Why do so few .NET languages integrate into Visual Studio (specifically VS2008)?

Question

The "core" .NET languages are integrated into VS2008 - C#, VB.NET, and C++. I'm not sure about current support for J# and JScript.

But there are a number of other .NET languages out there - A#, Boo, Oxygene, F#, IronLisp/IronScheme, IronPython, IronRuby, Nemerle, Phalanger, P#, PowerShell, and more. Of these, I have only found VS support for F# (which is made by Microsoft, so no surprise there), Oxygene, A# (but only VS2005 support), and IronPython (only with external projects designed for this purpose).

But what about the other languages? Since they target the .NET runtime, I figure that it only makes sense that there would be a way to use those languages inside VS. Is there some limitation(s) of Visual Studio that prevent this? Is there a way to "force" VS to compile these languages?

Answer 1

I suspect it's pretty simple: IDE integration is no simple task, if you want to do it well. I would guess that most of these languages are done in spare time rather than having commercial funding. The amount of effort required is just prohibitively expensive - and not necessarily due to Visual Studio making things particularly hard, but due to it fundamentally being a difficult thing to achieve well.

That's not to say it can't be done, of course - just that it's hard, and "hobby" projects aren't likely to get that level of commitment unless they're really popular.

For Boo, by the way, you should look at BooLangStudio.

Answer 2

I agree with Jon's answer. To go into a little more detail, while there is a good deal of VS extensibility support in terms of a language service (syntax highlighting, intellisense, squiggles) and project system (code files, assembly references, build properties, MSBuild project files), it is just a ton of work to implement all this for a language and do it well, even if you start out with the linked MPF scaffolding code.

Answer 3

I do agree it would be nice if there were a little broader language support in VS. However, I think they should add support some other non-.NET related languages too. It would be nice if there were support (even if only added via a downloadable addon) for interpreted languages like: Ruby, PHP and Classic ASP.

Another question is why can't VS'08 open and save Solution/Project files that can be opened and saved within VS'05??