Wizards of Smart

Houston will soon have a new user group to discuss dynamic languages on and around the .NET platform. We’ll be focusing primarily on IronPython and IronRuby, but we’ll also touch on Boo, PHP, etc. as they relate to specific approaches (DSLs) and Azure. Our first meeting is coming up on Tuesday, January 5th at 6:30pm at Microsoft’s offices. We’ll be introducing the group and our goals as well as having a presentation introducing the Ruby language. You can follow the group via the Live Group and Twitter. If you’re in Houston, please join us!

.NET 4.0 is almost here, and with it, the DLR. What does that mean for you? If you are a .NET developer, you now have several new languages at your disposal in IronPython and IronRuby that will allow you to either write code much faster or embed scripting support into your projects. If you aren’t a .NET developer, you can now leverage the Silverlight full .NET framework using a language familiar to you. We’ll also be looking at other dynamic languages–such as Boo, JavaScript/JScript, and PHP–and their interoperability with various parts of the Microsoft ecosystem.

We’ll be starting up January 5th, 2010 and meeting the first Tuesday of every month. Please join us as we explore the possibilities with .NET and dynamic languages. More info to come!

Does anyone know of a project to implement Tutorial D in F#, similar to the Dee project for Python? I’m currently trying to get Dee working on IronPython, which would get me closer to my goal of using a true relational model for data access. I would like to stick with a .NET implementation, so that leaves out Rel. I have tried Dataphor, but I find it trying to be too much a complete platform and not easy to use as just a utility. I think either a good C# or F# implementation would be both excellent to have and a fun project on which to work. Anyone interested?