Basic Instincts MSDN Magazine Article: Collection and Array Initializers in Visual Basic 2010

Published 08 October 09 11:33 AM

I’ve written before about the new array and collection initializer support in Visual Basic 2010. In this month’s MSDN Magazine, Spotty shows us how this new syntax in Visual Basic will make you more productive when writing code.

Collection and Array Initializers in Visual Basic 2010

Visual Basic provides the same support as C# using the new “From” syntax which automatically calls Add for you on any collection that has an Add method. VB also allows you to take it a step further by supporting Extension Methods. If you provide an Add extension method of your own, VB will use that instead making your code even cleaner.

Check out my post and the article.

There’s also a lot of other great articles this month, in particular:

Enjoy!

by Beth Massi
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# Logan said on October 9, 2009 3:22 AM:

Hi Beth,

I was shocked a few months ago when I heard that VS2010 was coming out. I know 2010 is only a year away, but I don't even know VS2005 all that well, then there's the matter of learning VS2008 as well.

Don't you think MS is moving a little fast? I mean, most peopple have barely got their teeth into the .Net Framework 3.5, and already 4.0 is being released with 2010 soon.

I was on the VB General Forum on MSDN earlier this week and I came across a discussion that was started early this year entitled "What has Basic 2008 done to us?" (Or something like that). Apparently I'm not the only one who is concerned about this.

There are a few people who've posted in that discussion saying that a few more years between releases would likely be a better idea than creating a new release every year. At the very least, it gives us more time to learn before the next release.

Have you got any thoughts on this? Please share.

Logan

# David Markle said on October 9, 2009 7:47 AM:

@Logan:  I don't work at MSFT.  The answer to your question is a resounding "no".  This is technology.  Technology moves fast.  It's the nature of the business.  Your doctor should be up to speed on the latest research into medicine if he or she is to be considered a good doctor.  That means reading and continuing education.  I fail to see the difference here.  You are a software professional and an information worker.  Reading, doing, and analyzing are a key part of your job if you're going to be considered to be a good developer.

MS has come up with some really revolutionary tech these past few years, and I definitely don't want to see them slow down -- Linq, WCF, WPF...  These are all huge in terms of productivity and capability and are well worth learning.  

# Charles said on October 12, 2009 11:29 AM:

Ok, so you just purchased visual studio 2008 what are you supposed to do? Just turn arond and dump it for the newer version.

# Logan said on October 13, 2009 5:42 AM:

I don't disagree that the new techs aren't worth learning, but I just can't keep up.

To build your analogy... I don't want my doctor to be too busy learning the basics of cardiology before I go in for heart surgery, no. But he's not going to be able to learn what he needs to know before he starts learning the more recent stuff if there's too many new advancements in too short a period of time. He's constantly going to be back logged.

Although I suppose there's a difference here, in that I could just learn VB2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5... And forget about everything less recent than that...

Now there's a very good point Charles. Especially considering I don't even know where to get suites like VS here in South Africa - so I get the stuff really late after it's release...

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About Beth Massi

Beth is a Program Manager on the Visual Studio Community Team at Microsoft and is responsible for producing and managing content for business application developers, driving community features and team participation onto MSDN Developer Centers (http://msdn.com), and helping make Visual Studio one of the best developer tools in the world. She also produces regular content on her blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/bethmassi), Channel 9, and a variety of other developer sites and magazines. As a community champion and a long-time member of the Microsoft developer community she also helps with the San Francisco East Bay .NET user group and is a frequent speaker at various software development events. Before Microsoft, she was a Senior Architect at a health care software product company and a Microsoft Solutions Architect MVP. Over the last decade she has worked on distributed applications and frameworks, web and Windows-based applications using Microsoft development tools in a variety of businesses. She loves teaching, hiking, mountain biking, and driving really fast.

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