C# 3.0

C# has been my staple diet of development for a while now. The 1.0 version of C# provided a flexible, yet strongly typed, language that resembled enough of C++ and Java to lure developers into adopting it. Sure, C# 1.0, had its downsides. (Who hasn't wanted different accessibility between a get and set property at some stage?)

C# 2.0 has been released along with the 2.0 .Net framework, and from my experience and anecdotal evidence it seems that take up has been slow. That is understandable though. Many IT departments have only just deployed 1.1 framework into their desktop environment. The costs and benefits of testing and deploying 2.0 framework onto desktops just don't weigh up.

So, hot on the heels of Visual Studio 2005, .Net 2.0 and C# 2.0, Microsoft releases some of the proposed changes for the C# 3.0 language. Some of the new features are nice, but in my opinion, some are just going to bastardise the language.

Top of my hit list is Anonymous Types. They will have their place in a well structured program, but I think that they will become one of the most abused. I am willing to agree that the features of C# 3.0 are syntactic changes that will expediate the development of programming methods that are currently in place, but it will be all to easy to write unmaintainable and unreadable code. Lazy programmers arise!

But only time will tell. By the time C# 3.0 becomes mainstream and .Net framework 3.0 hits the desktops and servers of many enterprises, we all might just be too old to care.

C# 3.0 rundown
C# 3.0 explained