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

[Daniel Isenmann]

  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