When you start using async methods heavily, you’ll likely see a particular pattern of composition pop up from time to time. Its structure is typically either of the form: async Task FooAsync() { … // some initialization code without awaits await BarAsync(…); ...
In .NET 4, Task.Factory.StartNew was the primary method for scheduling a new task. Many overloads provided for a highly configurable mechanism, enabling setting options, passing in arbitrary state, enabling cancellation, and even controlling scheduling behaviors. The flip side of all of this power is complexity. You need to know w...
The October 2011 issue of MSDN Magazine is now available online. In it, you can find three articles about the new async/await features of C# and Visual Basic. While the articles can stand alone, they were written with each other in mind in order to provide a 1-2-3 on-ramp into the world of asynchronous programming with these new languag...
Consider a type that will print out a message when it’s finalized, and that has a Dispose method which will suppress finalization: class DisplayOnFinalize : IDisposable { public void Dispose() { GC.SuppressFinalize(this); } ~DisplayOnFinalize() { Console.WriteLine(“Finalized”); } } Now conside...
“Don’t forget to complete your tasks.” That guidance may sound trivial and silly, but I recently saw it as a source of a bug in software written by some very smart folks, and thus thought this would be a good opportunity to remind folks of the imperative.Tasks represent a promise. If you hand one out, someone else may&...
