870 some bytes of text vs 24 bytes of text....ok.

But with HTTP compression, and given that text compresses down hugely, is it really such a big deal?

I just tested a 900 byte random text file and compressed it with standard WinZip. It brings it down to < 20 bytes.

Even if you had 100 update panels that generate 900 bytes of AJAX repsonse, you're only up to 2k of data. Is it really worth it?

Interesting.

The story title & description seem conflicting: a DSL using nested lambdas? Or a nested DSL using lambdas?

Sarcasm?

So, i.to_s() is better than i.ToString()?

Seriously though, I do like extension methods so far. I just hope they don't get abused, such as:

public static void GetName(this object o)
{
o == null ? "null" : o.ToString();
}

string s = null;
s.GetName(); // Doesn't throw a NullReferenceException! Yikes...

Umm, yeah, that's the really old part 1. Part 2 ( http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/05/29/linq-to-sql-part-2-defining-our-data-model-classes.aspx ) is done, and part 3 (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/06/29/linq-to-sql-part-3-querying-our-database.aspx ) was done a few days ago.

Actually, read the comments to the site referenced above: MS will begin dogfooding Silverlight once the final version is released.

Oh, and if you need to create a list from that, it's as simple as saying

List<Shape> shapes = new List<Shape>(myShapes);

I find using a generic method for this a lot easier:

public IEnumerable<TBase> As<TBase, TDerived>(IEnumerable<TDerived> derived)
where TDerived : TBase
{
foreach(TDerived item in derived) yield return item;
}

You call it like this:

// C# 2
IEnumerable<Square> mySquares = ...;
IEnumerable<Shape> myShapes = As<Shape, Square>(mySquares);

// C# 3 with extension methods would make it a little more natural:
IEnumerable<Shape> myShapes = mySquares.As<Shape>();

I must say, this is one of the most exciting technologies in recent memory coming from Redmond. Double brownie points thanks to running WPF under the hood. This friggin' rocks.

Actually, all the new MS doc formats, including Word docs, are simple zip files containing structured information.

Seems like just yesterday SQL 2005 was in beta...man, time flies.

It's also running .NET 3 & WPF under the hood: see http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/05/30/microsoft-surface-and-wpf.aspx

WTH? Why would we download the March CTP when Beta 1 is already available? Doh.

Interesting they're using Flash instead of Silverlight! :-)

Hmm. Not sure how this is .NET related, but whatever.

Frankly, I don't think most people care. So, Silverlight won't run on 2% of the world's Linux-based desktops. Who the hell cares? What's next, someone whining that it doesn't run on Amiga's .03 percent?

People forget that Java's attempt at cross platform was pretty terrible: poor performing, ugly UIs that didn't work or feel like native UIs. Combine that with the fact that to this day, many Java APIs are NOT cross platform or do not work the same across all platforms. (see Java threading) Java has since been virtually banned from desktop use. The few Java desktop apps remaining end up using a native toolkit.

This should be a warning sign to Microsoft. ComputerGuru does not represent the majority by any means. I'd rather have a platform that works great and consistent on a majority of users' machines than a x-plat that looks funny and is inconsistent across platforms.

Mike, read the comments to the article: the author claims there is no such security hole, because he's using parameters.