Shawn Burke wants to put Lutz out of a job

This won't quite put Lutz out of the job. His Reflector comes in quite handy for 3rd party dlls. Heck, I sometimes use it as a faster way to look at my own source code (and confirm that my embedded resources are correct).

BTW, I too prefer using Reflector to browse my own stuff too.

The browser-esque hyperlinking is great. That Back button makes the app.

One feature request for Lutz. Could you inject some randomization in indent and brace styles to better simulate the realities of many code bases?

DB

> I too prefer using Reflector to browse my own stuff...

URL?

http://www.aisto.com/roeder/dotnet/Download.aspx?File=Reflector

How is that putting Lutz out of a job? I thought Reflector is a spare-time project of his?

It was a joke! Just that you would not need reflector for winforms code anymore if this happens.

I totally agree with Don from the standpoint of prefering Lutz over the raw source. I have access to my own source just as much as there would be access to the WinForms source if things ever move that direction -- But I would still use Reflector so in reality the value has nothing to do with having access to the source -- we already have that -- and everything to do with something different than anybody thought would or could ever happen out in Redmond. This idea now seems to have a chance, however slight it may be, to completely change the attitude of an entire anti-MS development community. Well, at least it would give them one less bullet to fire and possibly even open the door for a replacement of the silver-tipped bullets with rubber-tipped for the next go round of trying to prove the inherent evilness that "is MS". ;)

If nothing else it will be entertaining to see how the haters try to spin the unspinnable. :)

Agree, it is amazing how this one tool has taken a lot of wind out of the open source debatte. It gives you a look at the source but does not give you the source really.

The only real way the winforms source release could mirror reflector is if all the field names were changed to non-descriptive, inferred ones :)

Thats assuming the winforms code has decent internal field names ......

Wow, you lot must really be up yourselves to think that the source of Winforms - a horrifically shoddy toolkit under an equally horrific licence - or Reflector - a good quality but inconveniently binary-only decompiler - is going to affect the Free Software movement in any significant way...

Please re-inform yourselves of what you are inexplicably "fighting" against : http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html

If you still think this kind of offer has any effect on the movement, well....

Also, Reflector will be cloned eventually:
http://www.dotnetguru2.org/jbevain/index.php?title=cecil_feed&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Erm, and so will Winforms:
http://svn.myrealbox.com/blog/

Lets hope this isn't all a way to try to "poison" monos winforms and claim copyright infringement on coincidentally similar code. That would be just another confirmation of the ' inherent evilness that "is MS". ' Not my words...

How typical of the open source community:

"MS is evil because they won't share their code."

<MS shares their code>

"MS is evil because they're trying to pollute our code."

Steve, you have a funny definition of "share". Look it up. MS has really shared some code ( WiX), and I applaud them for it. But I strongly advise anyone who thinks they could ever be involved in open source not to "contaminate" themselves with code under dodgy " we now own your soul" licences - eg Suns JDK source licence, or MS's shared source licence.

I don't think MS is evil. I think it is a monopolistic corporation that has not been well regulated by the competition authorities. As such, I view its actions with suspicion rather than from a position of supplication.

Folks,

There are certain questions/permathreads that refuse to die.

Most of them rely on highly subjective interpretation and as a result, never terminate.

These permathreads include:

1. Does God Exist?
2. Who killed JFK?
3. How DID Neo stop those robot bugs at the end of the 2nd Matrix movie?
4. Emacs vs. VI
5. Is Microsoft Evil?

I have my on opinion on all five of these.

I'm sure you do too.

In fact, pretty much everyone does.

I know my mom does too. Here's her take:

1. Yes. Absolutely.
2. Lee Harvey Oswald.
3. Who's Neo?
4. Emacs, of course.
5. How could a company that hires my son be evil?

Here's a thought.

If YOU people insist on wasting bandwidth and time on MY blog's comments on one of these issues, please address all five. Doing it from your mom's perspective is preferable.

Thanks in advance,
DB

How typical of the open source community:

"MS is evil because they won't share their code."

<MS shares their code>

"MS is evil because they're trying to pollute our code."

Reflector is also very useful to analyze class and method usage, and it is easier than searching in source code.