Going Deep (HD) - Channel 9 Microsoft Developer Network: Channel 9

Sven Groot explains how the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) can access and modify Linux files from Windows applications, going into deep dive level details on the underlying architecture and how it uses Plan 9's 9P protocol to act as a file server between Linux and Windows. Sven Groot is a developer on the Windows Subsystem for Linux, and he is joined by Craig Loewen: a program manager on the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Craig Loewen's Blog Post here.

It's always great to spend some time geeking out with Bart De Smet. As usual, he has a lot of technical details to share and only so much whiteboard real estate. Bart is still deeply engaged with Rx (evolving it, putting it to new uses, making it even more general and capable). How so, you ask? Well, ask Cortana. She will tell you that, in fact, Rx is one those wonderful things that make her so asynchronously capable and reliable at managing your calendar and the growing list of other personal things that you have her do for you. (I haven't actually asked Cortana this, so this is an exercise for the reader...) Bart, how exactly is Rx used in Cortana? Remember our old friend IQbservable?Look, a whiteboard! (But, of course, we have catching up to do beforehand. Be patient.) Tune in. Enjoy.

What happens when .NET code is statically compiled to machine code (versus runtime compiled via JIT) by the VC++ back end compiler? You get highly optimized binaries that load and run faster than .NET code ever has before. Yes, my friends, .NET has gone native! :) Today, the .NET team is releasing a preview of their new compiler technology, .NET Native. You can generate .NET native binaries for Windows Store apps only (in this preview). Tune in and meet a few key members of the .NET Native team, PM Mani Ramaswamy and Dev Lead Shawn Farkas. We go deep and Shawn spends quality time at the whiteboard. The team has done a lot of work to get where they are today and no part of .NET has gone untouched, from a new CLR to optimized BCL. This project is a natural extension of the MDIL work that was done for Windows Phone 8. It's all about highly optimized .NET for modern hardware - that the VC++ back end is turning IL into highly optimized machine code is a very, very good thing - for developers and, especially, users! Note: Shawn and a fellow engineer will be on C9 Live at build on Day 3, so please watch this and prepare questions to ask them live, right here on C9 (details to follow).Go native!

Code Digger is a lightweight version of Pex that allows you to explore public .NET methods in Portable Libraries directly from the Visual Studio 2012 code editor. It's a highly simplified and nifty way to leverage the power of Pex and Z3, one of the world's fastest constraint solvers. So, how does Code Digger actually work? Why the PCL requirement? What happens when you click on the magic button, Alice?Nikolai Tillmann and Peli de Halleux, software developers extraordinaire on MSR's RiSE team, join us again to dig into Code Digger in a casual setting (Nikolai's office, so native habitat). There is lots of geeking out at the whiteboard, of course. There is also a brief demo at the end. Tune in.

Immutable Collections are a new set of immutable types for .NET. We covered the high level aspects of this new technology a few months back when Erik Meijer interrogated (in his friendly way) the PM of the project, Immo Landwerth, and the lead developer, Andrew Arnott. Since this time, they have received a lot of feedback (thank you!) and have also been busy refining and optimizing their code. Here, Andrew and Immo go deep into how this stuff works and why it's designed the way it is. We talk about how to use these new types and how not to. We learn what the team has been working on and may work on for future releases. As is the case with any Going Deep episode, this is long form conversation and, well, deep. Tune in!More on Immutable Collections (download the preview versions via NuGet): The NuGet package preview includes these types: ImmutableStack ImmutableQueue ImmutableList ImmutableHashSet ImmutableSortedSet ImmutableDictionary ImmutableSortedDictionary Interfaces for each of these types are also defined to facilitate exchange of immutable collection types that may be implemented differently to optimize for very specific performance or memory requirements. See Andrew's blog for more detailed information (on immutable types for .NET and more. Lots of great info...).

ActorFx is an MSOpenTech open source project with the goal of providing a non-prescriptive, language-independent model of dynamic distributed objects. This will in turn provide a framework and infrastructure on top of which highly available data structures and other logical entities can be implemented. ActorFx (aka Ax) is based on the idea of the Actor Model developed by Carl Hewitt. Erik Meijer figured this model would fit perfectly into the realm of managing data in the cloud. See his paper on the topic, which is the basis for the ActorFx project. You can learn more about the Actor Model in this Channel9 video with Carl and Erik. Here, the lead developers of ActorFx - Brian Grunkemeyer and Joe Hoag - join us to dig into some of the details of the technology. We also discuss the potential of Actors in the cloud, the problems they solve, how you program with them on the client (CloudList is an interesting "cloud-enabled" type, for example), and potential applications of this approach to scalable distributed computing.