Mono-Focused Xamarin Buys Out RoboVM

[mike4]

It's probably kind of desperate move while awaiting MS stuff, which will push Mono to obsolete.

[cyrix]

The Mono .NET VM is a lot more portable to alternative platforms than the Java JVM

The Mono VM is just an implementation, and not the reference one. There're multiple Java VM implementations too, and some are more portable than the others. However, not all .net apis are portable or open. So you might be able to get mono in your alternative platform but that doesn't mean your programs will also run.

[kpedersen]

The Mono VM is just an implementation, and not the reference one. There're multiple Java VM implementations too, and some are more portable than the others. However, not all .net apis are portable or open. So you might be able to get mono in your alternative platform but that doesn't mean your programs will also run.

As far as I know, there is only 1 implementation of the Mono VM. As for *the* Java JVM, the one developed by Oracle is not nice to port at all. Even OpenJDK (the most portable VM) is still not on the same level as Mono (perhaps because its based on the Oracle source tree). Put it this way, any Java VM that has passed the Oracle Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) is very much a pain in the backside to port / maintain on non-desktop platforms.

But yeah you're right. Part of the power of these languages comes from the java class path or .NET apis and these are a whole different problem to port.

[cyrix]

As far as I know, there is only 1 implementation of the Mono VM. As for *the* Java JVM, the one developed by Oracle is not nice to port at all. Even OpenJDK (the most portable VM) is still not on the same level as Mono (perhaps because its based on the Oracle source tree). Put it this way, any Java VM that has passed the Oracle Technology Compatibility Kit (TCK) is very much a pain in the backside to port / maintain on non-desktop platforms.

But yeah you're right. Part of the power of these languages comes from the java class path or .NET apis and these are a whole different problem to port.

Well, I meant mono as a CLR or .net vm implementation :P

Just out of curiosity, which are those non-desktop platforms you had trouble getting java running in?

[kpedersen]

Just out of curiosity, which are those non-desktop platforms you had trouble getting java running in?

As an example, OpenJDK needed a *lot* of patches to compile on the BSDs. Just check out this list for OpenBSD:
http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cv...k/1.7/patches/

Since they were pushed upstream for the OpenJDK, much of these patches have been retired (Attic) but for the Oracle reference implementation of Java we need to maintain them ourselves.
These patches are also not tested by the Oracle test suite so seems very risky to run on our servers (... which we actually do anyway ).

Whats quite anoying is we use software that simply will not run on the OpenJDK :s

Since inception, mono has required relatively few patches:
http://cvsweb.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/cv.../mono/patches/