Improvements and changes to Oslo SDK and Repository in January CTP

Since yesterday the Oslo SDK January 2009 CTP has been released. I took a quick look to find out what is different from the PDC alpha bits that where released in October 2008.

First off, read the Read Me file found at the download site. It lists a number of changes in detail. To summarize the important changes mentioned:

• Token Actions for MGrammar:
  "Any production in a token can now have a code action or a graph action (formerly known as term construction)!  You can now specify a return type for a token definition in the case of code actions, similar to a syntax definition."
  I have to check what this means exactly.
  
  Don Box mentions that he likes the ability to specify a right-hand side in token rules, just like in syntax rules (see above). I assume he means this one.
  
• MGraph syntax supported in MGrammar right-hand-side:
  You can now use the following:
  
  syntax EndPoint = uri:Listen =>
        ServiceEndPoint { ListenUri = uri, ... }
  
  where previously you were only able to do
  
  syntax EndPoint = uri:Listen =>
        ServiceEndPoint { ListenUri { "http://..." }, ... }
  
• Additional M Collection members have been implemented: Count, Choose and Distinct for all collections and All and Exists for Logical*.

Besides changing a typo in the Models\System\Mvc\Activities\ValidatingViewActivity .m file and removal of ViewAcitvity.m in the same folder nothing has changed in the models source code.

In my previous post I explained that the Oslo Repository setup did not install correctly for non-default instances.  It contains a better setup procedure, that let's you choose your SQL instance during setup:

It will also let you choose whether to install a repository at all. Not everyone might want to have a repository on their local machine. There's a CreateRepository.htm readme file explaining all of the command-line switches for the CreateRepository.exe utility. Nothing much seems to have changed in these switches

The Oslo SDK setup that follows let's you pick individual items to install.

The Visual Studio integration has some small steps forward as well. If I recall correctly, you could not add references before, which is possible now.

Still a long way to go towards becoming a full-featured project type, but getting closer.