.NET Parallel Programming

All about Async/Await, System.Threading.Tasks, System.Collections.Concurrent, System.Linq, and more…

Async - .NET Parallel Programming

ExecutionContext vs SynchronizationContext

June 15, 2012 Jun 15, 2012 06/15/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
I’ve been asked a few times recently various questions about ExecutionContext and SynchronizationContext, for example what the differences are between them, what it means to “flow” them, and how they relate to the new async/await keywords in C# and Visual Basic.  I thought I’d try to tackle some of those questions ...

Using async/await in WinRT async operations

June 14, 2012 Jun 14, 2012 06/14/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
Several weeks ago, I wrote a post for the Windows 8 app developer blog that was all about using await and AsTask to consume WinRT async operations.  I've now published a follow-up post that's all about exposing .NET tasks as WinRT async operation.  In a sense, you can think about the first post as showing how to convert from ...

Performance consideration for Async/Await and MarshalByRefObject

May 31, 2012 May 31, 2012 05/31/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
In the previous "What's New for Parallelism in Visual Studio 2012 RC" blog post, I mentioned briefly that for the .NET 4.5 Release Candidate, StreamReader.ReadLineAsync experienced a significant performance improvement over Beta.  There's an intriguing story behind that, one I thought I'd share here.It has to do with some interesting...

Async Targeting Pack for Visual Studio 11 now available for .NET 4 and Silverlight 5

April 26, 2012 Apr 26, 2012 04/26/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
We’re happy to announce that you can now download an Async Targeting Pack for Visual Studio 11 that lets you target .NET 4 and Silverlight 5.  The included DLLs address the previously discussed issue of the Visual Studio 11 Beta compilers being incompatible with the AsyncCtpLibrary* DLLs from the Async CTP; with this targeting pack...

Async/Await FAQ

April 12, 2012 Apr 12, 2012 04/12/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
From time to time, I receive questions from developers which highlight either a need for more information about the new “async” and “await” keywords in C# and Visual Basic. I’ve been cataloguing these questions, and I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my answers to them.Conceptual OverviewWhere can ...

Are deadlocks still possible with await?

April 12, 2012 Apr 12, 2012 04/12/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
Developers familiar with parallel programming are also familiar with a wide range of potential problems that can occur when practicing the art.  One of the most well-known issues is “deadlock,” where two or more operations are waiting on each other to complete in a manner such that none of them will be able to complete.I&rsquo...

Overriding Stream Asynchrony

April 6, 2012 Apr 6, 2012 04/6/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
In .NET 4.5 Beta, the Stream class provides multiple virtual methods related to reading and writing: As a developer deriving from Stream, it’s helpful to understand what the base implementations do and when you can and should override them.Read, Write, FlushThe Read, Write, and Flush methods are the core synchronous ...