Talk:Active Scripting

Best regards
Regarding the following in the original article: "Originally, the .NET Framework had a scripting technology of its own, and the interfaces to that were also available via Active Scripting, allowing even .NET-unaware applications to be scripted using .NET languages. However, that entire technology was deprecated in version 2.0 of the Framework, leaving no clear upgrade path for applications desiring script support."

The .NET framework counterpart of Active Scripting was named VSA (Visual Studio for Applications), and is available in the Microsoft.Vsa namespace. VSA makes it possible to parse JScript.NET and Visual Basic code, add host live objects, and run it. However, VSA does not support adding code to a running engine, which is often used in Active Scripting to execute script dynamically as it is received. The interface to make VSA engines available via Active Scripting was under consideration, but seems to have been dropped, maybe because of this limitation.

The current upgrade path is VSTA (Visual Studio Tools for Applications, http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/vsta/), a richer scripting environment including macro recorder, code editor with IntelliSense, debugger and form designer. Unfortunately VSTA is not included as part of the framework and adds royalties to applications taking advantage of it.

Another upgrade path planned for later seems to be the Dynamic Language Runtime, which is being added to the .NET platform to enable more dynamic languages, and bringing real scripting capabilities to .NET. (http://blogs.msdn.com/hugunin/archive/2007/04/30/a-dynamic-language-runtime-dlr.aspx)

PhMajerus 16:58, 13 April 2007 (UTC)