Saturday, 28 October 2006

Microsoft Hires Ruby Expert, John Lam

Microsoft has hired John Lam, an expert in the Ruby language-, in an effort to strengthen the dynamic languages play on the .Net platform. John Lam is the creator of the RubyCLR bridge between the Ruby language and the Microsoft Common Language Runtime (CLR), the company stated.



Yet, observers note that it is not difficult to assume Lam will likely be working on helping to create an implementation of Ruby that runs on the CLR.

Microsoft hired Jim Hugunin in August 2004 to join its CLR team. And Hugunin's group managed to deliver an implementation of Python on .Net earlier this year. That implementation, IronPython 1.0, went live last month.



"I've decided to stage a friendly takeover of Microsoft. As of January 2007 my new work address will be Building 42 at Microsoft," Lam said in a blog post on October 21. "I'll be working in the CLR team to help bring the love of dynamic languages out to the statically typed heathens."

Although Lam was mum on what he will be doing, he was candid about what he will not be doing. "I'm not going to do evil things," he said in his blog. "I see my mission at Microsoft as helping to make developers happier; to give them tools that make programming fun. That's why I program—I enjoy programming. I like to use tools that put a smile on my face. Perhaps what I'll be making at Microsoft will put a smile on your face too. Just be patient …"