Enhancements in 3.5.NET Languages

While Visual Studio 2008, the several variations of LINQ, and the ADO.NET Entity Framework are getting a lot of attention in the coming .NET Framework 3.5, there are also several key language enhancements on the near horizon. Many of the language enhancements (which will be found in VB 9 and C# 3.0) are the foundation of these more prominent new technologies. This article is a primer for some of the key enhancements that will be introduced with the .NET Framework 3.5 and how they relate to each other.
There are several .NET language enhancements to be introduced with Visual Studio 2008 including implicitly typed variables, extension methods, anonymous types, object initializers, collection initializers and automatic properties. These language enhancements, along with features like generics, are critical to the use of some of the new features, such as LINQ with the ADO.NET Entity Framework. What can be confusing is that these features are often referred to in the same conversation as LINQ. Because of this relation by association, you may be led to believe that these features are part of LINQ. They are not; they are part of the .NET Framework 3.5 and the VB 9 and C# 3.0 languages. They are very valuable in their own rights as well as playing a huge role for LINQ.