[C# and Language] Compiler as a Service (CaaS)

Lately I showed you the new async features of the next version of C# 5.0, which are already quite compelling. But Microsoft is already working on the language features that will come after the next version. These features are called Compiler as a Service (CaaS).

Everything is still in very early stage so I cannot give you any exact information, but I may give you the concepts and ideas behind it.

It will be possible to evaluate expressions at runtime and to inject them into your code. This allows for very interesting scenarios where parts of your business logic and business rules may be stored outside of your code (in the DB or in XML file for example) and be modified an extended independently.

An example could be:

Other use cases consists of having the possibility to translate from one language into another very easily from within Visual Studio. You could for example select code parts in C# and choose F# as the language to translate to. The CaaS feature would then scan the C# code and generate the corresponding F#  code.

[C# and Language] Compiler as a Service (CaaS)

[C# and Language] DevLabs Website

Microsoft is working constantly on new incubation projects to extend existing language features and add new ones. Some of the early versions of those new features can be tested on the DevLabs website. When they are considered to be accepted and they have finished their incubation period they are moved to the respective product sections (as it was done for the Reactive Extensions) or are directly integrated into the corresponding products such as Visual C#.

Currently there are the following incubation projects available:

• TC Labs: Solver Foundation (build and solve real optimization models)
• TC Labs: TPL DataFlow (extensions to the .NET 4.0 TPL addressing additional scenarios)
• TC Labs: Dryad (process large volumes of data in many types of applications and enable LINQ on HPC systems)
• TC Labs: Sho (connect IronPython scripts with compiled .NET code for fast and flexible prototyping)
• Doloto (AJAX Download Time Optimizer)
• Code Contracts (extensions to the existing .NET 4.0 version)
• Axum (parallel applications development based on the actor model)

I am personally currently looking into TPL DataFlow, CodeContracts and Axum (since some time already) and will take some time to give you feedback on my experience in the next weeks.

[C# and Language] DevLabs Website