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From the Editors: Don't expect Microsoft to let Mono dictate


By SD Times News Team
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November 1, 2008 —  (Page 1 of 2)
The true test of a specification’s openness is whether the company that sponsored the specification accepts third-party additions or changes. Microsoft submitted its Common Language Infrastructure to Ecma, a vendor consortium, on the basis that it was an open, non-proprietary specification. The Mono project’s desire to contribute back to the specification will test Microsoft’s earnestness. We don’t predict that Microsoft will pass the test, but rather will squelch Mono’s changes.

From Day 1, of course, Microsoft has been in the driver’s seat regarding the CLI and everything related to .NET. That is unlikely to change.

In its efforts to replicate .NET 2.0, Mono thought up some interesting additions to the specification. That’s good. An open specification should be dynamic and encourage broad participation. It shouldn’t just be a pro-forma rubber stamp for one company’s proprietary technology.

While Mono is free to submit its ideas to Ecma, Microsoft remains incredibly powerful when it comes to CLI. The Ecma CLI working group must decide whether the additions are worthwhile, and Microsoft serves effectively as a gatekeeper. It can use the documented processes with Ecma to slow down any additions that it doesn’t want. Even if, by some fluke, Ecma does approve some of Mono’s changes to the CLI, Microsoft can simply delay implementing them in its own code, or ignore them completely.

It took the Mono team several years to develop Mono 2.0. The pace of the open-source project’s work, and its relatively small installed base, is too underwhelming to threaten Microsoft’s designs over .NET. Microsoft is also cycling its energy toward the creation of .NET libraries such as LINQ, WCF and WPF, which Mono will be attempting to replicate in upcoming releases.

Note that the .NET Framework has remained largely unaltered since the release of .NET 2.0, which means that Microsoft and Mono are using the same playbook. Despite Ecma, Mono has to scramble to stay on the same page. Because Mono has to ensure that it not only conforms to Ecma specifications, but also passes Microsoft’s test suites, it is all but guaranteed that Mono—and anyone else seeking to create a CLI implementation—must follow Microsoft’s lead.


Related Search Term(s): Ecma, Microsoft, Mono, Python

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