What features are people looking forward to in .Net 4.0 - 4.1

StackOverflow https://stackoverflow.com/questions/710516

Question

I am very interested in learning what features people are interested in in the forthcoming .net framework(s)?

Whether these be new classes or new controls I am curious to know people views.

Was it helpful?

Solution

Code Contracts and Parallel Extensions. Neither are language features (which is mostly what I get interested in usually) but both have the potential to significantly change how we write code.

The DLR does sound cool and interesting, but I'm not sure I'd end up using it much, at least in terms of interoperating with IronRuby/IronPython. It'll be nice to be able to use late binding to reduce reflection boilerplate code though

In terms of C# 4 language features, covariance and contravariance will be more of a "phew, that reduces an annoyance" than a "wahay, cool stuff!" but optional/named arguments could be very handy. It'll make writing/using immutable types slightly easier, although I'd still like built-in support for the builder pattern :)

OTHER TIPS

Mostly parallel extensions and 'variance. And of course: System.Reactive / the Rx Framework / "LINQ to Events", which I think could be(come) very big.

But there are other things I have not seen mentioned here that - while "just nice to have" in a way - might come in handy when the new version is finally there. Like:

  • BigInteger (to bad something like a INumber didn't make it in yet...)
  • ISet<T> and SortedSet<T> (self-balancing trees in the Framework)
  • Changing file system enumeration APIs from returning arrays (only?) to returning IEnumerable (as well?)
  • Default support for F# language
  • Slight compression improvements

I think dynamic and optional/named parameters are just there to enable better/easier interop with languages that use/need/require these concepts. So they are nice to have available. But surely nothing more than that.

I'm looking forward to new WPF controls. I believe the now WPF Toolkit will be incorporated as controls in the framework. It'll be a lot nicer having them as stock controls in Visual Studio and having them patched with the .NET framework rather than having to download a new set every time bugfixes have to go out.

Also, i'm looking forward to Visual Studio 2010 in all it's WPF glory!

  • Optional parameters in C#

More so than than .NET 4.0, I'm really looking forward to Visual Studio 2010, same as jirwin's response.

The promise of alot better Sharepoint developer tools and support, 'cause when you have to work in it currently, it's a bit of a pain.

Just the deployment options they plan on having will save some headaches.

So I'm optimistic they have listened to the groans from the developer community.

The DLR and Parallel Extensions, although I can't say I'm that informed as to exactly what's going to be in the box when it ships.

Edit: As per Jon Skeet, Code Contracts do look nice too. Not ground breaking, but from the samples I've seen they look like a nice way to represent it.

I do a lot of work with Expression, so I'm looking forward to the extra expression types.

I also like optional/named arguments - but mainly as a way of making immutability simpler; not sure I'd use it much otherwise...

For me, the most important is the convergence between VB.NET and C#, now they share finally the same features that were broken with 3.0/3.5.

I am also interested in:

A framework tuple class and C#4 'dynamic', which I'm going to use everywhere to get one up on people who use 'var' everywhere. (I know 'dynamic' is not a pure framework feature - but it's part framework)

Ummm... Isn't the StringOr class an April Fools joke?

The Visual Studio 2010 code editor being pure WPF and being able to be docked on either monitor, and addins not using the nasty Office COM object model (EnvDTE).

I know that's not the framework but the question has been tagged VS2010

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