
C# Async, From the Outside, From the Inside - Part 2
This is Part 2 of the session. Bill Wagner and Jon Skeet explain the basics of asynchronous operations in C# using the Async keyword. The session is spiced with live demos.

This is Part 2 of the session. Bill Wagner and Jon Skeet explain the basics of asynchronous operations in C# using the Async keyword. The session is spiced with live demos.

Bill Wagner and Jon Skeet explain the basics of asynchronous operations in C# using the Async keyword. The session is spiced with live demos.
The .NET Framework has always had a weird relationship with the Zip file format. From the very beginning .NET actually did support Zip files, but in a way most people didn’t realize. After years of dealing with the convoluted ZipPackage class or turning to third-party libraries, Microsoft .NET is finally offering this basic capability again.
The Windows Runtime introduces greater support for asynchronous programming. The await and async keywords for C# and Visual Basic are part of this support.
Version 2 of Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF), a framework for extending .NET applications, is currently in Preview mode, and the final release will be part of .NET Framework 4.5. Expected enhancements in Version 2 include improvements to the RegistrationBuilder API, attribute-less registration, and better control over object lifetime.
The upcoming .NET Framework 4.5 being an in-place upgrade to .NET 4.0 has given rise to concerns on how this can introduce breaking changes as well as make multi-targeting difficult. In his article “.NET Versioning and Multi-Targeting..” Scott Hanselman addresses these concerns.
As both the WebSocket Protocol and the WebSocket API gain full-fledged support in the Windows 8 Consumer preview, ASP.NET developers can start taking advantage of the bidirectional capabilities by using System.Web.WebSockets library.
With .NET 4.5 the way you work with the Task class has changed in a subtle but important way.
Microsoft has announced that the upcoming Entity Framework 5 could potentially improve performance up to 67 percent. Developers using EF 4.0 should also see performance improvements just by upgrading to .NET Framework 4.5.
In a recent blog post, Microsoft announced that the first generation objects of their WF technology are being deprecated in the upcoming .NET 4.5 release. WF, which is a workflow engine leveraged by .NET developers as well as a handful of Microsoft server products, has multiple new capabilities in .NET 4.5 while officially putting application that leverage the old .NET 3.0 objects on notice.
Ido Flatow has been posting a series on the upcoming changes to WCF in .NET 4.5. Most of these changes revolve around making configuration files lighter and easier to work with in both stand-alone and IIS hosted modes.