Re: [GD-General] C# versus C++ for game engines
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From: Colin F. <cp...@ea...> - 2003-02-21 06:15:45
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2003 February 20th Thursday >>> except that microsoft has declared that they will be suing >>> and attacking any attempts at reverse engineering their >>> .net technology... >>> >>> the mono project seems doomed to failure as a result. Here's a quote from the March 2002 book "C# in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference" (published by O'Reilly): [On page 11, in a section entitled "ECMA Standardization"] "However, this openness was taken to a new level in November 2000 when Microsoft, along with co-sponsors Intel and HP, officially submitted the specifications for the C# language, a subset of the FCL, and the ------------------- runtime environment to ECMA for standardization." [NOTE: I added the underline to draw your attention to a phrase.] FCL stands for Framework Class Library, which includes the reflection, stack trace, thread, socket, and collection API's, among thousands of other classes. Was the "subset of the FCL" that Microsoft submitted to the ECMA so small that it did not include reflection or stack tracing ability? Is the Mono project "reverse engineering" anything, or are participants simply implementing a public-domain specification? I don't know if anyone on this list would know, but... Is it considered "reverse engineering" or some other kind of intellectual property violation to re-implement an API from scratch? In other words, can it be illegal to deploy an API with the same class names and method names as some other existing API? (I assume this doesn't apply when the API has been submitted for standardization. Right?) This is veering off-topic, I know, but this relates to the concern that C# cannot be used for cross-platform game engines (e.g., Windows and Linux). I know that most people mean "consoles" when they say "cross-platform" in the video game industry. It might be a while before we see the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and portions of the Framework Class Library (FCL) implemented for PlayStation 2\3 and GameCube, but I suppose X-Box developers might already be using C#. --- Colin cp...@ea... [Secret irrelevant sub-thread continues:] <useless_wacky_factoids> P.S.: I like Chevron with Techron, but it's probably due to the fact that the station is about 200 yards from my apartment, and has a pretty glow at night...and it's one of the few places in Irvine where one can buy a Coke at 3 A.M. (other than Ralph's and Denny's). </useless_wacky_factoids> |