Innumerable pundits and programmers have pointed out the similarities between the most popular .NET languages (currently VB.NET and C#), and some like to focus on the relatively minor differences between them. S# is different. Not only is its syntax different, following the model of classic Smalltalks, but its underlying design and capabilities differ as well.
In 1999, Simmons was invited along with experts in 10 to 15 other languages, to join a then-secret project at Microsoft called Project 7 Lightning. Project 7 Lightening involved creating test implementations of these languages on the nascent .NET Framework code base to help Microsoft discover what features the framework needed to fully implement these languages in the future.

the .net platform (and by extension, mono) are getting more interesting every day. as more and more non-mainstream languages such as eiffel, scheme, haskell, ruby, python and now smalltalk get a .net port, the options increase. every self-respecting software engineer tries to learn several languages, but practicalities and a lack of a rich framework in the more research-oriented choices made this impractical in the past.
i am hopeful that we will see a day soon when there is a unified, cross-language and cross-platform class library. it wont be java, so my bets are increasingly on .net. in a perfect world, this library would incorporate CPAN, PEAR, and others. still missing: php.net

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