Re: [GD-General] C# versus C++ for game engines

[Colin F. <cp...@ea...>]

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
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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>