Diving Into Microsoft Open Source

July 2015

Follow along at:

http://itsnull.com/presentations/diving-into-ms-opensource/

Created by Kip Streithorst / @itsnull

What code has Microsoft open sourced? (This is probably already out-dated)

• MVC4, MVC5, Beta MVC6, Web API v1, Web API v2, Beta Web API v3 - Apache2 License
• EF6, Beta EF 7 - Apache2 License
• C# and VB.net compiler (e.g. Roslyn) - Apache2 License
• Beta .NET Core - (runs on Windows, Mac, Linux) - includes JIT and GC code - MIT license
• Azure SDK, Open XML SDK, WCF Client Libraries, etc...

Ok, now what?

• Learn from it, remember the behavior is in the code, not the documentation, plus reading code is good for you
• Contribute to it - bug reports, suggestions or code fixes
• Or maybe just debug with it, debugging is easier with source
• Licensed under OSI compliant licenses
• Projects managed by DOT Net Foundation - separate 501(c)(6) entity

Where can I find it?

• MVC4-5, Web API v1-2 - https://aspnetwebstack.codeplex.com/
• EF6 - https://entityframework.codeplex.com/
• MVC6, Web API v3, EF7 - https://github.com/aspnet/home
• C# and VB.NET Compiler (Roslyn) - https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn
• .NET Core - https://github.com/dotnet/core

How can I read the source code

• Browse it on-line at github (for older versions browse on codeplex)
• Or copy locally using Git. Install GitHub for Windows
  • Click the Clone In Desktop button on the github website
  • Or install GitHub extension for VS 2015, then click the Open in VS button on the github website
  • For codeplex, browse to source and click the clone button to get the URL to use with 'git clone' command

How do I debug with it?

• First download it, then build it, then update your project to use your built version of the library. No, really.....
• OR
• Point your Visual Studio install at symbol servers
• The first time you run your app after enabling this, it will be VERY VERY VERY SLOW (20 min+) to start, it has to download lots of debug symbols (.pdbs) and source code
• Proceed with caution, as VS will warn you, only add trusted servers to the list of symbol servers

Debug into .NET Framework

• .NET 4.5.0, 4.5.1, 4.6 can be debugged using http://referencesource.microsoft.com/. You can also download all source for these versions.
• This code is not strictly open-source, it is NOT on github, it is under a different MS-RSL license
• Follow instructions at http://referencesource.microsoft.com/setup.html for enabling stepping into .NET 4.5.X, 4.6 code
• These instructions don't help for the Beta .NET Core, but that is still beta, so it's still a moving target

Debug into MVC, Web API, EF

• MS is not hosting the symbols and source for these libraries on a *.microsoft.com domain. They are instead using symbolsource.org, see documentation on codeplex for confirmation.
• SymbolSource.org hosts symbols and source for a number of published nuget packages, so you can debug those as well and has symbols for nightly builds as well
• Follow instructions at http://www.symbolsource.org/Public/Wiki/Using

The END

• So, your mission is to clone at least one project
• And go read some source code, it's good for you.
• No seriously, read some source code, it's good for you
• Presentation: http://itsnull.com/presentations/diving-into-ms-opensource/.

Kip Streithorst / @itsnull