Interesting thread. Let me try and squash a few misconceptions. I don't think there is such a thing as .NET compatible and I am not sure what that would mean.Here's what I can tell you.
MapXtreme 2004 has an entirely .NET, object model and interface that is fully compliant with the specifications of .NET. There is no reason why any .NET language compiler could not compile code to work with our assemblies. Each of our Assemblies is tagged with an attribute declaring CLS (Common Language Specification) compliance. When you do this and compile your assembly, the build will fail if the compiler/linker finds anything in the public API that cannot be called from a conformant language. For example, VB is case insensitive so that 'Polygon' and 'POLYGON' are the same thing to VB even though they are acceptable to C#, C++ and other languages. If you did this in your code and declared CLS compliance, your build would fail. It is true that we have only tested against VB.NET and C#. These are the most popular .NET languages at this stage. However, C++ and J# are also well used. As other languages get more use, we may need to test against them as well. We have every belief that MapXtreme can be used by any CLS compiler. Our implementation does include quite a bit of native code (x86 not MSIL which is Microsoft Intermediate Language) that is called by our MSIL code to do a large part of the work. Not only do we get some well known performance from this but that code is well tested and used. Interacting with Native X-86 (or 64 bit arch) code like this is totally acceptable and common at this stage in .NET. The .NET platform itself relies heavily on Windows code for many things. In fact, the CLR (Common Language Runtime) is itself a COM object. We are looking into the pros and cons of moving more code to MSIL. There are a number of internal benefits that we would get. We also might lose some performance so we will take our time to do this right. However, none of this changes the external interface and the ability to use MapXtreme from any other .NET code. The "unsafe" moniker is correct. To mark your assemblies as "safe" you have to have all MSIL code and there are even restrictions on that as well. The unsafe/safe moniker is a statement of whether the code, by being entirely compiled into native code by the runtime, is known to be safe from rogue pointers and possible memory corruption in your process. Any code (including all of Windows, for example) is not "safe" is this regard as there is no way the .NET runtime can guarantee such a thing on code it did not compile. I would not expect all of MapXtreme to be "safe" for quite sometime. We would have to get rid of all our native code including such things as our public Raster handler and Grid handler specifications. We would have to rely entirely on garbage collected objects. Indeed, the use of ODBC or OCI would not be "safe". Having assemblies like this is more often referred to as having "fully verifiable" code. I expect that you will see much more growth in our MSIL code base than our native code, however. I know nothing about Delphi's latest releases and their .NET work. I see from their site that they have release version 8 for .NET. Someone mentioned it will not work with MapXtreme. Are they sure? What is the problem? If it can't then I would be suspicious of the robustness of their deliverable. There was nothing in their FAQ which would make me think it would not work. In addition to the core body of code, a deliverable such as MapXtreme includes much more. So, for example, we are working hard on constantly improving our integration with Visual Studio and its visual designers. It is very possible that Borland's IDE will not support such things because it is using the .NET SDK not a Visual Studio SDK. But I can't tell at this point. It would seem to me that Borland will have to stay as compatible as possible to stay in the game. I wish them luck as competition is good. So, with any luck, you should be able to use MapXtreme technology from Delphi. How well integrated it will be another question. Now that I have said all this I wonder if there might just be some install issues. Keep the information coming. Eric Blasenheim Software Architect MapInfo Corporation Mail List: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: on 09/15/2004 09:09 AM ZE12 To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> cc: "MapInfo-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: MI-L MapBasic vs VisualStudio .NET ... MapXtreme 2004 Because of the way MapInfo have written MapXtreme 2004. It is not 100% .NET compatible and includes a number of unsafe DLLs. It is not compatible with Delphi, but is compatible with C# Builder. MapInfo state that they have only tested it with MS Visual Studio .NET. Cheers Ian -----Original Message----- From: Peter Horsbøll Møller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 15 September 2004 9:01 a.m. To: Ian Tidy Cc: MapInfo-L Subject: RE: MI-L MapBasic vs VisualStudio .NET Good question, Ian. I read somewhere, I guess it was with the alpha/beta version og MapXtreme 2004, that the Borland development suite not was supported, but whether this is the case with the final version I don't know. Hopefully they support Borland/Delphi as well Peter Horsbøll Møller GIS Developer Geographical Information & IT COWI A/S Odensevej 95 DK-5260 Odense S. Denmark Tel +45 6311 4900 Direct +45 6311 4908 Mob +45 5156 1045 Fax +45 6311 4949 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cowi.dk/gis -----Original Message----- From: Ian Tidy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 10:48 PM To: Peter Horsbøll Møller Cc: MapInfo-L Subject: RE: MI-L MapBasic vs VisualStudio .NET I understand the point you make with having to port code between technologies when ever Microsoft decide to change or upgrade something. I was looking at it from a different angle, I use Delphi for .NET and I thought that one of the objectives for the .NET framework was code portability (i.e. If you write in VB, C#, Java, Delphi, etc all code is compiled against a common language runtime "CLR"). My question (not knowing how ESRI have done it) is this, how is the development environment going to be made available to the user. Am I going to have to invest in MS VS.NET or will I be able to write code in Delphi? Cheers Ian -----Original Message----- From: Peter Horsbøll Møller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 15 September 2004 8:25 a.m. To: Ian Tidy Cc: MapInfo-L Subject: RE: MI-L MapBasic vs VisualStudio .NET I'm not sure whether they will build some kind of VBA into MapInfo, but maybe my point was stupid or just not clear. Consider this: What if you didn't have MapBasic now but were using VB to develope applications for MapInfo. How big a job would it be to port all your VB sourcecode to VB.NET ? I don't think that .NET will be the last new technology update from Microsoft so once in the future we will have to port our sourcecode from VB.NEt/C# to .NEWNET or whatever this new technology will be called. Peter Horsbøll Møller GIS Developer Geographical Information & IT COWI A/S Odensevej 95 DK-5260 Odense S. Denmark Tel +45 6311 4900 Direct +45 6311 4908 Mob +45 5156 1045 Fax +45 6311 4949 E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cowi.dk/gis -----Original Message----- From: Ian Tidy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2004 10:17 PM To: Peter Horsbøll Møller Cc: MapInfo-L Subject: RE: MI-L MapBasic vs VisualStudio .NET This may seem a dumb question, but why will you be limited to MS VS .NET, I thought as long as you can compile against the CLR you could use any .NET language. Am I wrong in my thinking, but this has raised a thought. How are you going to get the programming interface? At the moment if you want to write MapBasic apps you buy MapBasic, in the future with .NET languages will MI Pro just find made available to as a component to what ever language you have installed, or will it have some sort of .NET VBA embedded? Cheers Ian -----Original Message----- From: Peter Horsbøll Møller [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, 15 September 2004 8:08 a.m. To: Garrett, Robert G [NTK]; Mapinfo-L Subject: RE: MI-L MapBasic vs VisualStudio .NET Yes, I now I have nowhere to run... and I don't intend to. I'll stay with MapInfo until I die, or... he ... well at least for a while ;-) But how do you see this ? Do you think it's a problem ? Peter Horsbøll Møller GIS Developer Geographical Information & IT COWI A/S Odensevej 95 DK-5260 Odense S. 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