[DotGNU]Summary of irc meetings of Sat, 29 Mar 2003

[Norbert Bollow]

The DotGNU Informer -- Volume 1, Issue No. 3

Here's a summary of the recent DotGNU irc meetings.  (For info on
DotGNU's irc channel and on the weekly meetings, please refer to
http://dotgnu.org/irc.html ).


Release of DotGNU 0.1 planned for mid-July
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Portable.NET 0.6.0 which is planned for end-June will contain all the
essential ".NET compatibility" pieces that are needed for DotGNU 0.1
DGEE has entered the 'able to do lots rapidly' phase now.  Planned is
a Qt front end administrator for it soon.  nb will bring the release
plans up for discussion, to see what else we will want for DotGNU 0.1


Upcoming Portable.NET work
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
rhysw is planning to bang through the TODO's on mscorlib.dll related
to ECMA-compatibility and start of test cases for testing ECMA
classes.  Volunteers are needed to sign up for the same on System and
System.Xml also.


C# Class library packaging
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Early in pnet's development, the plan was to have pnetlib build two
versions of the libs and then have a "--ecma" flag for ilrun and cscc
to force the use of ECMA-only libraries.  However, there is a problem
with providing support for non-ECMA MS extensions by default:  This
encourages developers to rely on such extensions, and in addition this
may discourage the creation of alternatives.  It has been proposed to
address this issue by integrating dotgnu-libs into pnetlib and
providing a separate "mnetlib" package for "MS compatibility
libraries", including the higher-level libraries built by the Mono
project.


A "hook-unroller" for ilrun?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There's no straightforward way to make a C++ class a C# class.  One
issue is that gcc doesn't output any metadata that ilrun can hook off.
Then there is a speed problem.: The Qt# project would like to be able
to override virtual methods of C++ classes in a derived C# class.  For
GUI hooks, they (probably) have to call a C# method which will then
(if the method has not been overridden) use PInvoke to go back to the
default method in the original C++ class.  A "hook-unroller" feature
for ilrun would detect this pattern when the assembly is loaded and
set things up so that, in the case that the method has not been
overridden, the C++ method gets called immediately without the
overhead of the unmanaged - managed - unmanaged transition.  nb will
put together an example of actual code, then rhysw will think about
it.

wx.NET support for pnet
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
malenfant says that wx.NET currently isn't working with pnet (it
compiles fine, but when running, it just hangs there - nothing
happens.)   He will mail pnet-developers with the url's and such and
the pnet developers will look into the problem.  rhysw thinks it's
probably some dumb PInvoke marshalling thing or a pnetlib bug.


"Portable.NET runs on handhelds" PR story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
minddog is writing a draft article that we can submit to
newsforge/linux today/etc.  rhysw thinks that we've been overusing /.
and need to save it for big news.


Abdabi, a service discovery system
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
nb announced his plan to hack together a service discovery system for
DotGNU, called Abdabi.  Abdabi will be a webservice, implemented in
Python.  It will *not* use UDDI as that may possibly be
patent-encumbered.  RDF however has a clean bill of health.
zoyd proposes to look at http://redfoot.net/ and http://rdflib.net/


Meeting time for the "America friendly" irc meeting changed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the hope of increasing the participation of people in the US and
other American countries, the second meeting has been moved to
21.00 UTC (5pm EDT) on _Sundays_.



Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
Founder & Steering Committee member of http://gnu.org/projects/dotgnu/
Free Software Business Strategy Guide   --->  http://FreeStrategy.info
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59        Fax +41 1 972 20 69       http://norbert.ch