Microsoft Dynamics AX (Archived)

Why X++

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Posted on by Community Member Microsoft Employee

Hi guys,

When Microsoft has power language C# then why does Microsoft need a new X++ language for

MS Dynamics AX.

Thanks in Advance,

Riyaz_A

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Martin Dráb 230,370 Most Valuable Professional on at

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RE: Why X++

Maybe it's not that "nice" in some cases; on the other hand, it can do many things that X++ can't. That should be added to the equation, if we want a meaningful comparison.

What influenced LINQ the most is no secret: Cω (a research project) and functional programming (lambda functions are the most obvious example, because even the name come from functional programming). You can find more information on internet, if interested. By the way, we're likely to see even more functional stuff in C# in future.

Unfortunately a solution based on lambda functions, type inference, anonymous types, generic collections and such things couldn't really come from X++, because none of these concepts exist there.
Malcolm Burtt 1,475 on at

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RE: Why X++

For sure, if we were building AX from scratch today, then we would almost certainly be looking at a C# based development environment.

As for LINQ, well, its very nice but not as nice as X++. :-)

I've also always wanted to chat to the guys that developed the LINQ framework to try and find out where they got the idea. It's always appeared to me like they borrowed the idea from x++, especially as LINQ came along around the time that Microsoft were working on Project Green.
Jonathancm 416 on at

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RE: Why X++

Also as this ERP is moving forward, it is possible thast in the near future we will be working on web development environments for AX. So programing in Visual Studio will be very likely for us, and therefore the possibility to work on different languages.

Regards,
SunilRakesh 340 on at

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RE: Why X++

X++ is very much flexible to use objects from AOT and has excellent security feature.
Martin Dráb 230,370 Most Valuable Professional on at

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RE: Why X++

If the development of AX was starting today, I doubt anybody would consider developing a new language. But we're not in such a situation at all - it's not only Microsoft who has a huge amount of code in X++, the same is true for ISVs, VARs and most importantly - thousands of customers.

By the way, it's not the first time I hear the argument about queries, but don't forget that C# has similar support for LINQ queries (including LINQ to SQL).
Malcolm Burtt 1,475 on at

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RE: Why X++

Well, AX (originally known as Axapta) pre-dates C# by some years so using C# as the main language for the original release of AX wasn't an option.

X++ is also, arguably, more suited to ERP systems development than C# although that's a fairly subjective view. In my opinion, its ability to so easily blend SQL and processing code make it a clear winner for the type of work that we usually do.