Open Source and .NET: Microsoft's NuPack Is a Gem
Microsoft took the wraps off of an open source .NET package manager that apparently has been in the works since the summer when Microsoft developers approached C# MVP Rob Reynolds, along with other open source developers who worked on
Nubular (Nu) – a package management system for .NET based on RubyGems. The resulting NuPack project uses a central repository of open source libraries (packages) and Visual Studio 2010 tooling to streamline downloads and manage dependencies.
NuPack "automates" some of the tedious manual processes that you traditionally have to go through to get a third-party library into an existing app's source tree. In addition to Visual Studio integration, the tools support command-line programming and Windows PowerShell Cmdlets. Open source developers will need to register and create packages (assemblies, metadata) of their project libraries for the online catalog.
The client-side NuPack tools support all versions of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET project types, according to Scott Guthrie, who outlined key features in a blog posting:
"NuPack handles dependency management between libraries (for example: library1 depends on library2). It also makes it easy to update (and optionally remove) libraries from your projects later. It supports updating web.config files (if a package needs configuration settings). It also allows packages to add PowerShell scripts to a project (for example: scaffold commands). Importantly, NuPack is transparent and clean – and does not install anything at the system level. Instead it is focused on making it easy to manage libraries you use with your projects."
Microsoft Senior Program Manager Phil Haack indicated in his Haacked blog on Wednesday that Scott Guthrie tasked him with the .NET package management project after the release of ASP.NET MVC 2. Haack looked at RubyGems, Apt-Get, Maven, among other package management systems to come up with guiding principles for NuPack.
The first NuPack preview is available on CodePlex. NuPack is the fifth ASP.NET Open Source Gallery project accepted by the Outercurve Foundation (formerly called CodePlex Foundation). Developers outside of Microsoft can contribute bug fixes and ostensibly code to the project.
The open source .NET package management system is a significant step, especially if it works as advertised; but Guthrie's comments on .NET and open source in general may be more telling:
"We think NuPack will be a fundamental component of the .NET stack going forward. It will encourage more .NET developers to use open-source libraries. Having a standard package manager integrated into millions of copies of Visual Studio will hopefully also encourage the creation of more open source projects with .NET."
In addition to unveiling NuPack, Microsoft released the first ASP.NET MVC 3 beta and WebMatrix Beta 2. ASP.NET MVC 3, which has a Go-Live license, supports the Razor syntax view-engine, dependency injections, and unobtrusive JavaScript and HTML 5, among other enhancements, according to Microsoft.
Express your thoughts on .NET and open source. Is this a tipping point for Microsoft, or just another attempt to keep .NET developers away from Ruby-frameworks? Drop me a line at
krichards@1105media.com.
Posted by Kathleen Richards on 10/07/2010 at 6:42 PM