.NET to Java

Mono offers a mechanism to run your .NET code on non-Unix systems by providing a CLI execution environment. Mainsoft has taken a different approach. Mainsoft wrote a translator that integrates with Visual Studio that converts existing .NET applications into Java applications by translating the CIL bytecode into JVM bytecodes.

Mainsoft has historically focused on server-side deployments with their product (Integrating ASP.NET with J2EE and bringing Visual Studio debugging to J2EE). But Erik Sink from SourceGear needed to bring the Vault software to Eclipse users.

Erik wrote an article on how he got his .NET code to run inside Eclipse using Mainsoft's products, it is available on Microsoft's web site.

Boo

The programming language Boo is gaining popularity among developers. Boo is an open source Python-like language that has been designed to integrate into an ECMA CLI virtual machine, so it integrates things like properties and attributes directly into the language.

Boo is a statically typed language very much like C#. This means that Boo will produce optimal strongly typed CIL code, but if you need the flexibility of dynamica types it makes this available through type inferencing or dynamic typing.

You can learn about the differences from Python here and its main features here

Peter Johanson has implemented a Boo Add-in for MonoDevelop, he has various screenshots on his blog:

Intellisense Support for Boo in MD.

Configuration Page for Boo Add-in.

Boo Shell Inside MD.

ASP.NET 2.0 updates

Lluis updates us on Mono's ASP.NET 2.x status.

Thomas Friedman Follow-Up

Cullen pointed me out to McSweeney's take on Writing your own Thomas Friedman OpEd.

VMware 5 Screenshots on Linux

Christian Hammond has posted some screenshots of the new VMWare 5 with its snapshotting GUI here.

Ajax for .NET

There is a blog dedicated to Ajax for .NET here (from AjaxMatters).