Several reports published on Monday reveal that Microsoft is currently writing a new computer programing language, and could be using that language to generate a second operating system that is not related to Windows.
The new language was revealed by a Microsoft researcher named Jim Duffy on Friday who said that nothing secretive is going on, that all he is describing in his blog is pure research.
"As is hopefully clear from my bio, the language I describe below is a research effort, nothing more, nothing less. Think of me as an MSR guy publishing a paper, it's just on my blog instead [of] appearing in PLDI proceedings," Duffy writes on his blog.
The blog heated up talk about Microsoft's Midori project, a supposed non-Windows-based operating system. Unnamed sources claim that this platform has come out of incubation mode and tossed into the Unified Operating System group headed by Executive Vice President Terry Myerson.
ZDNet reports that Microsoft officials gave the green light for a number of Midori team members to come forward and produce a few details. Duffy is supposedly one of those people, who reportedly helped build both the operating system and the new language simultaneously.
Sources say this new language is codenamed "M#," or M sharp; Duffy names this new language as "C# for Systems Programming." Sources also claim that M# is an extension of Microsoft's C#, and reportedly grew out of Sing#, which is the system language of Microsoft's Research Singularity OS.
There's a possibility the M# platform will go open-source.
ZDNet reports that a "skunkworks" team began working on Midori since at least 2008. The project was originally "championed" by Microsoft CTO Eric Rudder, and the team itself consisted of all-star Microsoft veterans, including Duffy. The project also had several developers pulled in from the outside.
Ultimately, what's expected to happen is that parts of this operating system will be pulled out to be used in Windows 9 and beyond.
