A few years back, Wes Dyer wrote a great post on monads, and more recently, Eric Lippert wrote a terrific blog series exploring monads and C#. In that series, Eric alluded to Task<TResult> several times, so I thought I’d share a few related thoughts on Task<TResult> and the async/await keywords.As both Wes and Eric highlight, a mo...
I can be a bit sensitive when it comes to language and how concepts are conveyed. I think it’s important to be accurate, even if not precise, when describing what something is or how to use it, as otherwise the folks to whom you’re communicating can easily form the wrong mental model for that thing. Having a good mental mode...
Lucian Wischik and I presented an "async clinic" at the MVP Summit in Bellevue this week. The async/await keywords in C# and Visual Basic drastically simplify asynchronous programming, but that of course doesn't mean that using them is without any gotchas: the goal of the discussion was to highlight some of the key areas in which&nb...
These days it’s not uncommon for me to receive an email or read a forum post from someone concerned about a problem they’re experiencing with an async method they’ve written, and they’re seeking help debugging the issue. Sometimes plenty of information about the bug is conveyed, but other times the communication is voi...
Recently I was writing an app that processed a bunch of files asynchronously. As with the Windows copy file dialog, I wanted to be able to provide the user with a button that would pause the processing operation.To achieve that, I implemented a simple mechanism that would allow me to pass a “pause token” into the async method, whi...
Programming with async and await is the driving force behind delivering “fast and fluid” user experiences. Compiler diagnostics for async APIs guide developers towards best practices – it’s a wonderful example of platform and tooling working together. Since the Windows Runtime uses a slightly different implementation for async programming than ....
The .NET Framework 4.5 is now available on Windows Azure. Thank you to everyone cheering for this moment. We’re just starting to see the possibilities that a rich developer framework like the .NET Framework and the cloud can have together. Richard Lander, a program manager for the Common Language Runtime, explains a few best practices that can r...
It was at the first BUILD conference last year that we announced the .NET Framework 4.5. BUILD last week was a big opportunity for us to reflect on the incredible things you can do with .NET 4.5 and Windows 8. It was also a place where we could launch the great new things now available in Windows Phone 8. Christine Ruana is the project manager t...
Bringing the full power of the Windows based CLR and .NET Framework to the Windows Phone has been several years in the making. The .NET capabilities introduced with Windows Phone 8 builds upon many of the investments we’ve made across all platforms and years of incubation. This release truly highlights some of the enduring themes behind .NET – b...
This is a question I hear relatively frequently: “I have an async operation that’s not cancelable. How do I cancel it?” The construction of the question often makes me chuckle, but I understand and appreciate what’s really being asked. The developer typically isn’t asking how to cancel the operation itse...
