March 22, 2005

Interesting Microsoft Research Projects to Take Note Of

I spent nearly an entire month hinting towards the importance of paying attention to langauges like COmega,F#, and to Aspect-Oriented Programming methodologies. Of course its not like I am any sort of prophet or am privy to knowledge that no one else has access to. In fact the reality of the matter is learning about the future of software development languages requires nothing more than the ability to type resarch.microsoft.com or lambda-the-ultimate.org into your browsers address bar and hit enter.

Earlier today I was practicing the first of these addresses and was happy to discover that even after all these years ( I am 33 years old you realize! ;) I still have the touch... To showcase some of the projects that I found most interesting I share with you the following project names and descriptions as found on the download page of Microsoft Research.

AbsIL SDK for .NET Framework

Abstract IL an SDK for manipulating .NET Framework files and binaries. You can use this release from any .NET programming language, though it is best used from F#, or the OCaml language. With it you can access the contents of .NET binaries at a high-level, avoiding the details of the binary format. Abstract IL has been used for a compiler (F#), a static analysis tool looking analyzing code access security and an aspect-oriented programming project. Please visit the AbsIL SDK for .NET Framework web site for more information.

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Ok, you're right, a little too obvious and well known...
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AsmL for Microsoft .NET

AsmL is an industrial-strength executable specification language. It can be used at any stage of the programming process: design, coding, or testing. It is fully integrated into the Microsoft .NET environment: AsmL models can interoperate with any other .NET assembly, no matter what source language it is written in. AsmL uses XML and Word for literate specifications. Please visit the AsmL for Microsoft .NET web site for more information.

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Again, obvious, well known, nothing here to see that you probably haven't glanced through before (don't let that cause you to not take heed in what the above description suggests.
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CamWebSIM

CamWebSIM is a small quasi-HTTP server on a GSM SIM based on Microsoft Windows for Smart Cards. By making the SIM accessible over HTTP, the phone and the SIM become a personal security server in the Internet that is based on the GSM trust model. The code consists of 3 parts: 1) Code on the SIM in Visual Basic 2) Gateway code in Python 3) HTML and CGI access code Please visit the CamWebSIM web site for more information.

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A web cam research project... Blaahhh! What is this world coming to if we are spinning our wheels research web ca,,, hold up, wait... Let me read the description again... quasi-HTTP server... blah, blah, blah, MS Windows... blahh, Smart Cards, yada, yada, YAWN, yada, SIM accessible over HTTP, the phone and the SIM become a personal security sever in (on? or maybe in... typo, or no typo thats a keyword I think needs some attention).... more Internet blah, blah, GSM trust model... Hmmmm.... Code on SIM in VB (yippee, my 4 year old son will be Oh so.,... oh, sorry, I didnt mean to suggest that... nevermind... ;) blah, Gateway code in Python... wait, what? MS Research does Python... WAIT ONE SECOND!!!! Since when have MS and Python had anything to do with each other??? Well, I guess there is that whole Socorro County thing to consider... and whats this "HTML and CGI access code" crap... Hmmmmm... theres something in this project thats not as apparent as I would like it to be, but its now got my official attention...
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Disolver: the Distributed Constraint Solver

Disolver is a constraint-based optimization engine. It relies on an extended Constraint Programming paradigm which seamlessly integrates local search. It is especially designed to run in distributed/parallel settings and comes out as a C++ library. Disolver is the first building suite devoted to combinatorial problem solving in distributed and Grid-like infrastructures. Since we cannot redistribute the third party component used to perform message passing operations, this version of the solver is limited to sequential exploration. Please visit the Disolver: the Distributed Constraint Solver web site for more information.
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Uhhhh... yeah, I'd pay attention to this one too...
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F# Compiler

(Click the link above to download) F# is an variant of the ML programming language for .NET and has a core language that is similar to that of OCaml. It is a mixed functional/imperative programming language which is excellent for medium-advanced programmers and for teaching. In addition, you can access hundreds of .NET libraries using F#, and the F# code you write can be accessed from C# and other .NET languages. This release of F# includes a 'F# for Visual Studio', which provides interactive syntax highlighting, parsing, typechecking and intellisense for F# code inside Visual Studio 2003 and Visual Studio 2005 Beta 1. Please visit the F# Compiler web site for more information.
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Nothing too much can be said here but based on my last comments and my subsequent motherboard frying episode I'll leave as is... for now...
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Functional Reactive Animation

Fran is a Haskell library (or "embedded language") for interactive animations with 2D and 3D graphics and sound. Please visit the Functional Reactive Animation web site for more information.
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Note to self (and anyone else reading this) PAY ATTENTION!!!
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Gyro: Generics for the SSCLI

Gyro is a set of files that convert an existing installation of the Microsoft Shared Source CLI 1.0 to support generic type definitions and generic methods. These generic constructs take types as parameters, and are primarily intended to better support typed containers such as lists, stacks, and dictionaries. Microsoft's research work on generics is an ongoing project. This release is intended to allow you to familiarise yourself with the current state of the research, and to provide feedback where appropriate. Certain aspects of the design of generics for the SSCLI will change in future releases. Please visit the Gyro: Generics for the SSCLI web site for more information.
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Ok, this is a good stopping point... If I don't stop now I never will so I will simply say that this is something that I personally plan to pay some serious study time to...
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Note: To gain the actual links to these projects please visit the Microsoft Research Download area.

Cheers :)