Leland,

You might find this article useful.

http://www.devx.com/free/hotlinks/2002/ednote061902/ednote061902-1.asp


>Hi,
>
>In order to make .NET work doesn't Microsoft need to have inoperability with other platforms like Linux, Unix, Apple, etc. This would be necessary to compete with Sun's java which is a platform independent langauge. Microsoft in the past has built all its applications, languages, and tools to be Windows dependent to drive sales of the windows operation system platform.
>
>I wonder if there are any plan to port either C# or VB.NET to other platforms, or is this irrelevant. I know under Windows that many langauges can be used like fortran, cobol, perl, C#, C++, VB, etc, and the .NET framework will compile whatever language using the CRL at runtime. I suppose if Linux, Unix, Apple, etc had a .NET framework layer, any .NET language that followed the .NET rules could be copied to any platform and executed within the .NET layer of that platform. I don't know of any strategic alliance between Microsoft and other platform vendors to allow .NET to work seamlessly between platforms. I do know that C# has been submitted and accepted by a computer regulatory body for standardization.
>
>I know there have been some efforts in other platforms to build a .NET compatible layer, but they are all revolving around C#. It is my understanding that C# is the native language in which .NET is written. It seem to me that C# would give me more options in the long run, and I would be afraid that VB.NET would chain me to the Windows platform and limit sales of any applications I write to the Windows platform.