Some final thoughts about the Compiler Dev Lab that we hosted this week:
1) It's really interesting to see static languages get more dynamic, and dynamic languages get more static. An example of the former is C# adding extension methods and type inferencing. An example of the latter is IronPython adding support for manipulating CLR generic types. There's an interesting point in the middle where things are heading towards ... these ideas were inspired by Anders Hejlsberg's talk on LINQ today at the Dev Lab.
2) Miguel de Icaza spent a bunch of time lobbying us for a XamlReader.LoadFromJson() API. His reasoning was that folks don't like to type XAML, and would prefer a more wrist-friendly syntax for generating WPF/S element trees. It would be interesting to hear some feedback from folks about this. I personally prefer using a "script-driven" XAML approach where I would generate WPF/S element trees from pure Ruby code. It would be a natural fit for managed JS, of course :)
3) Mike Stall gave an excellent talk today about managed debugging. I had seen Mike give a talk in the CLR Foundations series that we have in Building 42, and really wanted him to give a talk this week. He did not disappoint; the pointer to the Managed Debugger sample was worth the price of admission alone (if you were wondering how to do IL-level debugging - this is the tool for you!)
I had to leave early to take care of the kids this afternoon after my wife got sick. I hope everyone had a good experience at the dev lab and hope to see great things come out of your work!
