.NET Parallel Programming

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

Task Parallel Library - .NET Parallel Programming

Processing tasks as they complete

August 2, 2012 Aug 2, 2012 08/2/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
Recently I’ve had several folks ask me about how to process the results of tasks as those tasks complete.A developer will have multiple tasks representing asynchronous operations they’ve initiated, and they want to process the results of these tasks, e.g. List<Task<T>> tasks = …; foreach(var t in tasks...

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...

What’s New for Parallelism in Visual Studio 2012 RC

May 31, 2012 May 31, 2012 05/31/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
In September, I blogged about what was new for parallelism and asynchrony in the Visual Studio 2012 Developer Preview, and in February I followed that up with a post on what was new in the Beta.  Now that Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate is out, I want to share a few thoughts on what’s new in the Release Candidate.Most new ...

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...

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: Read, BeginRead / EndRead, ReadAsync Write, BeginWrite / EndWrite, WriteAsync Flush, FlushAsync CopyToAsync As a developer deriving from Stream, it’s helpful to understand what the base implementations do and when you can and ...

Do I need to dispose of Tasks?

March 25, 2012 Mar 25, 2012 03/25/12
Stephen Toub - MSFT
I get this question a lot: “Task implements IDisposable and exposes a Dispose method.  Does that mean I should dispose of all of my tasks?” SummaryHere’s my short answer to this question: “No.  Don’t bother disposing of your tasks.”Here’s my medium-length answer: “No.  Don&...