The Future Of C#

If you were able to attend this session at PDC or Tech-Ed EMEA Developers, you were presented with a first class presentation of the future of C#, presented, respectively, by Anders Hejlsberg and Mads Torgersen.

For the near future (.NET 4.0) C# will have:

• Dynamically Typed Objects
• Optional and Named Parameters
• Improved COM Interoperability
• Co- and Contra-variance

A preview of the compiler as a service was shown, but that’s not for the .NET 4.0 / Visual Studio 2010 timeframe. Probably, not even for the next.

Starting with .NET 4.0, C# and Visual Basic will converge in terms of features and follow a path of co-evolution going into the future.

No! That doesn’t mean that XML literals will be in C# in a foreseeable future. What that means is that the above list also applies to Visual Basic.

Talking of Visual Basic evolution, the _ line continuation character has been retired. If you have any use for the underscore, please visit http://www.unemployedunderscores.com/.

Resources:

• C# Future
• Microsoft Pre-release Software Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Community Technology Preview (CTP)
• Charlie Calvert's Community Blog
• PDC Session: TL16 - The Future of C#
  Presenter: Anders Hejlsberg
  PPTX | WMV-HQ | WMV | Zune | MP4
• PDC Session: TL12 - Future Directions for Microsoft Visual Basic
  Presenter(s): Paul Vick, Lucian Wischik
  PPTX | WMV-HQ | WMV | Zune | MP4