Ruby support in .NET
Taking a little different view on the interop issue this time, we note some doings in the world of language interop.
A lot of effort around interoperability has to do with letting developers work in a preferred language. Of course, there are also developers who prefer to work in a number of languages and to mix and match and mashup those languages if they can.
Microsoft has gained some attention this week at its MIX07 conference as it has disclosed support for Python and Ruby running on the company’s Common Language Runtime as now supported in its emerging Silverlight [formerly Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere] client-side plug in.
The company has been at this project for awhile, having wooed Jython creator Jim Hugunin to the company in 2004. Since then, he has worked on an implementation of Python, known as IronPython, that runs on the .NET CLR.
Late last year, Jon Lam, maker of the RubyCLR bridge, joined Microsoft, and he has been working with others at Microsoft to create what is now known as IronRuby.
Note that the IronRuby implementation described at Mix 07 is not included in the newest Silverlight preview. IronPython, however, is.
It’s hard to recall, but Microsoft started out as a language company. This week in Las Vegas it seems the company has not met a language it didn’t like. A podcast interview conducted with Lam by Jon Udell [the technology editor that recently joined Microsoft] provides an overview of what all this is about.
Lam conversation on IronRuby – Channel9 [Audio]
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