Release the source code, dammit!

Microsoft released the complete source code of the Internet Explorer Web Controls (TreeView, MultiPage, ToolBar, and TabStrip ASP.NET server controls). This is great!

We, developers, appreciate this move, as we need this to build on and extend these controls. We also need this code source to be able to build new components.
Code sources prove to be highly valuable resources. They provide us with a better understanding of components' internals, can give us design ideas, and serve as examples of coding guidelines.
MS should release the complete source code of all the controls, components and other classes. Borland has always done that with the VCL (now the CLX), the class library of Delphi, C++ Builder and Kylix.

There is no secret in the source code of components. We can almost “read” it through the intermediate language. But one reason why MS does not release the source code could be that it is not uniform and totally clean. From what I can see, there were no strong guidelines applied during the development of the internals of the components library.

Let’s just hope that the release of the source code of the IE Web Controls is just a start and that we will see more moves like this from MS.

One downside though: the IE Web Controls are not supported...