[Visionaries] I have a dream... a couple of them, actually...

[BCalco]

Anyone/Everyone:

I am torn between two very different paths I would like to take down the
road of contributing to DotGNU.

The first is a language for .NET/.GNU called R#. It is not named after the R
statistical programming language, but Ruby; however, it is not really Ruby
but a combination of Ruby-inspired syntax on top of a language that adds
multiparadigm programming abstractions to the framework, specifically for
declarative (logic) and constraints-based programming. There is a VM based
language called Mozart-Oz (www.mozart-oz.org) that truly does support all
the known computational models (or paradigms) through a unique
kernel-language approach to language design - I have no doubt it can be
pulled off, because they essentially proved the concept. Unfortunately Oz
syntax is like caster oil for anyone enamored of Ruby's elegance.
Vision-wise, I want R# to be the preferred language for creating "Business
Logic" objects - that's the goal, that's what the language would excel at.
It think TreeCC rocks conceptually and would use it to develop R#.

The other "vision" is an Eclipse competitor in C# (or any .GNU/.NET
language) that works on Unix and Windows. An advanced plug-in architecture
for .NET/.GNU would be cool. I think in terms of getting people excited
about DotGNU this has a lot more sex appeal. Call it Moonbeam (if you want
parody the Eclipse project) or Nebula or something more adventurous. We
would need a cross platform widget toolkit a la SWT in order for this to
work; perhaps wrapping wxWindows would get us there faster, dunno.

Both ideas appeal to me because they are synthesizing things I know work
with ideas and technologies that are new and still somewhat experimental.

Any opinions regarding which of these ideas (if either) are worth diving
into would be helpful. 

I've been on hiatus a while, just took a new R&D job in Florida that is
almost all .NET related, so I'm in the thick of the CLR and will be for the
forseeable future. Would love to work on getting .NET applications and web
services working on Unix/Linux, that's my main motivation for wanting to get
involved, more than anything else.

Sincerely,

Bob Calco
address@hidden