Re: [DotGNU]Re: pnetlib architecture

[Tim Terlegård]

> PInvoke is a mechanism, defined by Microsoft and part
> of the ECMA specifications, for calling pre-existing C
> code from C# code.

Ah, it's a part of ECMA, nice.


> PInvoke is part of the ECMA standard.  There are some minor
> extensions that are needed to support Unix platforms (it was
> designed originally for Windows of course).  Both Mono and
> pnet have roughly the same PInvoke extensions - they are
> compatible enough for integration purposes.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to ask ECMA to standardize these extensions?


> Note: we aren't trying to run all of Mono on top of pnetlib.
> Only certain libraries.  Because these libraries use PInvoke
> or low-level functions that pnetlib will have, it should work.

Hmm, are the low-level classes standarised as well? If not, Mono wouldn't 
build on top of Portable.NET's low-level classes?


> If you want to contribute to pnetlib, then you don't really
> need to know much about high-level libraries of PInvoke.
> Just follow the ECMA spec for the time being, and
> everything else will fall into place in time.

Just doing robot work is not that cool. I'd like to know what happens when my 
program gets compiled and executed. Knowing how everything works and work 
together makes it more fun to implement. I'm curious, is that so bad?  :)

-- Tim