The sixth edition of the C# language specification allows for more openness and community participation in changes to the language, Microsoft said. Credit: Thinkstock Ecma International has approved the sixth edition of the C# language specification, with language author Microsoft citing a more open process in the development of the specification. Known officially as ECMA-334, the sixth edition of the C# language specification was ratified last week. The main aspect of the C# 6 spec focuses on producing the standard text, Microsoft said. The Ecma TC49-TG2 task group behind the specification, which Microsoft participates in, has moved the source of the standard to the Markdown format, from which a PDF can produced, and hosts it in an open source repository under the .NET Foundation. “This allows for a much more nimble and efficient process, the full use of GitHub features such as pull requests and reviews, and for openness and community participation in edits and corrections,“ said Mads Torgersen, C# lead designer at Microsoft, in a statement from the company. “C# 6 is the first C# standard produced this way, and we believe it will help us move much more quickly in the future, eventually catching up to the shipping versions of C# even as the language itself evolves.” Microsoft currently is developing C# 11, due to ship in November with .NET 7. The Ecma committee does not participate directly in future versions of the language but provides specifications for already-shipping versions, Torgersen said. Specifically, the C# specification describes the representation of C# programs, syntax, and constraints, semantic rules for interpreting programs, and restrictions and limits imposed by a conforming representation of the language. ECMA last week also approved the ECMAScript 2022 specification, the latest version of the standard behind JavaScript. C#Programming LanguagesMicrosoft .NETSoftware Development