CJK.dll
I18N.dll
I18N.MidEast.dll
I18N.Other.dll
I18N.Rare.dll
I18N.West.dll
Mono.Android.dll
Mono.Cairo.dll
Mono.CompilerServices.SymbolWriter.dll
Mono.Data.Sqlite.dll
Mono.Data.Tds.dll
Mono.Security.dll
mscorlib.dll
OpenTK.dll
OpenTK.xml
System.Core.dll
System.Data.dll
System.dll
System.Json.dll
System.Runtime.Serialization.dll
System.ServiceModel.dll
System.ServiceModel.Web.dll
System.Transactions.dll
System.Web.Services.dll
System.Xml.dll
System.Xml.Linq.dll

Docs here:

http://docs.monodroid.net/

Problem is stuff like this:

Bitmap   Documentation for this section has not yet been entered.
Bitmap.CompressFormat   Specifies the known formats a bitmap can be compressed into
Bitmap.Config   Documentation for this section has not yet been entered.
BitmapFactory   Creates Bitmap objects from various sources, including files, streams, and byte-arrays.
BitmapFactory.Options   Documentation for this section has not yet been entered.
BitmapShader   Documentation for this section has not yet been entered.

:(

Makes using it kind of tough.
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

wraith808

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #31 on: January 07, 2011, 10:28 AM »
VB.NET is trivial to learn. I think it's great to start with.
Why start with a lobotomy and then later on try to reverse it's effects? :)

VB.NET I've found is as different from classic VB as night is to day.  Ok, maybe an exaggeration, but it's not the same animal.  I find that it doesn't irritate my OOP sensitivities as much as classic VB does, though.

f0dder

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #32 on: January 07, 2011, 11:01 AM »
VB.Net is very different from classic VB, but it's still not good - while it's a fullblown OOP language, the syntax is still... ugh.
- carpe noctem

kyrathaba

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #33 on: January 07, 2011, 11:12 AM »
Yeah, the syntax is ... kludgy.  Necessarily so, as they were aiming to make it easy for people to move over from VB6, which also has a kludgy syntax.  The reason they had to make VB.NET was to minimize hue-and-outcry from the thousands of devoted VB6ers out there.

wraith808

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #34 on: January 07, 2011, 11:27 AM »
^ If that was minimalization, then I would hate to see what would have happened had they not done that LOL

kyrathaba

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Re: Is it possible to have a future without a .NET-style takeover?
« Reply #35 on: January 07, 2011, 05:27 PM »
^ It could very well have involved civil unrest and a breakdown in important societal barriers.   :P