We started by discussing the history of the DLR, from Jim Hugunin's challenge to the .NET platform and John Lam's RubyCLR to the current implementation of the DLR as a platform for implementing and running dynamic languages. We looked at some examples from the AgDLR project for running dynamic languages in Silverlight and testing, as well as an example from Jimmy Schementi's blog post on interacting with a dynamic language from within C#.

The question of why we need or want this was raised. Several reasons were the following:

• Easier testing and mocking, especially in Silverlight
• Writing domain specific languages, especially for allowing client scripting access (e.g. Crack.NET)

Several asked for references for learning IronRuby and getting started. Resources for learning Ruby are the PickAxe, Why's Poignant Guide to Ruby, Book of Ruby, and Ryan Bates' RailsCasts. A good IDE is the Ruby in Steel plugin for Visual Studio from Sapphire Steel.