Jonathan Ernst wrote:
.exe files are often associated with Wine so that it's easy for users to
double click a windows application and have it working like any native
application.
Wouldn't it be possible for Wine to detect .Net application and run them
using mono (mono app.exe) instead of just failing ?
According to an MSDN article (
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/03/PE2/default.aspx ), .NET
executables are just PE executables that happen to be linked against
MSCOREE.DLL. Perhaps Wine could detect an attempt to load that DLL and
call Mono instead. In theory a program could execute arbitrary code
first and then have too much state to pass to Mono safely, but if a lot
of these applications are mechanically generated stubs it might not be a
problem.
If that's not wanted, would it be at least possible to issue a message
to tell the user that the application he'is trying to run is a .Net
application and that he should try running it using mono ?
What are your opinions about the handling of .Net executables ?
I tried running a .NET application the other day and it gave me a nice
error-message (on the console) telling me that I needed to install .NET.
Now that Wine is finally, officially, in a numbered release, it might
be a good idea to reopen the question of Wine/Mono dynamic linking or
other cooperation. For an example of the bad feelings that some .NET
users have about WIne, take a look at the last post (the one dated
10-15-2005, 6:55) on
http://community.sharpdevelop.net/forums/1310/ShowPost.aspx (note:
SharpDevelop is an open-source .NET development environment.)
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