Microsoft opens the source code for. NET 4.5.1

Microsoft opens the source code for. NET 4.5.1

. NET Reference Source released a beta release that allows you to browse the sources of the. NET Framework 4.5.1 online, and you can debug the. NET Framework in Visual Studio 2013 through configuration.

Project manager Alok Shriram of the. NET Framework team describes the latest. NET Reference Source in the blog of the. NET Framework. It can not only be used to browse the latest. NET code, and through the powerful Roslyn, improved the "Go to Defination" and "Finding Reference" online experience. In addition, developers can download the entire source code package and open and browse in Visual Studio. Plug-ins written using Schabse Laks can navigate directly to the site in vs.

With a simple configuration, developers can step through the. NET Framework 4.5.1 and their subsequent patches and updates in Visual Studio. This is undoubtedly a feature that is eagerly awaited by the vast majority of developers. Start Visual Studio 2013, open the General menu, debugging, Tools, Options, and configure the following:

• Disable Just My Code
• Disable step over properties and operators
• Disable require source files to exactly match the original version
• Select the Enable. NET Framework Source Stepping
• Select Enable Source server support

This allows the developer to directly access the. NET code through F11 when debugging the code.

This is not the first time Microsoft has opened the source code for the. NET Framework. As early as 2007, they published the source code for. NET 3.5 for the first time and supported Visual Studio debugging. And for the subsequent 4.0 and 4.5, also provide the corresponding source code package. But when the framework is upgraded, these old packages become worthless. Starting with 4.5.1, the. NET Framework team revolutionized the process of symbolic indexing and publishing, synchronizing it with the build process so that the corresponding PDB files are updated from the reference source site when a new version is released.

The current Beta site is only temporary and will replace the existing site. Subsequent Microsoft will also incrementally add assemblies that have not yet published the source code.

The new. NET Reference Source License Agreement returns to MS-RSL, which makes it easy for teams like mono to use it with confidence.

As Scott Hanselman said: Microsoft may not be open source, but it is absolutely open source code.