Open source Mono framework brings C# to iPhone and Wii
Mono, an open source implementation of .NET runtime, is bringing Microsoft's development technologies to some unexpected places, including the iPhone, Android, and the Wii.
According to Novell's lead Mono developer, Miguel de Icaza, several applications in Apple's App Store are powered by Mono. This might come as a bit of a surprise to those familiar with Apple's highly restrictive application inclusion policies, because the company strictly prohibits developers from using interpreted languages and third-party runtime environments—a constraint that largely rules out technologies like .NET and Java.
Static compilation is the special sauce that makes it possible for Mono to run on the iPhone. Mono allows developers to use ahead-of-time (AOT) compilation, which converts .NET's common intermediate language (CIL) directly to native code at compile time. This means that the application doesn't have to use just-in-time (JIT) compilation to generate the native code at runtime.
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