Microsoft releases .Net Framework Library Source

Yup, you heard it right, Microsoft has released the source code of the .NET Framework libraries .. they haven’t gone all the way and open sourced it but they have made the source available for debugging and reference, this is very exciting because I’m sure there is a lot in there to learn. The libraries open sourced include …

• NET Base Class Libraries (including System, System.CodeDom, System.Collections, System.ComponentModel, System.Diagnostics, System.Drawing, System.Globalization, System.IO, System.Net, System.Reflection, System.Runtime, System.Security, System.Text, System.Threading, etc).
• ASP.NET (System.Web, System.Web.Extensions)
• Windows Forms (System.Windows.Forms)
• Windows Presentation Foundation (System.Windows)
• ADO.NET and XML (System.Data and System.Xml)

Scott Gu in his blog post does hint at other libraries being added but there is no mention of Silverlight in there. The part that is most exciting to me is the availability of Windows Presentation Foundation source, I’m sure there’s stuff in there for us UI enthusiasts to learn from.

Here’s how you can setup Visual Studio to work with the released source.