Fired up about LINQ

I was pretty pumped when we introduced Generics with the new version of the .NET Framework (https://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172192). But, I have to say that I am more excited about what we are doing with LINQ. This new initative solves a problem I have encountered on a lot of projects: Why should I use one method to address and access XML data and then a completely different one for SQL data? The manner of querying data for each type could not be more different. Why should I have to remember nuances of these techniques depending on which language I use? What about data sources that do not fit into these two categories? What about a data source no one has thought of yet?

What would happen if we had a way that was common to all sources? In other words, we could have a querying facility built right into the .NET Framework and any .NET compliant language can get in on the act. It is a standard source-agnostic query language built right into the Framework, and there is syntax checking at compile time. Let that last sentence really sink in. There are other things we have grown accustomed to at design-time like Intellisense that are in play with LINQ. Put simply: this is all about making developers' lives easier. A lot easier.

Here are pointers to some resources:

• DevCentral Interviews Paul Vick about VB 9.

• Channel 9 Interviews Paul Vick and Amanda Silver about VB Language Futures.

• Channel 9 Interviews Paul Vick and Erik Meijer about Dynamic Programming in Visual Basic.

• TheServerSide: Microsoft Announces LINQ at PDC 2005.

• Jon Udell's podcast with Anders Hejlsberg and Paul Vick about LINQ.

• Jon Udell's podcast with with Bill Gates with a mention of LINQ.

•  LINQ Blogger Feed

• https://objectsharp.com/blogs/barry/archive/0001/01/01/3452.aspx

• https://wesnerm.blogs.com/net_undocumented/2005/09/linq.html

• https://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1860723,00.asp

• https://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/story/0,10801,104616,00.html

• https://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3548961

Now is a good time to get on board. BTW: this mug at CafePress is pretty cool:

https://www.cafepress.com/dotnetinfo.20494355

 

Rock Thought for the Day: Remember the Clash's great song, "White Riot"? Great punk of the time. When the Clash hit the US, for me it was about the music. The UK was having riots between kids because they were wearing the wrong clothes (punk has a dresscode, don't let anyone fool you). For me, it was always about the music. The punk music I heard recaptured the spontaneous freedom and energy that rock and roll had always shouted through the PA system. I hear it now just as well as I did then.

Rock On

Comments

• Anonymous
  October 20, 2005
  John: Buddy! It's been too long. I didn't know you were big on Generics or I'd have sent you this sooner. I'm sending you a comp copy of Wrox's "Professional .NET 2.0 Generics." Hope you can find some use for it.
• Anonymous
  October 26, 2005
  So often many of the great steps forward have seemed so simple and obvious once they were brought forth and LINQ strikes me as this kind of achievement. I don't think it's too over the top to think that Anders may receive an ACM award sometime in his future for this work or his collective works. Maybe I don't have the background to know if someone else in academia already explored this topic already, but it's no small task to bring advancements like LINQ to bear in a product. Who can serious say that MS doesn't innovate when they have folks like Anders?