This directory will eventually contain an implementation of the "mscoree.dll" shim, plus an emulation of Microsoft's metadata API's.
The shim is used to dynamically select a runtime engine to be executed under Win32 systems.
The metadata API implementation is provided to assist Free Software implementors port their code from dependence upon Windows.
The source is under the terms of the GNU General Public License, with the following small exception: the shim may be used to automatically launch an IL executable with no requirement to put the executable under the terms of the GPL.
However, an application that uses the metadata emulation routines, or which attempts to use the shim to embed the runtime engine in an unmanaged application, must be placed under a license that is compatible with the terms of the GPL. This restriction is necessary to prevent circumvention of the GPL on the core Portable.NET code.