Shawn Burke is attempting to get the Windows Forms framework source code and PDBs released with the FX 2.0 SDK.

First Post

Second Post

Sweet.

Sounds like it will be stripped of comments and such if it happens (at first deployment at least), but who cares. We can at least see the original variable names and step through it in the debugger.

Back in my years of working with the Delphi platform, I always saw the inclusion of core library source code as invaluable. Just being able to clearly see how the framework is implemented internally provides immense insights into how you *should* be interacting with it.

It was also a very good learning tool. I spent many hours (days) just browsing through the VCL source, finding little nuggets here and there - useful techniques, undocumented features, and internal implementation details that can make all the difference in a production application.

I sure wish I had access to that source code when I found an anomaly with animated GIF's in the PictureBox control. Instead of debugging and troubleshooting that issue for weeks (at my own expense I should add), I most likely would have uncovered the culprit far sooner if I had the source code in my hands.

I hope this goes through, and further hope that even more of the framework gets opened up like this in the future.