14 DAY TRIAL // A free resource from Microsoft is designed to give developers insight into the new Task-based Asynchronous Pattern (TAP) for the .NET Framework. Devs can access the TAP.docx document via the Microsoft Download Center, where the Redmond company is offering it free of charge, as it also does for a variety of the resources it is offering developers to streamline their work.
“The Task-based Asynchronous Pattern (TAP) is a new pattern for asynchrony in the .NET Framework. It is based on the Task and Task< TResult > types in the System.Threading.Tasks namespace, which are used to represent arbitrary asynchronous operations,” revealed Microsoft’s Stephen Toub, the author of the whitepaper.
Of course, devs interested in the Task-based asynchronous pattern should also make sure to grab Visual Studio Async, which is also available as a free download from the software giant.
At the same time, those leveraging Visual Studio Async should be aware of some characteristics of the tool.
“For the Microsoft Visual Studio Async CTP, some instance methods that would otherwise live on a particular type are instead defined as extension methods. Similarly, some static methods that would otherwise live on a particular type TypeName are instead defined as static methods on a temporary type TypeNameEx,” Toub explained.
“This document ignores those differences and refers to the relevant members at their intended location, e.g. the WhenAll method is referred to as Task.WhenAll rather than TaskEx.WhenAll, even though it exists on the temporary TaskEx class in the Async CTP.”
Microsoft released a Community Technology Preview of Async for Visual Studio 2010 recently in an effort to simplify asynchronous programming for developers.
Devs looking into asynchronous programming should also head over to the Parallel Computing Developer Center on MSDN in order to access a variety of additional resources set up to simplify their work.
Async CTP for Visual Studio 2010 is available for download here. Visual Studio 2010 Premium is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Professional is available for download here.
Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate is available for download here.
Visual Studio Test Professional 2010 is available for download here.