LINQ in Action preface

Here is the preface I wrote for LINQ in Action:

I chose software development as the way to make a living mainly because it’s a technology that is constantly evolving. There’s always something new to learn. No chance of getting bored in this line of work! In addition to learning, I also enjoy teaching software development. Writing LINQ in Action was a good opportunity to both learn and teach at the same time.

When we started writing this book, LINQ was still an early prototype. We followed its evolution as it was taking shape. There was a lot to discover and a lot to understand. This is part of a software developer’s everyday job. We have to stay up-to-date with the technologies we use and learn new ones as they come out. The software development environment is evolving at an increasingly fast pace, and I don’t see any signs that that’s going to change.

.NET is a fast-moving environment. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen two major releases of the .NET Framework, and several companion technologies have appeared: Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight, and LINQ have joined our developer toolbox. Another trend in .NET is the multiplication of programming languages. F#, which will receive the same support as C# or VB.NET in Visual Studio, introduces functional programming in .NET. Dynamic languages, such as Python and Ruby, are going to be supported by the .NET Dynamic Language Runtime.

In coming years, we’ll have to deal with more programming languages than the ones we currently master. An advantage of C#, Visual Basic, and the other .NET languages is that they are constantly adapting. C# and VB.NET have been improved in their latest versions to offer support for language-integrated querying through LINQ.

In addition to offering novel approaches to deal with data, LINQ represents a shift toward declarative and functional programming. When people ask me for reasons to learn LINQ, I tell them that they should learn it in order to be able to use it with XML, relational data, or in-memory collections, but above all to be able to start using declarative programming, deferred execution, and lambda expressions.

Start learning LINQ now! When you do, you’ll not only learn how to use this new technology, but you’ll also discover where programming is heading. One of our main goals with LINQ in Action was to help you fully comprehend the new approaches associated with LINQ.

Fabrice Marguerie