what is Mono？

词汇：embracing 包围支持的
embrace
manufacture制造
ECMA:European Computer Manufactures Association
infrastructure 基础设施
Mono是一个由Novell公司(由Ximian发起，并由Miguel de lcaza领导的，一个致力于开创.NET在Linux上使用的开源工程。
MONO is a project it also has a vertual machine。
Qt是诺基亚开发的一个跨平台的C++图形用户界面应用程序框架
Mozilla基金会简称Mozilla，维护 mozilla firefox 和Mozilla Thunderbird
interoperability n词，相互性，协同工作的能力
functionality 符合实际的
interoperability functionality
solid adj 可靠的，固体的
compatible 兼容的
generics 泛型
interoperate 互操作
embedding嵌入
strategy策略
strategies

What is Mono<!--END PAGE TITLE-->

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Mono is a software platform designed to allow developers to easily create cross platform applications. It is an open source implementation of Microsoft's .Net Framework based on the ECMA standards for C# and the Common Language Runtime. We feel that by embracing a successful, standardized software platform, we can lower the barriers to producing great applications for Linux.

The Components

There are several components that make up Mono:

C# Compiler - Mono's C# compiler is feature complete for C# 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 (ECMA). A good description of the feature of the various versions is available on Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_%28programming_language%29#Versions).

Mono Runtime - The runtime implements the ECMA Common Language Infrastructure (CLI). The runtime provides a Just-in-Time (JIT) compiler, an Ahead-of-Time compiler (AOT), a library loader, the garbage collector, a threading system and interoperability functionality.

Base Class Library - The Mono platform provides a comprehensive set of classes that provide a solid foundation to build applications on. These classes are compatible with Microsoft's .Net Framework classes.

Mono Class Library - Mono also provides many classes that go above and beyond the Base Class Library provided by Microsoft. These provide additional functionality that are useful, especially in building Linux applications. Some examples are classes for Gtk+, Zip files, LDAP, OpenGL, Cairo, POSIX, etc.

The Benefits

There are many benefits to choosing Mono for application development:

Popularity - Built on the success of .Net, there are millions of developers that have experience building applications in C#. There are also tens of thousands of books, websites, tutorials, and example source code to help with any imaginable problem.

Higher-Level Programming - All Mono languages benefit from many features of the runtime, like automatic memory management, reflection, generics, and threading. These features allow you to concentrate on writing your application instead of writing system infrastructure code.

Base Class Library - Having a comprehensive class library provides thousands of built in classes to increase productivity. Need socket code or a hashtable? There's no need to write your own as it's built into the platform.

Cross Platform - Mono is built to be cross platform. Mono runs on Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, BSD, and Sun Solaris, Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3, Apple iPhone. It also runs on x86, x86-64, IA64, PowerPC, SPARC (32), ARM, Alpha, s390, s390x (32 and 64 bits) and more. Developing your application with Mono allows you to run on nearly any computer in existance (details).

Common Language Runtime (CLR) - The CLR allows you to choose the programming language you like best to work with, and it can interoperate with code written in any other CLR language. For example, you can write a class in C#, inherit from it in VB.Net, and use it in Eiffel. You can choose to write code in Mono in a variety of programming languages.

Other Uses

Scripting and Embedding - The Mono runtime can also be used to script your applications by embedding it inside other applications, to allow managed code and scripts to run in a native application.

See Embedding Mono for details on how to embed Mono.

See Scripting With Mono for strategies on how to script your application using the Mono runtime.