Shared Source CLI Essentials

A CLI Implementation in Shared Source: Rotor

In the summer of 2001, a small team of developers in Redmond announced plans for a Microsoft rarity: a freely-available software distribution containing modifiable, redistributable, source code. This distribution, named the Shared Source CLI (SSCLI, also known affectionately by its code name, “Rotor”), was to contain a fully-functional CLI execution engine, a C# compiler, essential programming libraries, and a number of relevant developer tools. It had been quietly under development alongside the commercial .NET framework and represented an important facet of Microsoft’s developer tool strategy. In particular, the SSCLI had three goals to meet: to validate the portability of the CLI standard, to help people learn about and understand Microsoft’s commercial CLR offering, and to stimulate long-term academic interest in the CLI. Above all else, the SSCLI was to match the ECMA standard so that anyone who wished to understand or implement this standard would have a guide.

Although the SSCLI is nominally the subject of this book, the CLI standard is its heart. The SSCLI helps us illustrate how and why the CLI is such an interesting piece of work. The distribution itself is a large body of code, and as such, it can provide a significant leg up for researchers and experimenters working in the area of developer tools or systems design, as well as those teaching computer science. This book attempts to act as a top-level guide to the code for such ...