Xamarin Ports Google's Android To Mono C#

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Xamarin Ports Google's Android To Mono C#

Xamarin, the Mono company, has ported Google's Android source-code to C# that can be used with Mono. Hello Mono-droid?..

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTA5NTE

[r1348]

Awesome, so now Google can port Android from the patent minefield that is Java to the totally safe and free... oh, wait.

[fuzz]

Breaking news!

Introducing from Microsoft, the all-new WinDroid!

[Linuxhippy]

What an obvious step - they failed to make money with Mono and now try something cool to get bought by Google ... well ...

[beaverusiv]

Is Dalvik getting improved every Android version? I'm guessing if a quick convert like this was quicker it means Dalvik has a long way to go...

[Saist]

not to put too fine a point on this: but isn't this porting a bit like looking at an open-sewer, and then deciding that it's be great to have a swim in it?

[AHSauge]

Is Dalvik getting improved every Android version? I'm guessing if a quick convert like this was quicker it means Dalvik has a long way to go...

I didn't read the whole blog post yet (it's _really_ late here i Norway now), but at first glance I didn't see anything stating that it's actually faster than Dalvik in terms of general usage, only that they have faster structs and generics. That is as good as worthless information in terms of general usage. If they actually benchmarked a whole useful program, I'll guess they'll have much more similar performance, if not actually worse than Dalvik. Also, it's worth noting that Google has tested their code, and from what I can see, Xamarin has not. Thus, who knows what problems are lurking around in their code, and what effect solving those have in terms of performance.

… and no, I'm not really a fan of Java, nor Mono/C# for that matter.

[sado1]

Awesome, so now Google can port Android from the patent minefield that is Java to the totally safe and free... oh, wait.

On second thought, Microsoft already gets cash for Android phones thanks to their patents, so if Google really did that they wouldn't have anything to lose, riiiiight?

Yes, what I wrote is as stupid as you think, I am aware of that. Thankfully, no one at Google is going to take my advices into account.

[0xCAFE]

Awesome, so now Google can port Android from the patent minefield that is Java to the totally safe and free...

It was mainly done exactly for that reason:
"Unlike Sun with Java, Microsoft submitted C# and the .NET VM for standardization to ECMA and saw those standards graduated all the way to ISO strong patent commitments. The .NET framework is also covered by Microsoft’s legally binding community promise."

The Phoronix article doesn't mention this.

[blinxwang]

Port it over to Go and then we'll talk. Changing from Java to C# is like exchanging horse poo for cow poo.