If you're one of the many who have VB6 code, you have three basic options: stay with VB6, convert to .NET, or rewrite from scratch. In this article, we will look at converting VB6 code to VB.NET and C#. I'll discuss when it makes sense to convert versus staying wi...

Mono and Mainsoft have reached a milestone. Mainsoft has a VisualStudio.NET plugin that converts .NET assemblies into Java JAR files that can be executed on J2EE application servers such as Tomcat and WebSphere. Mainsoft has been donating code to Mono for a long...

The new managed System.Windows.Forms (SWF) implementation that first appeared in Mono 1.1.4, is getting quite good. Of the 69 major controls, 40 are complete enough for user testing and bug reporting, 18 are being worked on, and only 11 are waiting for developers ...

Völcker Informatik AG has switched from Microsoft to Mono. Völcker was traditionally a Microsoft shop using VB and C++ to built its enterprise-level user management and authentication products. But when the city of Munich, one of its largest clients, decided to ...

The monthly Mono releases are out, 1.0.5 for production use (details at www.gomono.com/archive /1.0.5/), and the development version 1.1.3 (details at www.gomono.co m/archive/1.1.3/). The production version has an improved Monodoc, and a half dozen Security fixes. T...

This is the third and final installment in a three-part series. In the first installment (.NETDJ, Vol. 2, issue 9), I covered general conversion issues, in the second installment (Vol. 2, issue 10), I finished general conversion issues, and covered issues associat...

Portable.NET has released version 0.6.10. It has been three months since the release of 0.6.8. Support for several OSs, including Solaris, HP-UX, BeOS, and 64-bit CPUs, has improved, and a new CPU, CRIS (an embedded network CPU), is now supported. Threading, socke...

The DotGNU project has a new Web portal at getdotgnu.com, and it is a great improvement over the old Web pages. If you tried to use DotGNU before, but couldn't get it to work; if you wanted to contribute, but didn't know where to start; if you have thought about u...

Mono has a new Web site (www.mono-project.com) that replaces the old one (www.go-mono.com). If you go to the old address, your browser will get redirected to the new site. There have been no major changes beyond the usual updates.

A fast open source version of Python dispels the myth that the .NET CLR cannot support dynamic languages. Portable.NET has another point release. Jim Hugunin, of Jython and AspectJ fame, made a series of surprising announcements at OSCON.

Last month (Vol. 2, issue 9), I gave an executive overview of the conversion process, and started looking at converting general VB6 code to VB.NET. This month I will finish general conversions, including DLLs, then start on database conversions. Next month, in t...

Team Mono met their goal of a first half 1.0 release. This happened just as we were going to press last month, but I was able to change the headline and first paragraph noting the release. This month, I will discuss it in detail, and finish with a look at some new...

Mono v1.0 has just been released; it is available for download from the Mono home page at www.go-mono.com. Next month, I will have details. This month, I will discuss the Mono betas a bit, and also the latest Portable.NET version 0.6.6 release.

Mono makes its goal of releasing v1.0 beta 1 on May 4, adding support for both the Global Access Cache (GAC) and the latest ECMA generics, as well as improving CLS compliance. Novell hires another open source developer and open sources an Exchange client. Open sou...

It was a busy month for everybody. DotGNU starts a new project, Mono gets more code from Mainsoft, and Microsoft releases Wix, an installer program, under open source license. Mono sets dates for two betas and a release of version 1.0.

This month I'll discuss MonoDevelop, a Gtk#- based, cross-platform version of SharpDevelop; Mono version 0.31 and Portable.NET 0.64; LDAP; and a Mono developer meeting in Boston. Additionally, Mono's System.Windows.Forms (SWF) achieves a major milestone by running...

'It looks as if Mono is going to get a lot more manpower,' writes Dennis Hayes. 'If this translates into more code, Mono could be entering a whole new era. Novell's acquisition of Ximian has been very good for the project, and Novell seems to be true to their word...

The open source community has generated a number of items this month: the Portable.NET System. Windows.Forms (SWF) programming contest has been extended; both Portable.NET and Mono have released new versions (Portable.NET v0.6.2, and Mono v0.30); .NET programs can...

Novell and Mainsoft have committed programming resources to Mono; Mono has released version 0.29, adding Unicode support from IBM. Portable.NET has made progress on WinForms, including multidocument interface (MDI) applications using the XWindows library.

There are several big events to report on this month. Novell has bought SUSE, the Linux distributor. DotGNU has released the version 0.1 CD, and Mono has released two roadmaps (one for developers, one for users). Finally, Microsoft has put up grant money to suppor...

DotGNU is getting ready to make a big splash with the release of v0.1, including Portable.NET v0.6. Mono has released v0.28 with many new features, and Ximian has completed its contract with SourceGear.

(December 4, 2003) - For the second time, Microsoft is offering grants for work on Rotor, their open source version of .NET.

DotGNU is offering $4,500 in prize money to people who write code for the Portable. NET Project's implementation of System.Windows.Forms (SWF). Version 0.5.12 of Portable.NET has also been released and is being prepared for the DotGNU 0.1 CD release.

August was Mono's biggest news month ever: the Mono Project's sponsor, Ximian, was bought by Novell, a draft road map to the version 1.0 release was drawn, and Mono version 0.26 was released. In other news of open source, DotGNU plans to release version 0.1 of ...

Graphics and GUI (System.Drawing, System.Windows.Forms [SWF]) continue to be a couple of the most worked-on areas in both Mono and Portable.NET. Other areas under heavy development include cryptography, Web services, coverage and build tools for Mono, depend...

Mono recently gained a couple of new corporate sponsors, so this is a good time to look at some of the project's commercial connections. The Mono implementation of SWF (System.Windows.Forms) continues to improve, and the Portable.NET implementation of SWF is taking off.

It has been another good month for open-source .NET: .NET has become an ISO standard, and both DotGNU and Mono achieved milestones I mentioned last month.

As I write this, .NET Framework 1.1 and Visual Studio 2003 have just been released; these will have little effect on the open-source implementations of .NET, but there is still much to talk about this month. Keep in mind that when I mention future release dates, t...

There are many projects to move graphics libraries (WinForms, GTK#, and OpenGL) and Java compatibility (IKVM, DotGNU, and JANET) to .NET; this month, I will focus on these and a couple of other projects.

This is the first installment of Dennis Hayes' Monkey Business column, which will supply news on open-source .NET implementations, including Rotor, sponsored by Microsoft; Mono, sponsored by Ximian (and headed up by Miguel de Icaza); and Rhys Weatherley's Portable.NET, from DotGNU.

Developers evaluating Mono need to know two things: how to download Mono, and what its capabilities are. Mono can be downloaded in several different forms; I will describe when using each form makes sense. More important, I will discuss which parts of .NET Mono ca...