Re: .Net C# and VB Running Natively with Mono for i

Not quite sure what Alex meant, but it's definitely not an ILE native port. That's not really realistic.

It runs in PASE which is to be expected on IBMi.

I was quite amazed when I talked to the author and he told me I could simply compile in Visual Studio and move the objects to the IFS and they would run. Whaaat..... ?

Sure enough I grabbed the latest already compiled incantation of the XMLSERVICE DLL I created from Nuget, created a little console application (think CL program) and it all runs perfectly on i.

So it does actually work with some existing compiled .Net EXE and DLL files and can also compile VB and C# to .Net 4.7.1. Limits to be discovered I'm sure.

The MONO wrapper CL process I created executes a .Net console application and can capture the stdout information and pipeline it to the IFS, to an outfile, to a joblog or to a print file so any IBMi program can call a .Net app in PASE and get the output and use it. (Think similar to sending back CPF message data from a CL or RPG app).

If you are a .Net developer like I am, I just say: "WOW, the possibilities are endless with the existing .Net code and utilities that should be able to run or eventually run on IBMi with this".

I plan to push the envelope on what's currently working and see what we can come up with.

There are definitely still some things missing like I don't think the .Net framework database stuff works, however the bits that XML service needs do work (http/https/DataSet/DataTables/JSON/XML processing).

I plan to document the valid use cases where .Net code can benefit the developers on IBMi and provide some examples.

Regards,
Richard Schoen
Director of Document Management
e. richard.schoen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
p. 952.486.6802
w. helpsystems.com

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message: 4
date: Mon, 12 Nov 2018 16:48:28 -0700
from: Nathan Andelin <nandelin@xxxxxxxxx>
subject: Re: .Net C# and VB Running Natively with Mono for i

In the IT Jungle article, Alex Woodie writes "It?s not a native port, but it?s better than nothing."


On Mon, Nov 12, 2018 at 2:52 PM Richard Schoen via MIDRANGE-L < midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks to the nice work done by the guys who ported the Mono framework
to IBM i, you can now start using Visual Studio and Visual Studio
Community to create and compile apps that run natively on IBM i in
PASE, Windows, Mac and Linux.

Check out this recent article:
https://www.itjungle.com/2018/10/31/mono-port-to-ibm-i-now-available/

You can use your compiled CS and VB objects (EXE/DLL) without change
by running via the mono command. Supports .Net 2.0 - 4.7.1 and also
.Net Standard which is what my open source XMLSERVICE data service
wrapper is written in.

Download and install MonoOni from here:
https://github.com/MonoOni/binarydist

I have tested my XMLSERVICE wrapper which ran with a sample console
app by creating and compiling in Visual Studio and simply copying the
compiled app into the IFS and running. It just worked.

They still don't have all the database stuff working, bit with
XMLSERVICE you can start building .Net apps and services that serve
IBM i data, commands, program calls and data queues right now without waiting.

I will also be releasing an open source MONO CL command wrapper soon
that can call and consume .Net programs using RPG, CL, COBOL or
anything that can compose and call a CL command.

There are so any things available in .Net for writing utilities that
make this big news for those of you interested in bringing VB and C#
application code directly to IBM i.

Enjoy and sent me a note directly if you want early access to the MONO
CL command wrapper before it gets posted on Github.

[HelpSystems]<https://www.helpsystems.com/>

Richard Schoen
Director of Document Management Technology

e. richard.schoen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
p. 952.486.6802 | m. 952.486.6802