Has the ECMA CIL/Microsoft MSIL specification ever substantially changed?

Question

The ECMA standard for the .NET Common Intermediate Language has been updated three times. I haven't been able to find a version history that would make clear the changes between the versions. Are there any substantial differences between the four, e.g. new opcodes etc.?

Also: Is the same true for MSIL?

Thank you!

Answer 1

Yes, the first two editions didn't have generics - that's by far the biggest change.

The third edition has a list of major changes in the foreword.

I don't know about the differences between 1/2 and 3/4... I suspect those were very minor changes.

(I also don't know whether the ECMA C# spec will ever catch up with the Microsoft version... the current ECMA version is C# 2.0 basically.)