Rumors were that Microsoft had shelved its fledgling X# programming language. Instead, the company is forging ahead with it.
After news broke more than a year ago regarding Microsoft"s plans to develop an XML programming language, company officials abruptly stopped talking about the so-called X# language. Some claimed Microsoft had killed the language. Others said Microsoft had temporarily shelved it.
It turns out that X# is alive and well – and is now going by the code-name "Xen."
Erik Meijer, a former Microsoft researcher and now a technical lead with Microsoft"s Webdata group, confirmed that Xen and X# are one and the same.
"We found the name X# caused too much confusion around C#," said Meijer, explaining the name change. "What really matters is that we are doing research in data integration in programming languages."