It seems to me that .NET is great for applications but somewhat poor for libraries because it is tied to Windows. Why not develop the libraries in C++ and the applications that use the libraries in .NET? You can easily expose C++ code to .NET, Java, Perl, etc. Also, C++ will run faster than .NET because it is unmanaged. -Patrick "Margolin, Adam" <margolia at wharton.upenn.edu>@bioinformatics.org on 05/27/2003 12:21:36 PM Please respond to biodevelopers at bioinformatics.org Sent by: biodevelopers-admin at bioinformatics.org To: <biodevelopers at bioinformatics.org> cc: Subject: [Biodevelopers] bioinformatics and .NET At the risk of sounding heretical, I think that .NET could an excellent environment for developing bioinformatics applications. The platform is designed for interoperability between different languages, and you can write in Perl, C++, and C# all in the same environment. I am doubtful that this will catch on due to other factors, but if a Bio C# project does begin please keep me informed. We might also want to look into the possibilities of 1) using the .NET tool that converts Java to C# (although people may raise objection to this) 2) Creating something like Bio .NET by compiling a (perhaps already existing) bioinformatics library to .NET byte code that can then be accessed by any .NET supported language. Does anybody have any thoughts on what Microsoft's role with be in bioinformatics? -Adam