Comments

• Mark Fink

  2008-02-25 03:38:47

  dbus-sharp

  
  
  Does this mean they replaced c dbus with that MONO dbus replacement that Beranger was talking about?

• Roy Schestowitz

  2008-02-25 03:43:20

  As I understand it, both remain, but some packages might use dbus-sharp instead.
  
  Here is something which I found yesterday (incidentally):
  
  "...support for writing applets in Vala, the C#-like language for GObjects.”
  
  From: http://phorolinux.com/avant-window-navigator-awn-024-released.html
  
  Okay, so I don't know (and haven't checked yet) if Mono is involved, but a huge number of people became rather dependent on this excellent project (AWN) and not just GNOME users.
  
  So okay, I've just lookup up Vala in the Wiki:
  
  "Vala is a new (as of 2006) programming language, targeting the GObject object system. It was developed by Jürg Billeter and Raffaele Sandrini.
  
  It has a syntax based upon C#. However, unlike C#, it has no runtime system (Vala is compiled to C code, which can then be compiled to native code) and so imposes little additional overhead."
  
  There appears to be no problem here after all, but it's worth keeping an eye open,

• Woods

  2008-02-25 05:49:47

  What I don't understand is that if the point of Vala is providing a modern, object-oriented language for programming Gnome for developers who won't/can't use C# or Java, why emulate C# of all languages? Gnome already has the (to my understanding) excellent gnomemm-bindings for C++, an ISO-standard programming language. And without the pseudo-syntax of Qt for handling gui-signaling.
  
  Furthermore, Vala doesn't provide garbage collection (which would be a major boon for easy development) but only assisted memory management (C++ smart pointers anyone?)
  
  I mean, what is the point of Vala?!
  
  What really bothers me with this is basing the language on C#. Alone, it would be nothing but I feel like there is a tendency among the FOSS-side to somehow provide a better Windows _for_ Windows developers and Windows users than what Microsoft is providing them. And even that is fine as far as it goes but there isn't just the danger of patents from MS (_maybe_ this will be mitigated by the recent announcement from Microsoft, especially if we get them in writing (the Mono-crowd must be cheering: "We were right!")) but as Beranger quite rightly pointed out there is the danger of "cultural imperialism" as well. What will we (FOSS) be if, at the end of the day, we're just a free version of the Microsoft-culture?
  
  GNU project began with the basis of UNIX and grew a culture and an identity of its own (diverse though it may be) Should all that just be discarded so that we can be Microsoft in place of Microsoft?

• Roy Schestowitz

  2008-02-25 06:00:17

  (_maybe_ this will be mitigated by the recent announcement from Microsoft, especially if we get them in writing (the Mono-crowd must be cheering: “We were right!”))

  
  
  It's very much the opposite. I don't know if you read Matt Aslett's analysis of this (he's a journalist/analyst focusing on Open Source), but the new announcement means that Microsoft will specify patents covering its 'precious' APIs. It remains to see what this means to C#.

• Rui Miguel Silva Seabra

  2008-02-25 19:21:47

  dbus-sharp are C# bindings for dbus.

• Woods

  2008-02-26 04:59:20

  Rui,
  
  Dbus-sharp is a C# implementation of D-Bus (http://www.ndesk.org/DBusSharp)
  
  You're confusing it with dbus-mono, which were the (now unmaintained) C# bindings for libdbus (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/DBusBindings)

• Roy Schestowitz

  2008-02-26 05:07:38

  The discussion here might be helpful.

• Victor Soliz

  2008-03-25 03:53:15

  Hmmm Vala looks nice, I just found it by mistake, for example, the syntax allows much more stuff than C++ and is closer to Java in the aspects in which Java makes better looking code than C++.
  
  And now I read these comments and Vala has no garbage collector! That's so good! I think I should take a look to this...