C# Capabilities?

Question

I've searched high and low for a list of the contents of .net 3.0 and 3.5 framework, since i've been programming using old technologies such as hashtables instead of a dictionary(newer technology).

I've been having a bit of a swat up and wondered where I can find a list of all the latest capabilities of C# and the .Net framework so that I can start getting my head round how to use some of the stuff.

Help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

To be honest, wikipedia does a reasonable job here...

.NET 3.0 introduces:

• WCF - communication framework to hopefully replaces asmx and remoting
• WF - workflow framework for sequential and state flows
• WPF - replacement for windows forms

.NET 3.5 introduces:

• LINQ
  • LINQ-to-SQL
  • LINQ-to-Objects
  • HashSet<T>, Action<...>, Func<...>, Expression<...>, Lookup<,>
• C# 3.0
• some other minor tweaks ;-p

.NET 3.5 SP 1 introduces:

• LINQ
  • Entity Framework
  • ADO.NET Data Services

EDIT: (jonskeet) The C# page has a similar layout, showing which versions introduced which features.

Answer 2

"latest capabilities of C#"...

Implicitly Typed Local Variables:

The compiler derives the type from the initialized value.

// Implicitly typed local variables.
var myInt = 0;
var myBool = true;
var myString = "Time, marches on...";

These are greatly useful while using with LINQ.

Automatic properties:

No need to write the entire property syntax.

class Car
{
  // Automatic property syntax.
  public string PetName { get; set; }
}

Extension Methods:

This technique can be quite helpful when you need to inject new functionality into types for which you do not have an existing code base.

More information on Scott Gu's blog here.