CLINQ v1.1 has been released. Some of you may have already downloaded some of the new builds, but here's a rundown of what the new release includes: Support for Continuous Aggregation. Now, in addition to being able to have your result sets automatically update themselves in response to changes in the source set as well as changes to items in the source set, you can have aggregate scalar values that continuously update in the same fashion. The following is a list of the supported aggregation types that can now be done continuously:

Mono version 1.2.4 has just been released. Typically source code for a release is branched off for final clean up and bug fixing, with the release coming a few days to a week later; for this version, there were almost 25 days between branch and release. This may have been due in part to distractions such as the 24 new Google Summer of Code (SOC) programmers and the new Silverlight beta, but mostly I think it was because the team sees this release as more than just a point release, so they spent extra time testing it to make sure it was good. Another factor is the size of this release. As I mentioned last month, it contains over 20 megabytes of diff files, and the release notes point that out with the help of Moma, it also contains over 1,000 newly implemented APIs (680 new APIs, 290 not implemented, and 43 TODOs done).

Portable.NET has released PNET 0.8, its first packaged release in more than a year. There were many improvements over the course of the year, but the biggest were associated with the upgrade to the new Libjit JIT engine. The source code is at http://downloa d.savannah.gnu.org/releas es/dotgnu-pnet, and Boris Manojlovic has created windows installer that can be downloaded at www. steki.net/dotGNU/JIT/dotG NU_0_8_0.exe.

When the first draft of the C# 2.0 spec was released, the Mono team started working on it immediately. The first draft of the C# 3.0 spec has now been out for almost a year, but the Mono team has just started to work on it. There are two reasons for this: one is that the whole team was working on the major 1.2 release, including Winforms. The second reason is that the first draft of the C# 3.0 spec was released shortly after the official release of C# 2.0, and the Mono team was still busy fixing bugs, cleaning up code, and integrating last-minute changes to the C# 2.0 spec. Because a lot of C# 3.0 relies heavily on the new C# 2.0 features, the mono team also wanted to get C# 2.0 refactored and on a solid footing before beginning work on C# 3.0.

Mono has released version 1.2.3, and there are a lot of improvements and additions. In my opinion, the biggest addition is the new Visual Basic compiler. It's not ready for prime time and is still officially unsupported, but this is the first version of VB to be included as a standard part of a release. Note that it only targets VB8 and .NET 2.0; there are no plans to make it backward-compatible with .NET 1.1 (The runtime supports .NET 1.1 so programs compiled with Microsoft Visual Basic 1.1 will run under Mono.)

Mono 1.2.2 was released last month, and with the help of the Mono Migration Tool, Moma, which was discussed last month, 496 new methods were added, 212 'bogus' to-dos were removed, and 65 NotImplementedExceptions were removed.

When a project like Mono approaches a major release like version 1.2, the code is forked: copied into a separate branch in version control. In one copy, the 'main' branch, work continues normally, while the code in the other 'release' branch goes through a series of freezes leading up to its release.

The long-awaited third major release of Mono, version 1.2 is now out. The main delay was getting System.Windows.Forms (SWF) to work cross platform. This has been accomplished for the most part. There are a few of the rarely used methods still being worked on, but the vast majority of Windows applications should work: just copy the .exe file to a Linux box or a MAC with Mono installed. The Mono implementation of Winforms supports themes with several included in the current version. Mono even supports WinProc, so many third-party controls that rely on Windows messages will run correctly.

The highlight of this release is the new MonoBASIC compiler and runtime. The availability of BASIC on Mono has waxed and waned over the years. During the early days of Mono, BASIC received little or no attention. The biggest reason was that all the effort was going into the C # compiler. In addition, the early Mono adopters were not very interested in VB; in fact at the time, there was much debate in the VB community in general about upgrading to VB.NET because of the complexity of VB.NET, and the lack of backwards compatibility with VB6. Also, unlike C# which was released as a ECMA and ISO standard, VB.NET was, and still is, a proprietary product with no publicly available definition (that has the details needed by a compiler writer).

Mono 1.1.16, the third beta of version 1.2, has been released. The time span between the release of versions 1.1.15 and 1.1.16 is one of the longest in several years and the number of changes included reflects that, again System.Windows.Forms (SWF) and System.Drawing got the most attention.

The Mono project celebrates its 5th anniversary this month. The Mono project was launched in July 2001; I started following Mono in the press almost immediately, and soon started checking the homepage. In November I downloaded the source, and in February 2002 I started contributing to System.Drawing and System.Window.Forms.

Google will be bringing the Summer of Code (SOC) back this year. College students from around the world will be paid $4,500 by Google to work on Open Source projects, and Mono and DotGNU will be participating again, as will the WINE project (a Mono bridge is one option for a WINE project proposal), OpenOffice.org, GNOME, Beagle, and my favorite, the Mars Space Flight Facility (I spent my summer on Mars!) will also be mentoring projects (Google funds students to work on all the projects).

Mono has released version 1.1.13.5 and 1.1.14. Version 1.1.13.5 is actually the first release since 1.1.13, even though there were four internal releases in between. The purpose of this release is to document the changes in those releases; there are no new features in this release, just bug fixes in all areas of the project. One reason for multiple releases was to keep testers current during the run-up to the major 1.2 release. Release notes are at http ://go-mono.com/archive/1. 1.13.5.

This column begins its fourth year. In the past I haven't done any year-in-review articles mainly because there was always too much news. But now that the Mono project is half-way through its fifth year and nears its third major release, version 1.2, I think it's time to look back at some of the major milestones that the project has passed, and mention a couple of milestone that it should reach in the near future. I will start this month with the Top 3 and then finish up next month.

The 1.1.13 version of Mono has also been released. This version will be shipped with Novel/Suse Enterprise products. It also serves as a feature freeze point for the upcoming major 1.2 release, with the exception of System.Windows.Forms (SWF) and libgdiplus, which are still being developed. The 1.1.13 branch will also receive back-ports of all bug fixes until it is replaced with the 1.2 version. 1.1.13 is mostly bug fixes (including hundreds in the SWF namespace). The main additions to this release are a completed 64 bit S390 port, an implementation of the new 2.0 System.Threading primitives, updates to System.Net.Mail and System.Net.Mime, and typed data returns for Sqlite 3. One major enhancement is the inclusion of a printing framework for SWF. This will not be really usable until Cairo is updated, but it is still a milestone I have been looking forward to seeing. More than 70 people worked on this release.

The biggest changes in this release come in SWF (System.Windows.Forms). This makes sense, as SWF is moving into debugging mode in anticipation of having full support for SWF in the major 1.2 release expected in early 2006 (possibly by the time you read this). The 'Nice' theme has been improved, and a new 'ClearLooks' theme has been added. Newly supported features include MDI applications, toolwindow, and shortcut and key navigation. TextBox and RichTextBox now support cut and paste, including keybindings, drag and drop, and undo.

Version 1.1.10 is another release packed with new code. The release notes can be found at www.go-mo no.com/archive/1.1.10/, and can be downloaded from www.mono-project.com /Downloads. Mod_mono, the ASP.NET module for the Apache Web Server, now has an autoconfiguration tool that eliminates the old requirement that administrators manually import all of the directories containing ASP.NET code.

The Code Project has sponsored 'The Race to Linux,' a contest to see how fast code could be converted from Windows to Linux. The race was broken into three parts. Each part required participants to convert one of the Microsoft ASP.NET starter kits to Linux using Mono, Grasshopper (see Monkey Business in .NETDJ Vol: 3, iss: 7), PHP, or other technologies of their choosing.

It looks to me like that the 1.1.9 release of Mono is the biggest since Version 1.0. Many components went through major changes. 118 developers received credit for work done since version 1.1.8.

There is a new version of the ECMA specs for C# Version 2.0 and the CLI; the Mono C# compiler and runtime is already compliant with these, and only a few class changes are needed to be compliant with the new libraries. As Miguel notes in his blog (http:/ /tirania.org/blog/all.htm l), the first chapters of the C# specification are a decent tutorial for programmers wanting to learn C# (although I would not recommend it for those without prior programming experience). One note, although my understanding is that the spec has been approved, the text of the specs has not been fully ratified yet. The C# standard is at www.ecma-international .org/publications/standar ds/Ecma-334.htm, and the CIL spec is at www.ecma-i nternational.org/publicat ions/standards/Ecma-335.h tm.

As an experienced .Net developer, I'm sure you are comfortable creating programs in your home environment - using Visual Studio on a Windows PC. What about using other platforms? In the .NET world, not many developers think much about cross-platform development. However, with the growing popularity of Unix, and specifically Linux, as a server platform, it might be time to consider a cross-platform .NET development environment.

Portable.NET has released version 0.7.2; it is primarily a bug fix release for version 0.7.0, but also contains some new features. New versions of the libffi and libcg libraries are supported, the Debian build build/platform files have been updated, the Basic compiler includes some previously missing String functions, System.Windows.Forms and System.Drawing get improved color handling and general fixes and improvements; also improved DB2 support has been imported from the Mono project.

Portable.NET has made their first release in six months, and it is as packed with new code as you would expect; the list prints out to about four pages, and is downloadable from http:// dotgnu.org/pipermail/deve lopers/2005-June/000056.h tml. The runtime engine gets a PowerPC unroller, enhanced profiling, and support for multiple engine instances. System.Windows.Forms receives over 20 enhancements and fixes. These include several improvements in form layout capabilities and string displays; the toolbox classes have also been started. TextBox, TreeView, TreeNode, and focus handling saw many improvements.

'At the last PDC,' Miguel de Icaza notes, 'the Mono BOF had the largest number of votes when half the spots were still available and it got dropped out of the list.' Now it seems that history is about to repeat itself.

Mainsoft has recently made several Mono-related announcements, centering on the new version of their Visual MainWin product, codenamed Grasshopper. Visual MainWin is a Visual Studio add-in that adds project types for VB.NET or C# that target J2EE servers on Linux; this allows a programmer to use Windows and Visual Studio to create ASP.NET and ADO.NET pages and programs that can run on both a .NET server and on a J2EE server. It does this by having two projects with the same source files, but different build files. The .NET project creates a normal .NET application, and the J2EE creates a J2EE application and the infrastructure needed for it to run under J2EE. Visual MainWin creates .NET IL (intermediate language) code using the Microsoft C# and VB.NET compilers and most of the Mono .NET libraries, including System, System.Web, System.WebServices, System.Data, System.XML, and other namespaces. It then converts the IL code to Java bytecode, and optimizes it into a .jar file. One library that is not shared between Mainsoft and Mono is the mscorlib assembly, as Mainsoft needs a special version for J2EE capability.

Mono Version 1.1.7 Released Portable.NET plans 0.7 Mono version 1.1.7 has been released, and the Mono crew is planning their second major release (1.2) for September. The key to the 1.2 release is SWF (System.Windows.Forms); when SWF is ready for prime time, 1.2 will get released. Monthly releases will continue until then.

Novell, which sponsors the Mono project, a community initiative, has announced a 'Mono Kickstart' program to make it easier to build and develop applications on Linux and other platforms, allowing developers to get software to market faster and more cost-effectively.

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 time (most notably, code for the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace; see 'Monkey Business' in DNDJ June 2004), and has been using Mono code in their product for just as long (note that most of Mono uses the MIT X11 license that allows Mono code to be used in commercial products, and that the Mono team is proud of the number of companies that make commercial use of Mono).

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 to step up and start implementing.

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 switch to Linux, Völcker needed technologies that would work in a cross-platform environment.

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. The development version is, again, mainly bug fixes and performance enhancements, with new features mostly in the build system, version 2.0 features, and System.Windows.Forms.

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, sockets, marshalling, and XML navigation have improved. XSharp has seen a lot of work, and JScript now has better sample programs and improved math functions.

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 using DotGNU, but just haven't gotten around to it - now is the time.

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.

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 directions for System.Windows. Forms (SWF).

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 source leaders start looking at horn-swaggling Longhorn.

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.

Novell has put out the second beta of Mono, the open source implementation of the .NET Framework for Linux, Unix and Windows whose sponsorship it acquired when it bought Ximian.