In the article, Open Source and Microsoft, Darryl Taft outlines some of the most recent moves by Microsoft in supporting open source software. The latest is a sponsorship of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). Earlier, and ongoing, contributions include technical support for various open source projects and a software patch for a GPL2 application.

 

When you think about all of the initiatives from Microsoft that have occurred over the last few years in the open source arena (SSCLI, CodePlex, IronPython and IronRuby, and availability of the .NET Framework source code), and combine that with some of the latest activities, I see a trend that indicates a growing seriousness by Microsoft in the importance of open source. I don't have an opinion one way or the other, but do think that these events are significant and that they will result in some type of significant change in the industry. What do you think?

No, I'm not making a humorous comment about C#'s nickname at birth. Rather, I'm referring to the new search engine, Cuil, which is pronounced "cool".  This is a new search engine company, founded by some of the pioneers at Google. They have so much traffic that the site is really hammered as I write this, but I'm sure they'll adapt quickly.  I did notice that their rankings are not as accurate as they should be; After all, C# Station should have shown up on the first page of a C# search. :)

My new book, C# 3.0 Unleashed: with the .NET 3.5 Framework, is now available.

Without mentioning any specifics, the C# design team, led by Anders Hejlsberg, discusses what they are thinking about for C# v4.0. Concurrency and dynamic features appear to be high on the list. In this discussion, the C# design team talks about the problems that features like this would solve and how to add programming language or .NET Framework features that make it easier for developers.  We won't know the exact specifics of what those features are (they haven't been fully settled yet) until PDC. Here's the Channel 9 video:

 

One of the skills that can help developers gain more competence in C# software development is a clear understanding of the C# type system. Really, it's the .NET/CLR type system, but it surfaces to you through the programming language. I've added Lesson 22: Topics on C# Type to the C# Tutorial which discusses strong typing, type conversion, and reference and value types. Just like the rest of the C# Tutorial, it doesn't go into a comprehensive discussion about every nook and cranny about types. What it does try to do is give you an understanding of the importance of the type system and show you a few of the issues you need to know about in everyday coding.