Microsoft .net Framework 3.0 X86 Mono: Its Uses In Dot Net

What is Mono?

Mono is a free and open source project led by Novell (previously by Ximian) to generate an Ecma standard compliant, .NET-compatible set of tools, together with a C# compiler and a Common Language Runtime.

Technologies Supporting Mono:

Mono is compatible with Linux, BSD, UNIX, Mac OS X, Solaris and Windows operating systems.

Current status and roadmap:

The present version of Mono is 2.4.3 (as of December 2009[update]). This version offers the nucleus API of the .NET Framework as well as bears for Visual Basic.NET and C# versions 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0. LINQ to objects and XML is part of the supply, but not LINQ to SQL.

Some other Characteristics of Mono are the following:

• C# as Default Mode: The default mode of operation for the C# compiler is C# 3.0. It also supports Windows Forms 2.0. C # 4.0 supports is feature complete (as of December 2009) but not yet released in the market as a stable form or version.
• Implementation of .NET Framework 3.0 is under development: Implementation of .NET Framework 3.0 (i.e. WPF) is still under construction and development and is subject under an investigational Mono subproject called "Olive", but the accessibility of a Mono framework supporting .NET 3.0 is still not planned as of yet.
• Mono Project and VB.NET compiler: The Mono project has also created a VB.NET compiler apart from a runtime designed for operating VB.NET applications.

Silverlight and Moonlight:

Moonlight is an open source accomplishment of Silverlight and it is at present under construction mode. It has been added since Mono 1.9. Moonlight 1.0, which backs up the Silverlight 1.0 APIs. It was released January 20, 2009.

In a similar manner, Moonlight 2.0 Beta release, that consists of a pre-alpha support for Silverlight 2.0 (first version which is scriptable with .NET), was released on 17 August 2009.

The Principal Components of Mono:

Mono consists of basically three groups of components:

• Nucleus components: The core components comprise the C# grammars and semantics and the Common Language Infrastructure, based on the Ecma-334 and Ecma-335 standards, enabling Mono to provide a standards compliant, free and open source CLI virtual machine.
• Mono/Linux/GNOME development stack: The Mono/Linux/GNOME development stack offers tools for application development while supplementing existing GNOME and Free and Open Source libraries. These consists of Gtk# for GUI development, Mozilla libraries for working with the Gecko rendering engine, Unix integration libraries, database connectivity libraries, a security stack, and the XML schema language RelaxNG.

Microsoft compatibility stack: The Microsoft compatibility stack provides a pathway for porting Windows .NET applications to Linux. They comprise ADO.NET, ASP Dot Net Development, and Windows.Forms, among others. They are not covered by ECMA standards, some of them stay subject to patent fears and concerns.