Just to clarify, .net IS part of the Vista API. so it has no sense discussing if BlitzMax should or Should not use .net. It will, if it continues supporting the Windows platform.
The real question is, will it be better to support DIRECTLY the .net, and take profit of the .NET run-time compiling? the answer is obviously YES.
Does this means that users will have to download the .net framework? the anser is NO, if they use windows vista. It has become part of the OS api.
So programs would be runable directly from a CD? Yes.
Ok, but programs will be slower? NO, the MSIL compiler generates 100% pure binary source code, optimized for the platform it is running on, at execution time. So in some situations it runs even faster.
But woud it be cross platform compatible? Yes, MONO is the MAC and LINUX implementation for the .net framework. It covers 100% of the .net 1.1 framework, and it is being improved to cover .net 2.0 in a few months. The most exciting thing about MONO is that binaries generated by .net on windows CAN BE RUN DIRECTLY on MacOsX and Linux, an vice-versa, as long as the source code doesn't include Os speciffic API calls.
I think .net or MONO is the way to go...
The real question is, will it be better to support DIRECTLY the .net, and take profit of the .NET run-time compiling? the answer is obviously YES.
Does this means that users will have to download the .net framework? the anser is NO, if they use windows vista. It has become part of the OS api.
So programs would be runable directly from a CD? Yes.
Ok, but programs will be slower? NO, the MSIL compiler generates 100% pure binary source code, optimized for the platform it is running on, at execution time. So in some situations it runs even faster.
But woud it be cross platform compatible? Yes, MONO is the MAC and LINUX implementation for the .net framework. It covers 100% of the .net 1.1 framework, and it is being improved to cover .net 2.0 in a few months. The most exciting thing about MONO is that binaries generated by .net on windows CAN BE RUN DIRECTLY on MacOsX and Linux, an vice-versa, as long as the source code doesn't include Os speciffic API calls.
I think .net or MONO is the way to go...