Jumping out from the void comes this exciting post from Scott Guthrie. It seems that in the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft will be releasing the source code to the .Net Framework.
From Scott’s post:
"We’ll begin by offering the source code (with source file comments included) for the .NET Base Class Libraries (System, System.IO, System.Collections, System.Configuration, System.Threading, System.Net, System.Security, System.Runtime, System.Text, etc), ASP.NET (System.Web), Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms), ADO.NET (System.Data), XML (System.Xml), and WPF (System.Windows). We’ll then be adding more libraries in the months ahead (including WCF, Workflow, and LINQ). The source code will be released under the Microsoft Reference License (MS-RL)."
This is quite interesting! It reminds me a little bit of the old days when we used to have standard headers for things like MFC, ATL and the like although this is obviously more powerful. It’s nice that they are including the original comments too, so that you can get a feel for the design practices involved and decisions made when building the Framework.
This might make for an interesting exercise, reading the 1.0 Framework source and comparing it to later versions.. a potential guide to building Frameworks and/or APIs.
In other news…
While streaking through the interweb I came across this post which contains photos of a group of people who have built life sized X-Wing fighter (from the Star Wars films). It apparently has the ability to fly, and the group intends to test fire the fighter in California shortly.
What else is worthy of a life sized replica from a movie? Add a comment..
