Microsoft Axum, the new .NET parallel programming language has moved to the next stage in its evolution. Formerly codenamed Maestro, the parallel programming model for the .NET framework is now available for download at version 0.2.0. With the latest release, the Redmond-based company has made sure that developers would be able to take advantage of Axum in combination with the latest iterations of its next generation development platform and tools. In this regard, Axum 0.2.0 brings delivers support for Visual Studio 2010, via a new installer introduced by Microsoft.

“We’ve been listening to some of your pain points with Axum 0.1.0 and went straight to the kitchen to cook up 0.2.0 - now available for your code-slingin’ pleasure. We’ve fixed quite a few bugs and made some overall improvements,” revealed Joshua Phillips, a program manager on Microsoft's Parallel Computing Platform team. “Remember, Axum’s success and ability to improve your developer toolkit is very much dependent on your feedback. Please try it, abuse it, and be very vocal about what you think on the forum. We love to hear both good and bad things!”

At this point in time, there are no less than three downloads associated with version 0.2.0. Microsoft is offering developers Axum 0.2.0 for Visual Studio 2008, Axum 0.2.0 for Visual Studio 2010, and Axum Lite. Of course, there's the question what should devs look to when it comes down to Axum. Microsoft has designed Axum as a proposed agent-oriented special-purpose language.

Those familiar with C#, but also Ada and SR will find similarities in the software giant's .NET parallel programming language when it comes down to expressions, statement languages and overall syntactic style. At the same time, it is important to note that Axum is nothing more than an incubation project. Microsoft has committed in no way to finalizing the programming language, or to not change it completely in the course of its evolution.

Phillips enumerated some of the modifications introduced with Axum 0.2.0: “enabled parallel execution of functional nodes in dataflow networks; made it possible to change fonts and colors of Axum language elements via Tools | Options | Fonts and Colors; moved samples to a zip file to make using them easier; introduced AxumLite.zip – an Axum command line compiler that doesn't require Visual Studio; fixed the compiler error where the channel name was the same as the enclosing namespace name; made handling of immutable primitive types more rigorous; fixed some side-effect related bugs; added 'using System.Concurrency.Messaging' to the VS-generated template to make classes like OrderedInteractionPoint visible by default; added the async method Microsoft.Axum.IO.Console.ReadLine; added a spiffy Auction sample.”

Axum 0.2.0 is available for download here.