Boo is a new object oriented statically typed programming language for the Common Language Infrastructure with a python inspired syntax and a special focus on language and compiler extensibility.
If you want to try boo, read the Getting Started guide. To dive deeper, follow the link to the Wiki pages.
News
Boo 0.9.3 fixes a lot of bugs and extends the match macro with support for regular expressions with variable binding.
Thanks to Martinho Fernandes it's now possible to write code like this::
private def ParseBuildResult(stdout as string): result = BuildResult() for line in StringReader(stdout): match line: case /^(?<fileName>.+)\((?<lineNumber>\d+),(?<column>\d+)\):\s+(?<code>.+?):\s+(?<message>.+)$/: result.Append(BuildError( FileName: fileName[0].Value, Line: int.Parse(lineNumber[0].Value), Column: int.Parse(column[0].Value), IsWarning: code[0].Value.StartsWith("BCW"), ErrorNumber: code[0].Value, ErrorText: message[0].Value)) case /^(?<code>.+):\s+(?<message>.+)$/: result.Append( BuildError( ErrorNumber: code[0].Value, ErrorText: message[0].Value)) otherwise: if len(line) > 0: print "Unrecognized compiler output:", line return result
Kudos also to Andre Van Der Merwe, Cedric Vivier, Gotz Washck and Richard Hubers for contributing to this release!
Complete change log is here and as usual you can download it from here.
Happy 2010!
You read it right and it was about time!
Boo 0.9.2 is mostly a maintainance release, yet it introduces a few new features worth highlighting :
- Unsafe code support including pointer manipulation for richer interoperability with native code [BOO-1202]
unsafe ptr as long = astruct: *ptr = 0 ++ptr
- Generic array/matrix constructors [BOO-1203]
a = array[of int](3) #creates an array of 3 ints m = matrix[of int,int](3,3) #creates a 3x3 int matrix
- Literal regular expression options [BOO-1237]
/boo/i.IsMatch("BOO") #case-insensitive match
- Boo now runs on medium-trust environments [BOO-1215] (such as Mosso ASP.NET platform)
On top of the usual bunch of bug fixes (see the ChangeLog), this release significantly improves generated IL, resulting in up to 40% leaner assemblies among other performance improvements.
Contributed to this release: Cedric Vivier, Daniel Grunwald, Dmitry Malyshev, Greg Nagel, Joao Braganca, Martinho Fernandes, Paul Lange and Rodrigo B. De Oliveira.
Download it an have fun!
Just after two months of the huge 0.9 release, here is Boo 0.9.1 - bringing more new features and bug fixes.
Highlights of this release are:
- Macro definition arguments [BOO-1146] - macro definitions can define typed arguments as with any method definition.
macro repeatLines(repeatCount as int, lines as string*): for line in lines: for i in range(repeatCount): print line repeatLines 2, "boo", "rocks"
- Nested macros extensions [BOO-1140] - nested macros no longer have to be defined within their parent macro block.
macro parent: yield macro parent.child: yield [| print "parent.child" |] parent: child
- Omitted expression for member references [BOO-1150] - `.foo' is now equivalent to `self.foo' by default. This behavior can easily be changed by a macro or compiler step.
macro with(target, body as Expression*): for expression in body: match expression: case BinaryExpression(Left: mre = MemberReferenceExpression(Target: OmittedExpression())): mre.Target = target yield with System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread: .CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture .CurrentUICulture = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture
- Volatile fields [BOO-806]
class Threaded: [volatile] foo as int
- TypeSystem refactoring - brings cleaner API and faster compilation (-30% time)
Take note that from now on strong versioning is used on Boo releases, this release assemblies are versioned `2.0.9.1'.
Contributors to this release: Cedric Vivier, Daniel Grunwald, JB Evain, Rodrigo B. De Oliveira.
Read the changelog for the complete list of improvements.
Download it now and have fun!
Bamboo would like to thank
- Georges Benatti who always believed the idea, thanks man!
- Carlinhos for always being there
- cv for being so enthusiastic and introducing the project to the hausmates
- the hausmates for such a warm welcome and the great infrastructure
- Terence Parr for the great ANTLR tool along with all the people who hang on the ANTLR group
- The guys from the Mono Brasil project
- Guido van Rossum for coming up with such a great language that eventually served me as inspiration to start this project
- The one who supported me all the way through this last 10 years: I love you, Ma!

Comments (4)
May 07, 2007
Adam Banko says:
Why does the title image on http://boo.codehaus.org/ link to http://foci.rubyhau...Why does the title image on http://boo.codehaus.org/ link to http://foci.rubyhaus.org/ instead of http://boo.codehaus.org/ ???
Jun 07, 2007
Rodrigo B. de Oliveira says:
I have no idea.I have no idea.
Sep 01, 2007
jbryankelly says:
FixedFixed
Feb 19, 2008
Eric Swanson says:
How will the future of Boo be impacted by the Dynamic Language Runtime? Will the...How will the future of Boo be impacted by the Dynamic Language Runtime? Will the need for it disappear? I'd hate to see an idea like this get lost by the "MS engine", but the DLR is very promising.