Re: Future C# Language Features announced - C# Discussion Boards

11-Nov-02 7:51

Last Thursday, we announced a few future C# language features at OOPSLA 2002. The features are:

* Generics
* Iterators
* Anonymous Delegates
* Partial Types

Note that these features are not in the version of VS that's current in Beta, VS "Everett".

For more information - and to sign up to receive email when we have specs ready - visit http://www.csharp.net

Nick Parker11-Nov-02 8:01

Nick Parker

11-Nov-02 8:01

Eric Gunnerson (msft) wrote:
* Generics
* Iterators

Big Grin | :-D

I can't wait for these.

Nick Parker

May your glass be ever full.
May the roof over your head be always strong.
And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead. - Irish Blessing

Kevin McFarlane13-Nov-02 8:59

Kevin McFarlane

13-Nov-02 8:59

If you really can't wait you could try Envision! (Eiffel .NET for Visual Studio .NET)
http://www.eiffel.com. There is a free non-commercial version. Smile | :)

Kevin

leppie11-Nov-02 8:33

leppie

11-Nov-02 8:33

For those who doesnt know what the #$#@ Eric is talking about (like me Blush | :O

)

http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/csharp/learn/Future/faq.aspx[^]

A nice short explanation.

Cheers Smile | :)

"I dont have a life, I have a program."

David Stone11-Nov-02 9:21

David Stone

11-Nov-02 9:21

Thank goodness leppie...I didn't know either...

You will now find yourself in a wonderous, magical place, filled with talking gnomes, mythical squirrels, and, almost as an afterthought, your bookmarks
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I don't know whether it's just the light but I swear the database server gives me dirty looks everytime I wander past.
-Chris Maunder

Christian Graus11-Nov-02 11:13

11-Nov-02 11:13

An iterator is a practical and innovative language construct based on similar features in research languages such as CLU, Sather, Icon, and more. Simply put, iterators make it easy for types to declare how the foreach statement will iterate over their elements.

I'm more confused than I was before. Innovative ? Are we talking about something different to what the STL calls an iterator here ?

Christian

No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer. - Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002

Hey, at least Logo had, at it's inception, a mechanical turtle. VB has always lacked even that... - Shog9 04-09-2002

During last 10 years, with invention of VB and similar programming environments, every ill-educated moron became able to develop software. - Alex E. - 12-Sept-2002

Christian Graus11-Nov-02 11:10

11-Nov-02 11:10

I thought the generics were old news. I'm interested to know what is meant by 'iterators' though - do we glean from this that there will be an STL like container collection in the next version as well ? Is there anywhere we can see some examples of the syntax of the new features ?

Christian

No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer. - Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002

Hey, at least Logo had, at it's inception, a mechanical turtle. VB has always lacked even that... - Shog9 04-09-2002

During last 10 years, with invention of VB and similar programming environments, every ill-educated moron became able to develop software. - Alex E. - 12-Sept-2002

Eric Gunnerson (msft)11-Nov-02 12:38

11-Nov-02 12:38

Iterators are a way to make writing foreach-able classes easier. It's fairly easy currently to do this for something like an array, but doing it for a tree requires some gymnastics. With iterators, the compiler does the gymnastics for you.

Christian Graus11-Nov-02 11:14

11-Nov-02 11:14

Eric Gunnerson (msft) wrote:
For more information - and to sign up to receive email when we have specs ready - visit http://www.csharp.net

Eric, the link there for demo files is broken. The powerpoint file downloads OK though.

Christian

No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer. - Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002

Hey, at least Logo had, at it's inception, a mechanical turtle. VB has always lacked even that... - Shog9 04-09-2002

During last 10 years, with invention of VB and similar programming environments, every ill-educated moron became able to develop software. - Alex E. - 12-Sept-2002

leppie11-Nov-02 11:21

leppie

11-Nov-02 11:21

Are they worth the download? I dont feel like downloading PPTView and installing it.... Smile | :)

"I dont have a life, I have a program."

Eric Gunnerson (msft)11-Nov-02 12:39

11-Nov-02 12:39

I apologize for that. A file was supposed to get copied to the website, and it didn't. It should be fixed presently...

Christian Graus11-Nov-02 12:56

11-Nov-02 12:56

Well, you know, I'd rant and rave about Microsoft letting me down again, but last time I checked, I was not perfect either ( although damn close, let me add )......

Thanks - I'll check again later today. I'm really excited about this stuff, I must say, especially how verbose the generic syntax isn't. Poke tongue | ;-P

Christian

No offense, but I don't really want to encourage the creation of another VB developer. - Larry Antram 22 Oct 2002

Hey, at least Logo had, at it's inception, a mechanical turtle. VB has always lacked even that... - Shog9 04-09-2002

During last 10 years, with invention of VB and similar programming environments, every ill-educated moron became able to develop software. - Alex E. - 12-Sept-2002

Eric Gunnerson (msft)11-Nov-02 13:01

11-Nov-02 13:01

It's fixed now.

Senkwe Chanda11-Nov-02 19:53

Senkwe Chanda

11-Nov-02 19:53

Eric Gunnerson (msft) wrote:
Anonymous Delegates

I read elsewhere about Anonymous Methods instead. Are they one and the same or is there a subtle difference?

ASP.NET can never fail as working with it is like fitting bras to supermodels - it's one pleasure after the next - David Wulff

Senkwe Chanda11-Nov-02 21:07

Senkwe Chanda

11-Nov-02 21:07

Ok scratch that, just learnt that it's "Anonymous methods via delegates"

ASP.NET can never fail as working with it is like fitting bras to supermodels - it's one pleasure after the next - David Wulff

Eric Gunnerson (msft)12-Nov-02 6:02

12-Nov-02 6:02

Anonymous Methods is the proper term - I made a mistake in my posting.

SimonS11-Nov-02 22:25

SimonS

11-Nov-02 22:25

Without wanting to start a VB vs VC# troll, is this the split between these 2 languages that I've been hearing about from your South African colleagues?

Either way, you guys are doing great work.

Cheers,
Simon

"VB.NET ... the STD of choice", me, internal company memo

Eric Gunnerson (msft)12-Nov-02 6:06

12-Nov-02 6:06

C# and VB .NET are targetted at slightly different audiences, and that changes the stack rank of features. Many features are interesting to both groups, but the importance of the feature may be high in one group and low in another. Each of the product groups decides where to devote their resources for a given release.

I don't know what the plans are for VB .NET WRT generics. I do know that generics have always been one of the top requests from C# customers, and that's why we're doing them.