.NET Framework Core Features
This talk is a quick walk through core features of the .NET framework exploring overlooked features in the context of how they improve your code. You’ll see generic base classes to avoid semi-redundant code, static fields in generic classes and overloading rules. The history of encapsulating code (or more correctly safe pointers to code) through delegates, anonymous methods and lambdas clarifies the impact closures on local variables and opens up more functional approaches to writing code. Closures are critical to effectively using LINQ. After a quick review of familiar selection and filtering syntax, the talk dives into powerful set manipulation tools, data transformations, improved XML techniques and LINQ-friendly extension methods. .NET 4.0 is the most recent version of the .NET framework and introduced code contracts to improve reliability of code, tuples can simplify complex lists and arrays and covariance/contravariance to remove specific limitations when working with generics. You’ll also see how to use dynamic variables to simplify accessing external libraries, along with ways dynamic might surprise you. The talk will close with a quick introduction to MEF to clarify its intent and use.
About Kathleen Dollard
Kathleen Dollard is .NET Coach for Crystal MEF Lab. She has been a Microsoft MVP since 1998 and has given hundreds of speeches around the world. She has worked extensively with compositional architectures in relation to specific development platforms. Her experience includes HTML5/Javascript, Silverlight, and WPF in both C# and Visual Basic. She’s interested in making core .NET technologies available to all coders to enable them to write better software faster. Her newest adventures include Windows Azure and SQL Azure. Kathleen is also a long-time advocate of generative techniques and is the author of Code Generation in Microsoft .NET (from Apress). She has published numerous articles on a range of .NET technologies. Kathleen is active in the Northern Colorado .NET SIG, the Denver Visual Studio User Group, and the Northern Colorado Architect’s Group.
