Xen is it the new name for X# ?

Many times in 2003 we heard about X# the next generation language combining XML and OOP.

We heard also that Microsoft abandoned the project. A internal video showing a presentation of X# has been released on a weblog and promptly the blogger was asked by MS to delete it.
Now Microsoft Watch come with some news about Xen a new language MS Research works on.
Reading the news (see below) it's looks for me that XEN is a perfect match with X#.

So what's up with Microsoft ? After all maybe it's just another project but the idea of combining XML, OOP and relational database model is very interesting.

IMHO, it must be a serious project regarding the number of documents you can find on Xen, mostly university articles. Just click on this Google link and you can see that the number of documents is quite impressive.

So vapor language or not ? Maybe just a nother C# Api ?

Microsoft Research Looks to Extend C#

Microsoft Research (MSR) has been dabbling with a number of new programming languages and paradigms. Last year, the F# language was big news. Now, another Microsoft Research byproduct, a language called "Xen," is slowly gaining traction.

There are a few pieces of information on Xen floating around the Web. Some characterize Xen as "the hypothetical extension of C#." Others describe Xen as an amalgamation of Microsoft's Common Language Runtime (CLR), XML and SQL programming language.

C#, the brainchild of Anders Hejlsberg, a Microsoft distinguished engineer and chief C# language architect, is considered by many as Microsoft's alternative to Java.

For More Details on Xen, See ExtremeTech's Xen Explainer Here

Microsoft presented a paper on Xen the XML 2003 conference in Philadelphia in December. Microsoft Weblogger Dare Obasanjo provided some notes about the presentation.

"The main thesis of the paper was that heavily used APIs (application programming interfaces) and programming idioms eventually tend to be likely candidates for including into the language," explained Obasanjo.

MSR is collaborating with the University of Cambridge U.K. on Xen. Additionally, Erik Mejer, a technical lead with Microsoft's WebData group, is part of the Xen project.

On his Web page, Mejer gives a glimpse into Xen.

"I am currently working on language and type-system support for bridging the worlds of object-oriented (CLR), relational (SQL), and hierarchical (XML) data, and of course first class functions," explains Mejer.

As with all MSR projects, there is no guarantee how, when or even if they will be commercialized. Microsoft did not respond to a request for information on its plans for Xen.

While Microsoft will be updating C# later this year as part of its overall "Whidbey" Visual Studio update, it doesn't appear that any elements of Xen will be part of the new tool suite. Microsoft has said that the Whidbey Visual Studio release will be delivered before the end of calendar 2004.

Also this from ExtremeTech:

Xen, a new programming language coming out of Microsoft Research and developed in conjunction with the University of Cambridge, promises to bring together three disparate but integral components of programming, wrapping them together in .Net. Xen's creators use a geometric metaphor to illustrate this conjoining, calling the language a means to program with "circles, triangles, and rectangles."

• The circle represents object-oriented programming. In .Net, that's C# and the Common Language Runtime (CLR). CLR manages the execution of code, whether its C#, VB, or F#. It's at the base of .Net. This piece is not changing.

• The triangle represents data in a hierarchical structure, namely, XML. Programming with XML in C# can be tiresome today. The APIs needed to access XML data structures tend to obfuscate the code and lead to security holes, poor type-safety, and logic problems. With Xen, Microsoft proposes to encompass XML in the C# language, giving it first-class, native support.

• The rectangle represents relational data, or data stored in tables in a database. Today's code tends to be riddled with verbose strings containing SQL and redundant ADO.Net API calls. According to Microsoft, Xen will incorporate relational data manipulation constructs directly into the language, solving that problem as well.

For those of you already familiar with C#, it's clear that Xen is simply C# with additional features and capabilities. In fact, it's just C# with two of its most used APIs -- XML and database manipulation -- now built directly into the language.

And also to know more check this research site Programming with Circles,Triangles and Rectangles.