Microsoft is working on compiler as a service codenamed Roslyn for Visual Studio 11 which is supposed to come sometime next year, I assume towards the end of the 2012. Not much is known and Roslyn might be less feature rich as one might expect. Microsoft announced at Build conference that they’ll release some Roslyn CTP bits in a few weeks time.
The good news is that you can already use compiler as a service today through tools such as CodeRush(commercial)/CodeRush Xpress(free), PostSharp(commerical) and custom coding. Even if some tools are commercial, they provide a tremendous value.
Anyway, after a sabbatical year, I’ll talk again at the Bleeding Edge. In fact I’ll be talking about how to leverage these tools and use compiler as a service for improving both design time coding and your applications in general.
See you at Bleeding Edge - do stop by and say hi.