Microsoft is continuing to grab top developer talent. The latest catch: Open source stalwart Jim Hugunin.

Hugunin created Jpython/Jython; codesigned the AspectJ aspect-oriented-programming language while working at the Xerox PARC research center; and is the moving force behind IronPython, the implementation of the Python language targeted at .Net and Mono.

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Hugunin has joined Microsoft's Common Language Runtime team, where he will work on furthering Microsoft's support for dynamic languages. (Dynamic programming languages enable programs can change their structure as they run.)

Hugunin started with Microsoft on August 2. But he hasn't completely abandoned the open source fold.

A posting on the Iron Python home page said Hugunin plans to continue to work on Iron Python from inside Microsoft. The first public version of IronPython was released on July 28 under the Common Public License, an open-source license.

"JimHugunin (sic) has announced that he is going to join the CLR team at Microsoft, to continue his work on IronPython, and further improve the CLR's support for dynamic languages," reads the posting on the Iron Python site.

Since joining Microsoft, Hugunin has launched a blog on Microsoft's Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) site.

"Over the past year, I've become a reluctant convert to the CLR.," he said in his first post. "My initial plan was to do a little work and then write a short pithy article called, 'Why .NET is a terrible platform for dynamic languages.' My plans changed when I found the CLR to be an excellent target for the highly dynamic Python language."

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While many Microsoft staffers posting to their own Web logs seemed most interested in Hugunin's Python roots, his Java-savvy also could be of use to Microsoft.

AspectJ is an aspect-oriented extension to the Java programming language that is currently overseen by the Eclipse.org standards body. And, as Hugunin noted on his personal Web site, "Jython is frequently cited as compelling evidence that the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is an effective platform for languages other than Java when making comparisons to Microsoft's CLR."

(This is an edited version of an article which appeared in the August 5, 2004, issue of the Microsoft Watch newsletter. Want to see what other Microsoft news nuggets you might have missed? Sign up today for a free two-week trial subscription to Microsoft Watch.)