2001-12-20 Aaron Weber <aaron@ximian.com>

	* doc/faq: added <a name=""> nav links, and moved all MSFT-related
	questions into a single section.

svn path=/trunk/mono/; revision=1671

1 files changed, 133 insertions, 178 deletions

diff --git a/doc/faq b/doc/faq
index 697f412a530..087d9318f16 100644
--- a/doc/faq
+++ b/doc/faq
@@ -1,21 +1,41 @@
+<a href="#basics">Basics</a><br>
+<a href="#ximian">The Ximian Role in the Mono project</a><br>
+<a href="#gnome">Mono and GNOME</a><br>
+<a href="#msft">Mono and Microsoft</a><br>
+<a href="#pnpproject">Mono and the Portable.NET Project</a><br>
+<a href="#webservices">Web Services</a><br>
+<a href="#devel">Development Tools and Issues</a><br>
+<a href="#java">Mono and Java</a><br>
+<a href="#extending">Extending Mono</a><br>
+<a href="#portability">Portability</a><br>
+<a href="#reuse">Reusing Existing Code</a><br>
+<a href="#gcc">Mono and GCC</a><br>
+<a href="#performance">Performance</a><br>
+<a href="#licensing">Licensing</a><br>
+<a href="#etc">Miscellaneous Questions</a><br>
+
+
+<a name="basics"></a>
 ** Basics
 
 Q: What is Mono exactly?
 
-A: The Mono Project is a community initiative to develop an open
-   source, Linux-based version of the Microsoft.NET development
-   platform.  Its objective is to enable Linux developers to build and
-   deploy cross platform .NET Applications.  The project will
+A: The Mono Project is an open development initiative sponsored by
+   Ximian that is working to develop an open source, Linux-based
+   version of the Microsoft .NET development platform.  Its objective
+   is to enable Linux developers to build and
+   deploy cross-platform .NET Applications.  The project will
    implement various technologies developed by Microsoft that have now
    been submitted to the ECMA for standardization.
 
-Q: Is Mono a .NET implementation?
-
-A: No.  Microsoft.Net is a broad, company-wide effort that ranges from
-   development tools to end user applications.  Some components of
-   this initiative have been announced and some others are in the
-   works.
+Q: What is the difference between Mono and the .NET Initiative?
 
+A: The ".NET Initiative" is a somewhat nebulous company-wide effort by
+   Microsoft, one part of which is a cross-platform development
+   framework.  Mono is an implementation of the development framework,
+   but not an implementation of anything else related to the .NET
+   Initiative, such as Passport, software-as-a-service, or
+   corporate rebranding.
 
 Q: What technologies are included in Mono?
 
@@ -33,8 +53,6 @@ A: Mono contains a number of components useful for building new
 		* A compiler for the C# language.  In the future we
 		  might work on other compilers that target the Common
 		  Language Runtime.
-
-
 	</ul>
 
 
@@ -68,18 +86,15 @@ Q: Will you implement the .NET Framework SDK class libraries?
 A: Yes, we will be implementing the APIs of the .NET Framework SDK
    class libraries. 
 
-Q: What does Mono stand for?
+Q: What does the name "Mono" mean?
 
-A: Mono is the word for `Monkey' in Spanish. We like monkeys.
-
-   It only means a number of other things: monochromatic (hence the
-   gray theme used in the Web site).
+A: Mono is the word for `monkey' in Spanish. We like monkeys.
 
 Q: When will you ship it?
 
-A: It is premature to target a shipdate for the code. While we anticipate
-   availability in the middle of next year, the more contributions we
-   get to the project, the sooner it will ship.
+A: It is premature to target a shipdate for the code, but we
+   anticipate that it will be available some time in the middle of
+   2002.
 
 Q: How can I contribute?
 
@@ -92,15 +107,18 @@ A: We are interested in providing the best tools for programmers to
    provide the interoperability that will allow those systems to fit in
    with other standards.
 
-   Please read the <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/rationale.html">Mono
-   Project white paper</a> on Ximian site] for more background and the
-   rationale for the project.
+   For more background, read the <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/rationale.html">Mono
+   Project white paper</a>.
+   the project.
+
+
+<a name="ximian"></a> 
 
-** The Ximian role in the Mono Project
+** The Ximian Role in the Mono Project
 
 Q: Why is Ximian working on .NET?
 
-A: We are interested in providing the best tools for programmers to
+A: Ximian is interested in providing the best tools for programmers to
    develop applications for Free Operating Systems.  
 
    For more information, read the project <a
@@ -108,25 +126,23 @@ A: We are interested in providing the best tools for programmers to
 
 Q: Will Ximian be able to take on a project of this size?  
 
-A: Ximian cannot and will not be able to take on the whole project on
-   its own.  Ximian is spearheading the effort and providing a call to
-   action.  Mono will be a free software/open source community
-   project; that is the only way to implement something of this
-   size. Visit the <a href="contributing.html">contributing</a> page
-   on this site to learn more about what you can do.
+A: Of course not. Ximian a supporter of the Mono project, but the only way
+   to implement something of this size is for the entire free software
+   community to get involved. Visit the <a href="contributing.html">contributing</a> 
+   page if you'd like to help out.
 
 Q: What pieces will Ximian be working on?
 
 A: We will devote most of our resources to work on the pieces which are
-   on the critical path to release a development and execution environment.
-
-   The idea is to get Mono to a state of that would allow
-   third parties to actually be able to use it real-world development.
+   on the critical path to release a development and execution
+   environment. Once the project is at a stage where it is useful in
+   the real world, it will achieve a critical mass of developers to
+   improve it further.
 
 
-** Relationship with GNOME
+<a name="gnome"></a> ** Mono and GNOME
 
-Q: How is this related to GNOME?
+Q: How is Mono related to GNOME?
 
 A: In a number of ways.  This project was born out of the need of
    providing improved tools for the GNOME community, and will use
@@ -160,15 +176,43 @@ A: Yes, we will provide a set of classes for implementing and using
    Bonobo components more easily, just like .NET on Windows allows you
    to export .NET components to COM.
 
-** Mono and Microsoft: .NET, Hailstorm, and Passport
+<a name="msft"></a>
+** Mono and Microsoft
+
+Q: Is Microsoft helping Ximian with this project?
+
+A: No. Ximian CTO Miguel de Icaza had a friendly conversation with
+   Microsoft software architect David Stutz, but that's about the
+   extent of the contact. Microsoft is interested in other
+   implementations of .NET and are willing to help make the ECMA spec
+   more accurate for this purpose.
+
+   Ximian representatives have also spoken with Sam Ruby at the ECMA
+   TG3 committee to discuss the same issues.
+
+Q: Is Microsoft or Corel paying Ximian to do this?
+
+A: No.
+
+Q: Do you fear that Microsoft will change the spec and render Mono
+   useless?
+
+A: No.  Microsoft proved with the CLI and the C# language that it was
+   possible to create a powerful foundation for many languages to
+   interoperate.  We will always have that.  
+
+   Even if changes happened in the platform which were undocumented,
+   the existing platform would a value on its own.
+
+Q: Are you writing Mono from the ECMA specs?
+
+A: Yes, we are writing them from the ECMA specs and the published
+   materials in print about .NET.
 
-Q: If applications use Mono, does that mean that I have to pay a service fee?
+Q: If my applications use Mono, will I have to pay a service fee?
 
 A: No.  Mono is not related to Microsoft's initiative of
-   software-as-a-service.  It is going to provide an open source,
-   Linux-based version of the Microsoft.NET development platform.  Its
-   objective is to enable Linux developers to build and deploy cross
-   platform .NET Applications.
+   software-as-a-service.
 
 Q: Is the Mono Project is related to the Microsoft Hailstorm effort?  Is
    Ximian endorsing Hailstorm?  
@@ -179,18 +223,12 @@ A: No.  The Mono Project is focused on providing a compatible set of
    Hailstorm single sign-on system that is part of Windows XP and
    other services.
 
-Q: If you implement .NET, will I depend on Microsoft Passport to run my software?
+Q: Will Mono or .NET applications depend on Microsoft Passport?
 
 A: No. MS Passport is unrelated to running .NET compatible applications
    produced with the Mono tools.  The only thing you will need is a
    just-in-time compiler (JIT).
 
-Q: Is .NET just a bunch of marketing slogans?
-
-A: Although the `.NET initiative' is still quite nebulous, The .NET Framework
-   has been available for some time.  Mono is not an implementation of the .NET
-   initiative, just the development framework.
-
 Q: What is a 100% .NET application?
 
 A: A `100% .NET application' is one that only uses the APIs defined
@@ -212,8 +250,8 @@ A: The Shared Source implementation will be expensive and its uses
 
 Q: Is Mono a free implementation of Passport?
 
-A: No.  Passport is part of Microsoft's Hailstorm initiative.  Mono
-   is just a runtime, a compiler and a set of class libraries. 
+A: No. Mono is just a runtime, a compiler and a set of class
+   libraries.
 
 Q: Will the System.Web.Security.PassportIdentity class mean
    that my software will depend on Passport?
@@ -224,33 +262,10 @@ A: No.  Applications may use that API to contact a Passport site, but
    As long as your application does not use Passport, you will not
    need Passport.  
 
-   It might even be possible to implement that class with
-   a set of dummy functions, or use an alternate Passport implementation.
-
-   We do not know at this time whether the Passport protocol is
-   documented and whether we will be able to talk to
-   passport.com 
-
 Q: Will Mono running on Linux make Passport available for Linux?
 
-A: No.  However, the Passport toolkit for Linux-based web servers is available from
-   Microsoft.  
-
-
-** Mono and Portable.NET
-
-Q: What are the differences between Mono and Portable.NET?
-
-A: Most of Mono is being written using C#, the only pieces written in
-   C are those who have to absolutely be built using C (The JIT
-   engine, the runtime, the interfaces to the garbage collection
-   system).
-
-   The C# compiler and the tools will become reusable C# components.
-
-   Portable.NET is building its components out of C pieces.
-
-** Mono and Windows
+A: No.  However, the Passport toolkit for Linux-based web servers is
+   available from Microsoft.
 
 Q: Will Mono allow me to run Microsoft Office on Linux?
 
@@ -258,6 +273,17 @@ A: No, it will not.  Microsoft Office is a Windows application.  To
    learn more about running Windows applications on Intel Unix systems
    refer to <a href="http://www.winehq.com">the Wine Project</a>.
 
+<a name="pnpproject"></a>
+** Mono and Portable.NET
+
+Q: What are the differences between Mono and Portable.NET?
+
+A: Most of Mono is being written using C#, with only
+   a few parts written in C (The JIT engine, the runtime, the
+   interfaces to the garbage collection system).  The Portable.NET
+   Project is using C for development.
+
+<a name="webservices"></a>
 ** Web Services
 
 Q: Is Mono just a new way of writing Web Services?
@@ -294,6 +320,7 @@ Q: Can I serialize my objects to other things other than XML?
 A: Yes, although the serializing tools have not yet been planned, and
 you would probably have to implement them yourself.
 
+<a name="devel"></a>
 ** Development Tools and Issues
 
 Q: Will it be possible to use the CLI features without using bytecodes
@@ -331,7 +358,7 @@ A: The CIL is better suited to be JITed than JVM byte codes, but you
    can interpret them as trivially as you can interpret JVM byte
    codes. 
 
-
+<a name="java">
 ** Mono and Java
    
 Q: Why don't you use Java?  After all, there are many languages that
@@ -359,6 +386,7 @@ A: Yes, Java could target the CLI.  We have details on a <a
    href="ideas.html#guavac">project</a> that someone could take on to
    make this happen.
 
+<a name="extending"></a>
 ** Extending Mono
 
 Q: Would you allow other classes other than those in the
@@ -377,7 +405,8 @@ A: Yes.  The Microsoft class collection is very big, but it is by no
    For more information on extending Mono, see our <a
    href="ideas.html">ideas</a> page.
 
-** Mono and portability
+<a name="portability"></a>
+** Portability
 
 Q: Will Mono only work on Linux?
 
@@ -406,7 +435,8 @@ A: It will depend only if you are using a particular assembly (for
    in Mono for implementing a `Hello World Enterprise P2P Web
    Service', you will not need any GNOME components.
 
-** Reusing existing Code
+<a name="reuse"></a>
+** Reusing Existing Code
 
 Q: What projects will you reuse or build upon?
 
@@ -416,9 +446,9 @@ A: We want to get Mono in the hands of programmers soon.  We are
 Q: What about Intel's research JIT framework, ORP?
 
 A: At this time, we are investigating whether we can use elements of
-   ORP for Mono.   ORP is a research JIT engine that has a clear
+   ORP for Mono.   ORP is a research JIT engine that has a clearly
    defined API that splits the JIT from the GC system and the actual
-   byte code implementation.   It is a research product.
+   byte code implementation.
 
 Q: What about using GNU Lightning?
 
@@ -426,93 +456,16 @@ A: We are also researching <a
    href="http://www.gnu.org/software/lightning/lightning.html">GNU
    Lightning</a>.
 
-** Ximian and Microsoft
-
-Q: Is Microsoft helping Ximian with this project?
-
-A: Not exactly.  Ximian CTO Miguel de Icaza had a friendly
-   conversation with Microsoft software architect David Stutz, but
-   that's about the extent of the contact.
-   Microsoft is interested in other implementations of .NET and are
-   willing to help make the ECMA spec more accurate for this purpose.
-
-   Ximian representatives have also spoken with Sam Ruby at the ECMA
-   TG3 committee to discuss the same issues.
-
-Q: Is Microsoft paying Ximian to do this?
-
-A: No.
-
-Q: Do you fear that Microsoft will change the spec and render Mono
-   useless?
-
-A: No.  Microsoft proved with the CLI and the C# language that it was
-   possible to create a powerful foundation for many languages to
-   interoperate.  We will always have that.  
-
-   Even if changes happened in the platform which were undocumented,
-   the existing platform would a value on its own.
-
-   The benefits that you can get from the CLI are going to be
-   there with or without `embracing and extending'.  We might not be
-   able to run every .NET Windows application on Mono, but then again,
-   it was already easy for someone to just use PInvoke to tie their
-   application to Windows.
-
-Q: Are Microsoft and Corel involved in the Mono implementation?
-
-A: No, they are not.
-
-Q: Are you writing Mono from the ECMA specs?
-
-A: Yes, we are writing them from the ECMA specs and the published
-   materials in print about .NET.
-
-** Acronyms
-
-Q: What is the difference between CLR (Common Language Runtime) and
-   CLI (Common Language Infrastructure)?
-
-A: CLI is the specification of an execution system.  The Microsoft
-   implementation of this specification is named CLR. 
-
-   Unless we come up with our own acronym, we could just call ours
-   also CLR, just because it would do exactly the same thing the
-   Microsoft implementation does.
-
-<a name="gcc">
+<a name="gcc"></a>
 ** Mono and GCC
 
-Q: Are you working on a GCC front-end to C#?
-
-A: We are seeking volunteers for this task. Visit the <a
-   href="contributing.html">contributing</a> section if
-   you'd like to work on this task.
+Q: Are you working on a GCC front-end to C#? A GCC backend that will
+   generate CIL images? What about making a front-end to GCC that
+   takes CIL images and generates native code?
 
-Q: How about a GCC backend that will generate CIL images?
-
-A: That would be great: it could provide a ton of free compilers that
-   would generate CIL code.  This is something that people would want
-   to look into anyway for Windows interoperation in the future.
-   
+A: We are currently seeking volunteers for those projects.
    Visit the <a href="contributing.html">contributing</a> section if
-   you'd like to work on this task.
-
-Q: What about making a front-end to GCC that takes CIL images and
-   generates native code?
-
-A: I would love to see this, specially since GCC supports this same
-   feature for Java Byte Codes.  You could use the metadata library
-   from Mono to read the byte codes (ie, this would be your
-   "front-end") and generate the trees that get passed to the
-   optimizer.
-
-   Ideally our implementation of the CLI will be available as a shared
-   library that could be linked with your application as its runtime
-   support. 
-   
-   Visit the <a href="contributing.html">contributing</a> section if
-   you'd like to work on this task.
+   you are interested.
 
 Q: But would this work around the GPL in the GCC compiler and allow
    people to work on non-free front-ends?
@@ -522,9 +475,11 @@ A: People can already do this by targeting the JVM byte codes (there
 
 Q: Why are you writing a JIT engine instead of a front-end to GCC?
 
-A: The JIT engine and runtime engine will be able to execute CIL
-   executables generated on Windows.
+A: We want the JIT engine and runtime engine because they will be able
+   to execute CIL executables generated on Windows, and so no recompilation 
+   will be necessary.
 
+<a name="performance"></a>
 ** Performance
 
 Q: How fast will Mono be?
@@ -543,14 +498,14 @@ A: We can not predict the future, but a conservative estimate is that
    restrictions on how you can emit CIL code that simplify creating
    better JIT engines.
 
-   For example, on the CIL the stack is not really an abstraction
-   available for the code generator to use at will: it is just a way
-   of creating a postfix representation of the parsed tree.  At any
-   given call point or return point, the contents of the stack are
+   For example, on the CIL, the stack is not really an abstraction
+   available for the code generator to use at will.  Rather, it is a
+   way of creating a postfix representation of the parsed tree.  At
+   any given call point or return point, the contents of the stack are
    expected to contain the same object types independently of how the
-   instructions was reached.
-
+   instruction was reached.
 
+<a name="licensing"></a>
 ** Licensing
 
 Q: Will I be able to write proprietary applications that run with
@@ -581,10 +536,9 @@ A: The C# Compiler is released under the terms of the GPL.  The class
 Q: Can I subclass objects within the LGPL licensed Mono code and still release
    the resulting software under a closed license?
 
-A: Yes.  Object Oriented Programming in the class library is a well
-   understood interface barrier, and subclassing does not "count" as a
-   modification, so you may develop proprietary applications with the
-   Mono libraries.
+A: Yes. Subclassing does not "count" as a modification to GPL'ed code.
+   This means that you may use subclasses when developing proprietary
+   code with Mono.
 
 Q: I would like to contribute code to Mono under a particular
    license. What licenses will you accept?
@@ -595,7 +549,8 @@ A: We will have to evaluate the licenses for compatibility first,
    license, make sure you use the BSD license without the
    advertisement clause (The `Ousterhout License').
 
-** Assorted questions
+<a name="etc"></a>
+** Miscellaneous Questions
 
 Q: You say that the CLI allows multiple languages to execute on the
    same environment.  Isn't this the purpose of CORBA?