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The CLR has always been a great environment for dynamic languages and over the last several years we have built out additional dynamic language support for the .NET Framework through efforts like the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) and language implementations on top of the DLR. The DLR shipped earlier this year as a built-in component of .NET Framework 4, and we now have several great language implementations built on top of it.
IronPython and IronRuby are two dynamic language implementations that we have incubated internally the last few years. We have released several versions of both language environments (IronPython releases and IronRuby releases), and all of the source code has been released under open source licenses (recently moved to Apache License V2.0).
Today we are announcing new leadership for the Iron projects and a development model that will enable the broader community to contribute to their development:
As part of these changes I’m happy to announce new project leaders external to Microsoft who will take over the projects and provide leadership going forward. The IronPython project will have Miguel de Icaza, Michael Foord, Jeff Hardy, and Jimmy Schementi as Coordinators. Miguel de Icaza and Jimmy Schementi will be the Coordinators of IronRuby. All of these guys have worked with or on the Iron projects since their inception and I have nothing but trust and respect for the new stewards of these community projects.
Overall, I hope the effect of the changes is to dramatically increase the opportunity for community members to contribute their own code to IronPython and IronRuby, and to actively participate in these projects.
The IronPython and IronRuby projects began as an effort to improve support for dynamic languages in the .NET Framework and to diversify our portfolio of programming languages. These language projects have helped thousands of people since they began, and they have added value to the .NET Framework. They helped create the Dynamic Language Runtime in the .NET Framework 4, on which we have also built C#'s new 'dynamic' keyword and improved Visual Basic's late-binding support. We’ll continue to invest in making the .NET Framework a great runtime environment for dynamic languages going forward.
Working with the community has always been an essential part of developing IronPython and IronRuby, and the feedback and the community review of the source code and specifications has been invaluable. We are looking forward to this new level of involvement from the IronPython and IronRuby communities, and think it will help advance the languages even further.
I wanted to take a moment to thank Jason for all the support that he’s given to IronPython through the years. He’s the one who brought me and the project into Microsoft six years ago and helped me realize just how many talented people there were working on .NET. While this news is somewhat sad, I think that the four people Jason has found to step up as project coordinators are really strong and can do a great job of leading this project forward. I have the highest hopes for this project in these new hands and look forward to watching their future successes.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should also take this time to note that as IronPython is moving out from Microsoft into the world beyond, this is semi-coincidentally the time that I’m also leaving Microsoft for the world beyond. If you’re interested, you can read more about my reflections and future plans here – hugunin.net/microsoft_farewell.html.
Move it away from CodePlex to github or gitorious.
@Andrius: The IronRuby repo is already on github.
[[github.com/.../ironruby]]
Personally, I prefer Python, and having Codeplex still using TFS makes it a real pain to contribute.
Github makes it dead easy, but if IronPython is going to stay on Codeplex, the repro needs to be Mercurial.
What are the plans for IronPython?
@Nathan: Read Jeff Hardy's blog post. They will likely switch over at some point but when is uncertain as people want to push toward 2.7 quickly. Of course nothing stops you from creating a github mirror.
http://jdhardy.blogspot.com
As an early IronRuby contributor... all I can say is.
Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.
Best. Decision. EVER.
Jim - I've enjoyed working with you these last six years, best of luck on your new projects!
Just Excellent. Microsoft has such a great opportunity to lead in this space. And it's good to see Microsoft letting other leaders step up and contribute, too. This is great news for lovers of Python and Ruby everywhere.
Unfortunately, most open source projects fare worse when not under the umbrella of a profitable organization. I would hate this to be the death knell for IronPython - now - as it is just garnering the tools integration (Visual Studio) that it requires to really become a staple language with .NET developers.
What is the future of Silverlight? Will it be the next .NET technology to be put out to pasture? HTML5 is the clear way to go for building portable Web applications which run everywhere especially when IE9 is released.
Can you please comment on future of DLR, like new version??
@JustWondering - I would point you to http://team.silverlight.net for more information on the future of Silverlight (debate and all).
@Vikas - we just released VS2010 / .NET Framework 4 in April and at this point are not talking about v-next features for any part of the product at this time. What I can tell you is the DLR is part of the .NET Framework and you should expect it to evolve as a core component.