C# in Depth

204 CHAPTER 7 Concluding C# 2: the final featureshave a reference to the source assembly—and you can’t refer to an unsigned assemblyfrom one that is signed! Likewise a signed assembly can’t specify an unsigned friendassembly, so typically you end up with both assemblies being signed if either one ofthem is.7.8 SummaryThis completes our tour of the new features in C# 2. The topics we’ve looked at in thischapter have broadly fallen into two categories: “nice to have” improvements thatstreamline development, and “hope you don’t need it” features that can get you out oftricky situations when you need them. To make an analogy between C# 2 and improvementsto a house, the major features from our earlier chapters are comparable to fullscaleadditions. Some of the features we’ve seen in this chapter (such as partial typesand static classes) are more like redecorating a bedroom, and features like namespacealiases are akin to fitting smoke alarms—you may never see a benefit, but it’s nice toknow they’re there if you ever need them.The range of features in C# 2 is very broad—the designers tackled many of theareas where developers were feeling pain, without any one overarching goal. That’snot to say the features don’t work well together—nullable value types wouldn’t be feasiblewithout generics, for instance—but there’s no one aim that every feature contributesto, unless you count general productivity.Now that we’ve finished examining C# 2, it’s time to move on to C# 3, where thepicture is very different. Nearly every feature in C# 3 (with the exception of partialmethods, which we’ve covered in this chapter) forms part of the grand picture ofLINQ, a conglomeration of technologies that could well change the way traditionalprogrammers think—forever.Licensed to Rhona Hadida