DotGNU

DotGNU was a GNU project presented in 2001 with the aim of offering an alternative for the creation of web services and C # applications and thus to meet the competition from Microsoft . The model was the success of the GNU project as a license model for manufacturer-independent software. The most important part of DotGNU is Portable.NET .

DotGNU was initially under the GNU General Public License . In January 2009 it was placed under the GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1.

Officially since December 2012, work on the DotGNU project has stopped.

DotGNU Portable.NET

Portable.NET is the most important part of DotGNU. It was originally a separate project and became part of the DotGNU project in 2001, shortly after DotGNU was publicly announced. From then on, Portable.NET was called DotGNU Portable.NET . The sub-project is an implementation of the .NET Framework and the resulting international Common Language Infrastructure standard .

The components of Portable.NET essentially include the following components (at least in DotGNU version 0.7):

treecc, a tool for aspect-oriented programming
pnet, consisting of runtime environment , C # compiler , programming tools
pnetlib, a C # class library

A just-in-time compiler is also part of Portable.NET. This compiler also uses the LibJIT library. LibJIT aims to provide a foundation for various virtual machines and dynamic scripting languages . LibJIT was separated from DotGNU and further developed separately after the DotGNU project was discontinued.

commitment

DotGNU was included by default in the Linux distribution Debian 3.1.

Linux Magazine reported in 2009 that DotGNU was used in a number of commercial applications. For example, the machine tool manufacturer Trumpf used DotGNU for the graphical user interface of its software for a laser cutting device.

reception

The British technology magazine The Register ruled in 2004 that DotGNU and Mono were “interesting projects for people who are interested in programming languages, compiler construction and other, rather esoteric, hardcore areas of software engineering. However, the projects have no practical use and only exist with the support of Microsoft. "

The American edition of Linux magazine rated DotGNU 2005 overall as less mature than Mono. The article mentioned the advantages of DotGNU that it was included as standard in the Debian operating system and that it could execute bytecode generated under Windows without modification. The disadvantage is that Windows Forms is not fully implemented, that there are errors in event handling and that there is no suitable development environment .

Richard Stallman , founder of the GNU project , advocated open implementations of .NET such as Mono and DotGNU in 2010, but recommended not programming in C # or not for .NET, as Microsoft had not assessed the risk of patent litigation by Microsoft could be.

DotGNU and Portable.NET have been presented and mentioned in a number of specialist books and scientific publications, e.g. B. in Leuf (2005).

literature

Jason King, Mark Easton: Cross-Platform .NET Development. Using Mono, Portable.NET, and Microsoft .NET , Apress 2004, ISBN 978-1-59059-330-1

Web links

Official website

Individual evidence

↑ Alexander Neumann: DOTGnu under the LGPL , in: heise developer of January 14, 2009, accessed on December 14, 2015
↑ Andrew Orlowski: And then there were two open source .NET clones , in: The Register of August 2, 2001, accessed on Dec. 14, 2015
↑ ^a ^b ^c Michael Tschater: LOTS OF DOTS. Comparing the free .NET implementations Mono and DotGNU , in: Linux Magazine No. 61 (2005), pp. 72-75
^ Just-In-Time Compiler Library , accessed Dec. 19, 2015
↑ Mayank Sharma: Singing Sharp , in: Linux Magazine No. 102 (2009), pp. 22-27
^ Neil Davidson: Mono and dotGNU: what's the point? , in: The Register from Feb. 11, 2004, accessed on Dec. 19, 2015, original quote: “Mono and dotGNU are interesting projects for people who are interested in computer languages, compiler construction and other fairly esoteric, hard-core areas of software engineering. But they have no practical use, and exist only with the patronage of Microsoft. "
^ Glyn Moody: Richard Stallman on .NET, Mono and DotGNU. , in: Computerworld UK on July 14, 2010, accessed on Dec. 19, 2015
↑ Bo Leuf: The Semantic Web: Crafting Infrastructure for Agency , John Wiley & Sons 2005, ISBN 978-0-470-01522-3 , p. 80

[1] Alexander Neumann: DOTGnu under the LGPL , in: heise developer of January 14, 2009, accessed on December 14, 2015

[2] Andrew Orlowski: And then there were two open source .NET clones , in: The Register of August 2, 2001, accessed on Dec. 14, 2015

[tschater-3] Michael Tschater: LOTS OF DOTS. Comparing the free .NET implementations Mono and DotGNU , in: Linux Magazine No. 61 (2005), pp. 72-75

[4] Just-In-Time Compiler Library , accessed Dec. 19, 2015

[5] Mayank Sharma: Singing Sharp , in: Linux Magazine No. 102 (2009), pp. 22-27

[6] Neil Davidson: Mono and dotGNU: what's the point? , in: The Register from Feb. 11, 2004, accessed on Dec. 19, 2015, original quote: “Mono and dotGNU are interesting projects for people who are interested in computer languages, compiler construction and other fairly esoteric, hard-core areas of software engineering. But they have no practical use, and exist only with the patronage of Microsoft. "

[7] Glyn Moody: Richard Stallman on .NET, Mono and DotGNU. , in: Computerworld UK on July 14, 2010, accessed on Dec. 19, 2015

[8] Bo Leuf: The Semantic Web: Crafting Infrastructure for Agency , John Wiley & Sons 2005, ISBN 978-0-470-01522-3 , p. 80