Is the Phoenix compiler tools project still alive?
Question
I'm looking around for a modern tool chain to help in developing a small programming language/DSL. I would like to explore Phoenix from MS Research, but it looks like a dead project. Is that the case, and should I be looking elsewhere?
I'd like to target CIL with Phoenix, but would definitely consider LLVM (or other) if that was the best tool chain to use.
Solution
To the best of my knowledge, Phoenix is dead. I am not a Microsoft employee though.
LLVM is being very actively developed, but it may be an overkill for a small DSL, especially if you want to target a managed runtime that has its own JIT compiler.
OTHER TIPS
Irony is a development kit for implementing languages on the .NET platform. The Mono stack also has some tools to help writing out IL assemblies - I'm thinking of Cecil in particular.
Another approach would be to output C# from your DSL. That would give you a higher-level 'target' language for your DSL.