Robert McLaws: FunWithCoding.NET

Inconsistencies in .NET 2.0 (Build 40301)

So over the past 48 hours, I've been really diving into the Framework 2.0, looking at how the Provider Model is architected and implemented. There is one point that kind of confuses me, and I'm hoping that since there are so many Microsoft voices here, someone can give me an answer.

I expected that a lot of the new code would be using Generics instead of Collections, because I thought that collection programming was one of the primary reasons for using Generics. Is this not the case? Just out of curiosity, why are there still so many parts of 2.0 that are not using Generics?

Also, I was snooping around, and there are still several places in the Framework that are not using the new TryCast keyword. They are still doing redundant type-checking before casting objects, i.e:

1Dim MyOtherObject as SomeBaseType

2If TypeOf o Is SomeDerivedType

3    MyOtherObject = DirectCast(o, SomeDerivedType)

4    If Not MyOtherObject Is Nothing Then

5        'Do Something

6    Else

7        Throw New YouScrewedUpException("You call yourself a programmer?")

8    End If

9End If