[arch-dev-public] Mono release 2.8 with major changes is coming (soon)

[Eric Bélanger]

On Wed, Aug 4, 2010 at 2:28 AM, Daniel Isenmann <daniel.isenmann at gmx.de> wrote:
>  Hi,
>
> I know that many of you don't use mono, but anyway a new major release is
> coming with some changes which may affect packages which depends on mono.
>
> I have read the changelog draft of mono 2.8 (you can find it here:
> http://mono-project.com/Release_Notes_Mono_2.8) and there are some
> significant changes, like the removing of .NET 1.1 profile. Normally that
> shouldn't be a problem, because most applications are using .NET 2.0 profile
> and not the old 1.1, but who knows if some applications using the old one.
> If an application uses the old 1.1 profile it will be automatically switched
> to the 2.0 profile and a warning should appear.
> Seven old and deprecated libraries will be removed from the mono release, to
> be precisly:
>  * ByteFX.Data
>  * Mono.Data
>  * Microsoft.JScript and Microsoft.Vsa
>  * FirebirdSql.Data.Firebird
>  * Mono.Data.SybaseClient
>  * Mono.Data.SqliteClient
>
> Mono 2.8 will ship a new garbage collector (SGen), I will activate it by
> default. You can change that by setting an environment variable (information
> will follow at release day). The new release includes 4 new libraries from
> Microsoft directly, they are licensed und MS-PL or Apache 2 Open Source
> Licenses, so that shouldn't be a problem for us.
>
> Another critical change will be the ThreadPool behavior. This has been
> changed and will potentially break existing applications.
>
> I have written in my "Away" email that you can update my packages, but
> please DO NOT UPDATE the mono packages during my vacation. I will update
> mono after my vacation (if it will be released in that time). As always I
> try to do the update as smooth as possible, but this time there are some
> real big changes in the new release which may not "allow" this.
>
> Sorry for the long email and such specific information about the new mono
> release, but I think it's necessary for such a major release.
>
>  -Daniel
>

It might be a bit off-topic but I'm wondering if, with that new
release of mono, you'll add moonlight to extra. IIRC, when we removed
the moonlight package from community a while ago because it had to be
rebuilt and that version wasn't building anymore, you mentionned that
eventually you'll add moonlight to extra. Is it still your intention
or am I remembering incorrectly?

Thanks,
Eric