Re: [DotGNU]Dotgnu written in C#?

[Fergus Henderson]

On 07-Aug-2003, DrDiettrich <address@hidden> wrote:
> This goal of platform and environment independence certainly is
> achievable. Free software should be either general in nature, so that it
> will run on any platform without modifications,

That is impossible.  Not every platform even has a C compiler, for example.

> or it will be designed
> for specific platforms or libraries, which then can be assumed as
> available and conforming to their own specifications at build and/or run
> time.

That approach works.

Most current GNU software assumes a Posix environment.
If you find some free software which does not specify its portability
requirements, and does not work on a Posix-conforming system,
then report this as a bug to the software's authors:
they should either fix it so that it does work,
or document their additional portability requirements.

However, note that most software will want to take advantage of specific
features of specific platforms.  You can use Posix or the .NET CLR or
some other platform as a baseline, but complex software will usually still
need to perform feature tests (either at configuration/installation time,
or at run time) to take advantage of platform-specific features.
So standardizing on a particular platform only solves part of the problem.

-- 
Fergus Henderson <address@hidden>  |  "I have always known that the pursuit
The University of Melbourne         |  of excellence is a lethal habit"
WWW: <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/~fjh>  |     -- the last words of T. S. Garp.