Ruby on the .NET
Platform
Andre John Cruz
Microsoft MVP – C#

IronRuby
Ruby on the .NET Platform
Introduction
Why Ruby?
Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR)
Invoking the DLR in C# code
Silverlight in Ruby
Possible directions

Introduction
Ruby is growing in popularity
Mostly because of the Rails web framework
Expressive language (you’ll see later!)
Expressiveness is POWER
IronRuby
Microsoft project to have Ruby running on the .NET platform
Similar efforts elsewhere: JRuby, MagLev, Rubinius…
IronRuby 0.5.0 was just released 20 May 2009

Why Ruby?
See for yourself…
Expressive syntax (POWER!)
Dynamic typing
Look ma, no interfaces
Mixins
Metaprogramming
Can _______ (fill the blank) do that?

Dynamic Language Runtime
(DLR)
Factored out from IronPython development
One runtime for all dynamic languages out there
IronPython
IronRuby
VBx
Managed Javascript
…maybe more, from the community?
Can be embedded into CLR applications

Invoking the DLR
Demo: calling IronRuby inside a C# app

Silverlight with Ruby
Demo: Silverlight web app, written in IronRuby

Downsides
No IDE integration…yet
No LINQ tools…yet
Web-based apps (ASP.NET, Silverlight) need
Chiron tool
Need to include IronRuby and DLR into
Silverlight XAP file to be sent to client browser
No WPF data binding…yet

Possible directions
Polyglot programmer trend
Use the best language for the task
Use the best platform for the task…the .NET Framework 
DLR gives apps instant scripting capabilities
IronRuby (and IronPython) to have better
support in Visual Studio for app development
We should see cool app frameworks for WPF,
Silverlight and ASP.NET (and even ADO.NET)
soon!

Questions?

References
www.ironruby.net
sdlsdk.codeplex.com
www.ruby-lang.org
Why’s Poignant Guide to Ruby:
http://poignantguide.net/ruby/
My blog: devpinoy.org/blogs/cruizer