Alternatives to mono and C#??

CheatCat · 2010-09-11 19:24:52

I really love C#, but I fear that mono are going to become more and more commercial and maybe one day require people to buy stuff to use the programs. Either that or Windows are going to do some kind of copyright stuff so you can't use C# outside Windows. So, there is any other languages that reminds of C# than C, C++ or Java? If I am totally wrong about my statement above I would like to try other languages anyway.

wonder · 2010-09-11 19:29:42

vala

bcat · 2010-09-12 02:29:47

Java is pretty darn close to C# already (though it lacks some of the newer C# features like lambdas and type inference), so you might want to try that if you want to avoid .NET for some reason.

Last edited by bcat (2010-09-12 02:30:33)

cactus · 2010-09-12 03:04:22

Take a look at Scala or Clojure, as (dare I say, better) JVM language alternatives to Java.

Last edited by cactus (2010-09-12 03:04:45)

bharani · 2010-09-12 03:48:51

wonder wrote:

vala

And it is soon going to become stable.

sand_man · 2010-09-12 08:43:26

Java doesn't get enough love. I know it has a reputation of being slow but it really is a gem of a language. The most important thing is it is cross platform. The second most important thing is that the 'iced tea' (or whatever it's called) is a GPL'd release of Java. I'm not sure it's at the same version as the official Java though but at least if Oracle decide to do something stupid, at least Sun did the right thing and GPL'd it.

gajo · 2010-09-12 09:26:46

Sadly, your only other real option is java or other jvm compatible languages (like scala if you need functional programming), which as a language is a bit worse than c#, however you should feel more assured of it's cross-platform support.
Vala will probably never be comparable to those two, since it's too gnome/glib/linux related. It's likely to have a bleak future on the desktop, probably not much better than other rarely used languages like pascal, haskell or similar.
In the future, Go language might come to be comparable in usage to these two, since it's rather similar, although it has yet to prove itself useful in practice.

stqn · 2010-09-12 15:32:54

Maybe D.

draugdel · 2010-09-12 17:13:21

I wouldn´t recommend Java if the asking purpose is looking for alternatives to Mono because of copyright or change of policy issues. I´m not sure about Oracle´s understanding of Java´s need for openness and a general misunderstanding of open source.

I would recommend C++ with Qt. At least it is LGPL, if you don´t trust Nokia.

drcouzelis · 2010-09-12 18:23:26

CheatCat wrote:

So, there is any other languages that reminds of C# than C, C++ or Java?

I'm confused. What are you looking for?

Do you want a language that looks like C#?

Do you want a language that is as easy as C#?

Do you want a language that has a large standard library like C#?

Do you want a language that runs applications on multiple operating systems like C#?

For example, you can use Python with wxPython. It is easy to use, it has a large standard library, and it runs on most operating systems. If you also use pyGlade, it will be very easy and fast to make a GUI. But, Python code does not look like C#.

dcc24 · 2010-09-12 18:25:44

For "C#ness" your best is Vala. It is developing nicely, with a steady pace.
Java should serve your needs better in the short term.
Both have open source licenses, so there shouldn't be any problems.

CheatCat · 2010-09-14 19:11:24

Well, it don't need to be easy as C#, and don't really need to look like the C#. I need something powerful and cross-platformed. I should take a look at python and D. Go seems also nice.

And the reason that I don't want to work with C/C++ is that they are hard languages. No garbage collection for example...

Shaika-Dzari · 2010-09-16 11:41:20

CheatCat wrote:

And the reason that I don't want to work with C/C++ is that they are hard languages. No garbage collection for example...

In these case, you should look to Qt / C++.

Great framework, cross-platformed and easy to manage.

bernarcher · 2010-09-16 11:56:15

You my also want to look at the D language (especially the new yet still unstable version 2). It is an object oriented successor to C and specifies an automatic garbage collection.

Alas, there is no good 64-bit compiler as yet. But a rather useful 32-bit package running in a multilib environment to experiment with is in the AUR.

ise · 2010-09-16 14:18:28

CheatCat wrote:

I really love C#, but I fear that mono are going to become more and more commercial and maybe one day require people to buy stuff to use the programs. Either that or Windows are going to do some kind of copyright stuff so you can't use C# outside Windows.

Microsoft announced a while ago, that the ECMA standards for C# and the CLI are covered under the "Community Promise" (http://www.microsoft.com/interop/cp/default.mspx). So there will be no kind of copyright stuff for that.
Mono is licensed under 4 open source licenses (http://mono-project.com/FAQ:_Licensing), so you can't force somebody to buy it. There will be an open source version in the future even if Novell is trying to sell some special packages. I think your fear isn't realistic at this point.

C# and the libraries which was added by the Mono team is a great platform for developing software. I think the point why people don't like C# is because Microsoft has developed the language. For me, it's just another language out there like any other programming language, no matter who has developed it!

EDIT: This is my personal point of view (not from the Arch Linux developer team)

Last edited by ise (2010-09-16 14:19:27)

CheatCat · 2010-09-18 11:27:12

Yeah, I was thinking of some application made for Debian that was build in C# and was not included because of that... But I guess that was about including mono for one single application.

Ranguvar · 2010-09-18 21:31:21

ise wrote:

CheatCat wrote:
I really love C#, but I fear that mono are going to become more and more commercial and maybe one day require people to buy stuff to use the programs. Either that or Windows are going to do some kind of copyright stuff so you can't use C# outside Windows.
Microsoft announced a while ago, that the ECMA standards for C# and the CLI are covered under the "Community Promise" (http://www.microsoft.com/interop/cp/default.mspx). So there will be no kind of copyright stuff for that.
Mono is licensed under 4 open source licenses (http://mono-project.com/FAQ:_Licensing), so you can't force somebody to buy it. There will be an open source version in the future even if Novell is trying to sell some special packages. I think your fear isn't realistic at this point.

I don't have much of a personal opinion on this one, but I think it good to show both sides of the matter, so here's the FSF on this "Community Promise":
http://www.fsf.org/news/2009-07-mscp-mono

Please let's not turn the whole thread into a debate over this, as I said, just trying to represent the other side for the OP's benefit

Arch Linux

#1 2010-09-11 19:24:52

Alternatives to mono and C#??

#2 2010-09-11 19:29:42

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#3 2010-09-12 02:29:47

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#4 2010-09-12 03:04:22

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#5 2010-09-12 03:48:51

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#6 2010-09-12 08:43:26

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#7 2010-09-12 09:26:46

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#8 2010-09-12 15:32:54

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#9 2010-09-12 17:13:21

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#10 2010-09-12 18:23:26

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#11 2010-09-12 18:25:44

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#12 2010-09-14 19:11:24

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#13 2010-09-16 11:41:20

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#14 2010-09-16 11:56:15

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#15 2010-09-16 14:18:28

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#16 2010-09-18 11:27:12

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

#17 2010-09-18 21:31:21

Re: Alternatives to mono and C#??

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