Kristian Kristensen’s Blog

I saw the two sessions done by Anders Hejlsberg, first an introduction to LINQ (Language Integrated Query Framework) and C# 3.0. The first session explained the rationale behind LINQ (the impedance mismatch between Data and Objects), and the second drilled down into the language innovations done in C# 3.0.

LINQ is cool! Very, very, very cool. And a great thing about it, is that it doesn’t require changes in the CLR. Everything is done in the compiler, and works on a standard Whidbey CLR.
The C# 3.0 talk dealt with Lamdba Expressions, Expressions Trees, Expansion Methods. Lamdba Expressions allows you to in a shorter syntax specify delegates – method pointers. Expansion methods allows you to expand excisting types, which is used in the System.Query namespace to allow for the From, Where, Select syntax.

I finished the day off with the first session on Atlas – AJAX for ASP.NET. It’s very cool, and very easy to use. However, the fact that it’s work in progress and just a CTP shows. You still have to write a lot of plumbing script, and some black magic to get it to work. But the direction is cool.

After the session I met up with Kim and we took the bus back to the hotel, for a quick visit (15 minutes) before we grabbed a cab to Universal Studios where the Attendee party was held. As with the Influencers Party everything was paid for! Microsoft (actually the Windows Vista team) had rented the entire park, and all the rides, shows, restaurants, etc. was free to use. I went to see the show Waterworld, try the Van Helsing ride (where I got startled 4 times, as the only one…), and took the Universal Studio Tour. The last one was very interesting. You sit in a tram and they drive you around the Studio, and shows you sets, and famous scenes from movies. The cool thing is that this is indeed the palce where they record new pictures and tv shows. So while we drove around, people were filming all kinds of stuff. We drove by the Alias shooting several times. And saw some of the production trucks from CSI. Also saw a special lake, which is used to film all kinds of water scenes. It’s a very small pond actually, with a big screen behind it. After filming they just add the surroundings to the screen, and it looks like the ocean (stuff recorded like this includes The Truman Show).

Took the Shuttle bus back to the hotel (the shuttle service had been expanded to drive between the PDC hotels and Universal Studios), and went to bed at around 10PM. And I was tired!

Written at 1.50PM local time.

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