John Lam just announced that Microsoft will be accepting source code contributions for the IronRuby project! They’ve already impressed me by releasing the DLR, IronPython, and IronRuby under their Microsoft Permissive License, which is essentially just BSD with extra patent protections so no one sues them for a bajillion dollars. I have to admit, I didn’t think I’d see the day they’d accept community contributions to a project. More and more, it seems that Microsoft is starting to embrace open source. I don’t think they’re going to GPL the Windows source anytime soon, but opening the source of developer projects is a big step.

I can’t wait for the DLR… I’m hoping they can make IronPython and IronRuby first-class citizens in Visual Studio as well. I’m also interested in seeing what sort of fun DSL support the DLR can provide…