MSBuild is now open source on GitHub • Hacker News Board

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#21

Post by acdha » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:15 PM UTC

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

The, uh, first PR: https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/pull/1

I wish he had a bit more empathy for whatever poor grunt at Microsoft had to slog through the process of open-sourcing it only to get this in thanks

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#22

Post by wtetzner » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:15 PM UTC

angersock wrote: post #19

Perhaps we can use this to start making headway in the fight to get rid of make, autotools, and cmake? :)

I don't think MSBuild is the solution.

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#23

Post by steveklabnik » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:17 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #21

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

The, uh, first PR: https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/pull/1

I wish he had a bit more empathy for whatever poor grunt at Microsoft had to slog through the process of open-sourcing it only to get this in thanks

I have incredibly complicated feelings about this whole topic, but I certainly agree with you.

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#24

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:18 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #18

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

The, uh, first PR: https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/pull/1

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#25

Post by cwyers » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:18 PM UTC

edandersen wrote: post #17

cwyers wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Nobody is seriously going to fork this and create their own port of MSBuild, possibly one of the most mocked and reviled parts of the .NET ecosystem. You're probably right. But it does mean there's one more part of the .NET ecosystem that potentially runs on Linux and OSX, and that's probably the reasoning behind this.

The reasoning is likely that there is now an internal KPI for open sourcing code because it helps MS PR.

I doubt that it's anything as ephemeral as "public relations" that's driving this. They want developer mindshare. Having developers writing for .NET means more software available for Windows users and for Azure services. That means more people buy Windows devices and Azure time.

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#26

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:19 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #21

steveklabnik wrote: post #10

The, uh, first PR: https://github.com/Microsoft/msbuild/pull/1

I wish he had a bit more empathy for whatever poor grunt at Microsoft had to slog through the process of open-sourcing it only to get this in thanks

[deleted]

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#27

Post by AngrySkillzz » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:21 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #26

acdha wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish he had a bit more empathy for whatever poor grunt at Microsoft had to slog through the process of open-sourcing it only to get this in thanks

[deleted]

Not sure how comparable these are, really.

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#28

Post by zaphar » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:22 PM UTC

I have a hate/hate relationship with msbuild as a build tool.

However the mono xbuild tool has subtle incompatibilities and holes in functionality as compared to msbuild so for no other reason than having the "same" build tool in mono and .Net I applaud this move.

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#29

Post by mattchamb » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:22 PM UTC

Nice to see this makes the old approach of using reflection to use msbuild internal classes to parse solution files obsolete.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/707107/library-for-parsin...

Re: MSBuild is now open source on GitHub

#30

Post by maxlybbert » Wed, Mar 18, 2015, 9:25 PM UTC

cwyers wrote: post #11

edandersen wrote: post #5

Nobody is seriously going to fork this and create their own port of MSBuild, possibly one of the most mocked and reviled parts of the .NET ecosystem. I do however congratulate the ground level MS staffers on the effort it likely took to convice the Risk and Legal departments that open sourcing something like this won't make their business fail. That must have been trying.

> Nobody is seriously going to fork this and create their own port of MSBuild, possibly one of the most mocked and reviled parts of the .NET ecosystem. You're probably right. But it does mean there's one more part of the .NET ecosystem that potentially runs on Linux and OSX, and that's probably the reasoning behind this.

Yeah; I've had to deal with MSBuild, and I've never really liked it. I have to assume that the big motivation was that they'd prefer to port MSBuild to OS X and Linux than to port MS solution files and MS project files to CMake, Automake, or some other build system.