How much?
$2499 to be able to redistribute Mono code?
You could just write things in Java for free, and write code that works on all platforms, not just a crippled version of a Microsoft Java ripoff.
Microsoft's .NET for Android - dubbed MonoDroid - has come a step closer. The Novell-backed MonoTouch project is about to start beta tests of a version of its open-source implementation of Microsoft's framework for use on Google's Linux operating system for devices. Final product for MonoDroid is expected in the fall, Novell …
Given that Java is cross(-more)-platforms than .NET in the first place, I see little point in this.
UI code will regardless have to be re-written, leaving only support libraries to gain from cross-platform. Like .NET compared to .NETCF, Android's Java has some differences to standard Java, but a huge amount of standard Java libraries will work with it.
If I was inclined to throw away $2500, I'd prefer to give it to charity than Novell or Microsoft and use the correct tool for the job (that would be the Android SDK.)
Terminator, because he wasn't coded in .NET either.
Why exactly do I need tools for MS Developer Studio to develop .NET apps for Mono? Either Mono runs .NET correctly or it doesn't. If it does then charging an obscene amount for tools is robbery and if it doesn't, then what the hell is the point of Mono in the first place?
They want to atract non .NET developers to Mono, and then when Mono gets shutdown by Microsoft, force them to buy Windows in odder to keep using the platform.
$2,499 version is only safe one (until Microsoft shut it down, that is), rest ones are purposely patent infected and are a liability. Microsoft pays Novell per line of C# code and per Microsoft patent they infiltrate into Free Software ecosystem. When that code gets used, then Microsoft can go after big users, like recently Salesforce (and no so recently Amazon, TomTom and HTC) and make them pay royalties or sue them if they won't pay. Inject a Trojan via proxy like Novell, and then extort money. That is their tactics which they use to persuade people that Free Software is expensive and shouldn't be used. Profiting of other's people work.
Name a crime, Microsoft did it.
I actually do like C#!
Having been developing in Java for 6+ years, my job dictated developing applications for the ubiquitous Windows and .NET environment. I didn't fancy VB so it was VC++ or C# and the latter was closer to what I was accustomed to.
Now sadly, I have come to really like it after two and a half years and much as I dislike Microsoft products, I have to confess I like the Visual Studio environment and the ease of stitching together .NET applications. "Horses for courses" I guess. It's back to good old Java and Eclipse or Netbeans when it comes to Linux apps as I found Mono a bit clunky in a Gnome environment the last time I had a go and suspect it would be the same in Android.
hmmm, "However microsoft are not starting to polute the lanuage with rubbish, "
don't you mean:
"However Microsoft is NOW starting to pollute the language with rubbish"
I'm thinking English is your 2nd language but that one letter makes a big difference in the meaning of the sentence.
I've just headed over to the "Mono Tools for Visual Studio" purchase page to see what they're charging for. The $2500 enables you to redistribute Mono *without* having to comply with its usual LGPL license. That's basically for if you want to embed it as a scripting engine inside your own application (e.g I think various games already do this).
As for "Why exactly do I need tools...": The tools enable you to remote debug under Mono on other architectures (Linux, Mac, etc) from within VS on Windows, if that's how you you prefer to operate. If you want to develop directly on those platforms, then you can use MonoDevelop for free.
...(beer)Free and open source? let me think for a nano-second ... sorry just got distracted again by Google app inventor for android... cost £0 learning curve so shallow it appears parallel to the bottom.
I'm shuddring at the memory of the programmers development kit for Microsoft mouse C 1990. that took two programmers 1 night and 1 medium bag of weed to get a bamboo stick mouse pointer...
nah, not again
Agreed it was merely the most egregious example, we switched away entirely from Microsoft's later visual studio when it became clear that we would have to junk our entire code base after some tinkering to the .net code base by Microsoft. that's within the last 7 years. many other examples available stretching back to 1979
I was under the impression that Mono's performance lags considerably when compared to Microsoft's VM.
Will Android handsets have the required CPU power to offer a good user experience? I am thinking of the lower end 500/600Mhz handsets.
TBH, I'd rather invest in learning Scala for Android. I'm in my third week of writing my first Android app (coming to Java from Ruby and Delphi) and boy is Java verbose!!
What Microsoft Phone developers, what Microsoft Phone and let's remember that it is only partially compatible with Microsoft's C# and partially compatible with Microsoft's .NET API's.
where's the icon for a wolf in sheepskin because that is all Mono is.
grenade because this will blow up in your face.
If you don't want to code for Android in Java then look at the likes of RhoMobile (Ruby), Appcelerator or PhoneGap (Javascript) and others. Yes, with the exception of Appcelerator you'll be producing web apps that run in a browser but what the hell, that's probably where things are going anyway.