LINQ: Good or Bad

Eric White wrote a blog entry asking whether developers are using Language Integrated Query (LINQ). I have to confess that I had heard about LINQ. But I was definitely not using it either on the job or in my side projects. So I thought I would delve a little deeper, and summarize some of the points brought up by Eric and those that commented on his post.

To start with, LINQ is an extension to the .NET framework. It extends the C# and VB languages. LINQ comes with Visual Studio 2008. It allows the developer to express query behavior efficiently. Essentially it makes SQL a part of the programming language. It addresses the database model in the context of Object Oriented Programming.

Now let's review some of the bad thing about LINQ. Not a lot of people understand it. Once again I will confess that I am no LINQ expert myself. Although I am now trying to learn more about at a high level. I heard that it is difficult to debug LINQ statements. And finally LINQ has performance issues when returning a large list of objects.

For every bad thing about LINQ, there is a good side too. Programs written using LINQ tend to have fewer bugs. It works well with C#. And for those who have delved into it, they say it provides a good return on investment. In other words you will benefit greatly if you put a little work into learning LINQ.

It takes about a week to get the hang of LINQ basics. And it will take closer to a month to get to a deeper knowledge of the technology. When LINQ is coded on top of stored procedures, it makes for simpler code. Finally I have been guided to use IEnumerable extension methods but not the pseudo SQL syntax. Well I do not know enough about LINQ to qualify the last statement fully. But I may just dive in and try to my bearings so I can at least evaluate the technologies.

Microsoft Priorities

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently came out with a memo to all Microsoft employees reviewing the company priorities for the next year. This comes at a critical time for Microsoft since Bill Gates has retired. Ballmer outlined a 3 pronged focus on Windows Vista, WPF, and Silverlight. I thought I would discuss each of these as they relate to .NET development.

Windows Vista is the latest version of the Windows operating system. It was previously known as Longhorn during the development days. The O/S was released on January 30, 2007. This was a lengthy 5 years after the release of Windows XP. There has been a very cool reception to this version of the O/S. Users do not like the high level of system requirements for it. There are also a number of compatibility issues with legacy hardware and software. Early adopters complain of slow file operations. PC World called the O/S a big disappointment. And InfoWorld stated Vista was a flop. Microsoft has a lot of damage control to do with this version of the O/S.

Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a .NET graphics subsystem. It was formerly known as Avalon during development. WPF version 3.0 comes standard with Windows Vista. The subsystem help aims to separate the user interface and business logic of applications. It introduces the XAML language. Microsoft is marketing WPF as a unified framework. Applications can use it in a desktop or browser configuration. The API for WPF is exposed only via managed code. But internally, its composition engine (named the Media Integration Layer) is written in native code.

Silverlight is a browser plugin from Microsoft. It competes with popular products such as Flash from Adobe. It supports animation, graphics, and audio-visual effects. Silverlight was previously named WPF/E (E stands for everywhere). It is a web based subset of WPF. As such it is designed to work with XAML. Initially Silverlight was criticized because it would only run under Windows. Version 2 of Silverlight comes with a .NET framework version that can run .NET code. Personally I get annoyed every time a web site refuses to load unless I install Silverlight. But that is just me.

There is a lot going on in the Microsoft development world. As you can see, a lot of it revolves around the .NET environment. I look forward to monitoring Microsoft’s progress in each of the key areas identified by its CEO this year.