How does Mono for Android work and what's the relation between C# and Dalvik?

Question

I'm trying to find some information on how the C# implementation of Android actually works.

Is it C# -> Java -> Bytecode -> Dalvik: i.e. does C# get converted to Java before the process happens between Bytecode and Dalvik?

Or is it C# -> Dalvik?

Answer 1

Your guess is wrong. It is more similar to .NET/COM interop where wrappers are used across the boundary. So at runtime there are two VMs, Dalvik and Mono CLR running at the same time,

_{(source: tirania.org)}

There is a lot more information you can dig up from Miguel's blog such as http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2011/Apr-06.html

The C# to Dalvik solutions do exist, such as dot42 and RemObjects C#.