Microsoft has released a developer preview of Project Roslyn, which is a type of compiler that was first demonstrated at the BUILD developer conference earlier this year. Roslyn is designed to give developers access to and utilize the data that it is generating on the Visual Basic and C# code that is being compiled.
As Mary Jo Foley reports, Microsoft kept true to its promise of releasing a Community Tech Preview build of its Roslyn compiler as a service technology in October. Microsoft released the compiler today in the official Microsoft Download Center.
“Roslyn CTP installs as an extension to Visual Studio 2010 SP1. Roslyn is a long lead project which we are considering for the post-Visual Studio 11 timeframe. The CTP includes an early preview of the APIs exposed by the C# and Visual Basic compilers, and the Interactive window experience,” Microsoft explains.
As Foley explains, Roslyn is a re-imagining of the standard C# and VB compilers to allow for “compiler as a service.” Currently, a compiler is a black box but with Rosylin, Microsoft is making it to where things can be opened up so all of the information processed via the compiler is available in application programming interface form.
