I've been quiet on the blog side lately. So many things are keeping me busy!
It's time to catch up a bit and share with you some information I collected over the last weeks. For example, here is the information we have today on the productization of Linq into Visual Studio "Orcas".
We already saw two CTPs of Orcas that included Linq features.
The first CTP of Visual Studio "Orcas" (September) included:
- LINQ to Objects API (in the new System.Core assembly)
- Partial C# 3.0 support (local variable type interface, lambda expressions, object initializers)
- Partial C# 3.0 IDE support
- Partial VB 9.0 support (local variable type inference, Option Infer switch)
The second CTP (October) included:
- The ADO.NET Entity Framework, but without support for LINQ to Entities
- LINQ to XML
- Core functionality of the XLinq API such as load, modify, and save XML documents
- Annotation support with a lightweight, typed, but general purpose annotation mechanism that can be used to associate information such as line numbers, schema types, and application objects with specific nodes in an XLinq tree
In a C# chat, Luke Hoban, Program Manager for the C# Compiler, reveals what we can expect for the next CTP (December):
Feature parity with the May prototype CTP for the C# compiler, LINQ to Objects and LINQ to XML, but not yet for the VB compiler, LINQ to SQL or LINQ to Entities. In addition, the C# compiler, LINQ to Objects and LINQ to XML will include a number of design changes and bug fixes.
He also gives hints for further CTPs:
The February CTP and further Orcas CTPs and Betas will see continued feature enhancements in LINQ to SQL and LINQ to Entities. On top of this, you will see improved IDE support for LINQ with each Orcas CTP starting in December.
Cross-posted from
http://linqinaction.net
The integration of the Sysinternals tools and site by Microsoft is complete.
Winternals and Sysinternals (originally NTInternals) were founded by Mark Russinovich and Bryce Cogswell in 1996. They provided a host of very useful utilities for troubleshooting and management of Windows systems and applications. Microsoft acquired Winternals Software and Sysinternals in July this year and is now publishing the tools at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals.
The utilities, available for free, include:
- File and disk utilities - viewing and monitoring file and disk access and usage.
- Networking - tools that range from connection monitors to resource security analyzers.
- Processes and threads - utilities for looking under the hood to see what processes are doing and the resources they are consuming.
- Security utilities - security configuration and management utilities, including rootkit and spyware hunting programs.
- System information - utilities for looking at system resource usage and configuration.
- Miscellaneous - a collection of diverse utilities that includes a screen saver, presentation aid, and debugging tool.
To give you an idea of what you'll find there, here are some utilities:
- Process Monitor - A system monitoring tool that replaces Regmon and Filemon by including file system and registry monitoring, and adds process, thread, and DLL monitoring as well as advanced filtering, event information, and basic data mining capabilities.
- Process Explorer - Find out what files, registry keys and other objects processes have open, which DLLs they have loaded, and more. This uniquely powerful utility will even show you who owns each process.
- Handle - A command-line utility that shows you what files are open by which processes. Useful to know what locks a file, for example.
The site also comes with a blog and a forum.