As Dr. Nic recently pointed out, the Ruby.NET project is now open source. Ruby.NET was (is?) funded by Microsoft, but later they seem to have taken a different direction with IronRuby, which is also now an open source project.

Of course, IronRuby uses Microsoft's license instead of something most open source developers are familiar with, like the MIT license or one of the other major licenses. MIcrosoft's license is short, easy to read, and makes sense. But I wonder why they couldn't just adopt one of other standard licenses. (Wait, I forgot, we're talking about Microsoft here...) And just because a project is "open source" doesn't mean it's good, and it doesn't mean that MIcrosoft can't have tremendous influence over the IronRuby project.

In fact, I wonder why Microsoft is starting to do more open-source-like things. Is it just an attempt to improve their perception? Or is it a real attempt to embark upon a new direction for a given segment of their development toolset? John Lam has responded often to similar questions posed on Ruby and Rails mailing lists, and I've always been impressed by his candor and his confidence in the direction that his team is heading.

But for me, Microsoft's lack of support for Ruby.NET actually makes it more interesting to follow than the IronRuby project. Even though it now appears obvious IronRuby, and not Ruby.NET, is destined to become the de facto Ruby implementation for Visual Studio and Silverlight. Perhaps if I find some spare cycles (and if I feel like working in .NET again... which is a big question mark), I'll try to lend a hand to the Ruby.NET cause.

If you're a .NET developer with an interest in seeing Ruby flourish on the DLR, then you should step up to the plate and contribute to one or both of these projects.

(If John Lam or Wayne Kelly are reading this, your input and perspective would be welcome.)

I know there's a been a lot of talk about about Microsoft's work-in-progress "DLR", especially with respect to the Silverlight project, but I wanted to also highlight some cool things the SapphireSteel guys are doing. In addition to their excellent Visual Studio Add-In, they're also continuing to blur the boundary between .NET and Ruby and you can do it today, without the DLR.

Cool stuff, guys. Keep it up.