Month: July 2017

Microsoft and Open Source

I love open source and have used open source technologies throughout my career. I programmed using the LAMP stack in the early 2000s, worked with Red Hat Linux before RHEL came about and contributed with unit tests and bug fixes to two open source frameworks: one logging framework and one ORM. So when my colleagues and friends knew I joined Microsoft, they were sure I wouldn’t be able to use open source software or publish any source code under an open source license.

Well… times have changed, like, really really changed! …and the Open Source Community is thriving, even at Microsoft. Talk Openly Develop Openly,  aka TODO, is an organization focusing on the challenges and opportunities of managing open source projects.

There is a Microsoft Code of Conduct that you should follow when you join one of Microsoft OSS communities. And yes, the code is for everyone to see. If you can understand it, there is no reason why that “truth” or source code should be hidden from you.

Do you want to contribute shaping the future of the .NET framework ecosystem and create open source solutions using this platform? Do you want to contribute to the a portion of the actual framework? You can, but you should abey by the rules of an open source community, which might not be as forgiving as a closed code one.

Happy coding!

C# Scripting available in the .NET Framework 4.6

I know I have a few friends and coworkers that prefer to have all the scripting done in their language of choice, C#. Before .NET 4.6+ their best bet for automating DevOps tasks in a Windows based infrastructure was, for the most part, PowerShell.

But, if you’re already familiar with the C# syntax and basic namespaces, why can’t you continue to use your favorite language to write scripts?

Well, now you can.

Thanks to the Roslyn compiler project, you can now use the nuget package to use the Scripting API.

The Scripting API, as of today, requires the .NET Framework Desktop 4.6 as a minimum, with the .NET Core this Scripting API should now be cross-platform. I haven’t tried it yet, but will do in a very near future and will blog about my experience using this Scripting API on CentOS.

Some directives that are present in PowerShell might not be present yet on the Scripting API (I’m thinking cd, ls etc), but it is worth the try.

You can also script away using C# in a browser, any browser… And we now have a new file extension for C# scripts => .csx files.

C# Scripting and csx file projects are highly used in creating Bot services hosted on Azure using the RESTful APIs provided by Azure.

Happy coding and I hope you enjoyed the good news of C# Scripting.

Code away!