[R-gui] Got Mono?

[James.Callahan at CityofOrlando.net]

GOT MONO?
As to the current topic of which widget set to use today for R user 
interfaces -- I have no idea.

In the long run (see Keynes quote in signature), IMHO the R/Omegahat 
community will be writing to Java/VM (as in Omegahat) or Mono/CLR (no stat 
project yet).

What I've learned from the websites -- warning -- I haven't actually used 
any of this stuff!!!!!

Short version: Mono 1.0 June 30th, multi-platform (Suse, Red Hat, Fedora, 
Mac OS 10.3 & Fedora Core 1 & 2) and will support GTK# and Glade.
It will be possible to run some Java programs in Mono on June 30th because 
of IKVM version 0.8 and the GNU Classpath libraries.

"The Mono Project is a project that aims to bring the Common Language 
Infrastructure [CLI] platform to free systems. "
http://www.gotmono.com/

"The Mono project is an open source effort sponsored by Novell to create a 
free implementation of the .NET Development Framework. "
http://www.go-mono.com/

Miguel de Icaza's (of Gnome fame) web log links to justifications of the 
Mono project
http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/activity-log.php

points to a new short term Mono 1.0 road map, the longer-term road map is 
still available.
http://www.go-mono.com/road-to-1.0.html

*** Mono 1.0 launch date is the end of June (June 30th).***

There will be at least two betas (May 4th and June 1st).

Mono will support gtk-sharp (gtk#) 
Gtk# is a .Net language binding for the gtk+ toolkit and assorted GNOME 
libraries.  Gtk# is free software, licensed under the GNU LGPL. 
http://gtk-sharp.sourceforge.net/
GTK has a form designer called Glade.

WHAT DOES  MONO/GTK#/IKVM  MEAN FOR R / OMEGAHAT? 

In the short run, nothing.
In the long run, I don't know. 
But, here is my guess anyway (don't you hate that).

1. Mono 1.0 will launch with C#, but without a GCC compatible complier. 
Miguel's blog (18 April 2004) points to potential source code for 
    a starting point for creating a managed C++ compiler with a GCC 
compatible front end. But, AFAIK there isn't even a project yet.

2. Without a GCC compatible complier, porting R itself would be very 
difficult if not impossible. In addition to GCC -- what else would be 
needed?

3. Until a GCC compatible compiler is available, IKVM could be used to see 
whether the Mono/IKVM environment supports Omegahat's Java code.
See link on Miguel's blog for "Java, Gtk and Mono" -- Miguel compiles an 
obligatory "Hello World" in IKVM.
http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel//texts/gtkjava.html

4. The fancy phrase for editors these days is "Integrated Development 
Environment (IDE)." There are at least two choices. MonoDevelop and 
Eclipse.
    Monodevelop is an opensource IDE developed for .NET that will run in 
Mono and Eclipse is a Java based IDE that runs in Java and can run in IKVM 
(see screenshots on IKVM and Mono  websites). Monodevelop and Eclipse both 
support syntax highlighting -- how hard will it be to implement R syntax 
highlighting?

Mondevelop /  Sharp Develop (as I write the Monodevelop.com link times 
out)
http://www.monodevelop.com/
http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/monodevelop-list
http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/
 
Eclipse:
http://www.eclipse.org/

5. Once a GCC compatible compiler is available in Mono --- subject to the 
availability of libraries -- compiling R becomes an option. If R can be 
compiled then there are a lot of tests and benchmarks to be run to test 
for: numeric accuracy, speed, usability.

6. Eventually, some or all of R may be re-written in C#  (but don't hold 
your breath).  One of the reasons for Omegahat was to avoid the tedious, 
unproductive chore or rewriting the same old software. -- again and again

Does any of  this make sense?
Will any of this really happen?
When?

DISCLAIMER\ This is my guesswork -- without seeing -- let al...{{dropped}}