janjones

By dialect I mean that in CSX, the C# language has subtle differences in behavior compared to CS files (e.g., top-level methods are compiled differently). In 'dotnet run app.cs', the C# is exactly the same, hence it can be converted to a project (and we have a command for that - 'dotnet project convert').

> It's just a preprocessor - not a change to the C# syntax.

Should #:load work in normal C# files as well then? If yes, we would have two ways to include files - the normal way (include them in the project) or via #:load. If not, how would 'dotnet project convert' work? (It could paste the text but that's not very DRY if it's imported at multiple places.)

And referencing NuGet assemblies is of course supported via the #:package directive. It's just that referencing DLLs directly is not a common scenario, hence it's not supported for now (but can be added later).

> Agreeing with others, '#r "nuget:' should at least be an option.

Yes, we believe so. There is not much to be gained from reusing the syntax (it's not like you can import cs from csx or vice versa). We are also adding other directives, e.g., `#:property` - it would not make sense to reuse `#r` for that. `#r` is short for "reference", because it was originally meant for referencing DLLs which is discouraged in modern .NET. The main motivation for file-based programs is to lower the entry barrier, and having opaquely named directives like `#r` seems counter-productive.

> On that note, is any language other than C# supported for `dotnet run`?