Carl Rosenberger has posted a call to arms to elicit support for a LINQ for Java project.  If you would like to see this project come to fruition, you can read the details on Carl's blog here.

You can vote to show your support as well as volunteer to participate in the implementation.

Good luck Carl!

I was talking to another developer recently and detected a slight intimidation at the thought of trying to adopt LINQ to SQL in his project. I can certainly understand that. Many times in the past there has been some new technology I knew I should start investigating, but the hassle I expected squelched my desire. So, I decided to make a video demonstrating just how easy it can be to make a project LINQ to SQL enabled.

Notice I said "it can be". This doesn't mean to imply that every project will be this simple. Unlike most of the other LINQ APIs, adopting LINQ to SQL is an architectural decision that needs to be made. It has its benefits, and its limitations. So, for any given project, adopting LINQ to SQL may be more difficult than in the sample project in my video.

Also, concerning the video, I am just getting started with the video software, so please show some mercy. Steven Spielberg I ain't.

I was recently invited to attend a meeting of the Atlanta Microsoft Professionals user group by fellow Atlantan and co-author of LINQ in Action, Jim Wooley.  During the meeting, I believe I caught part of a discussion about the lifetime of the DataContext.  I wasn't there as a speaker, nor did I hear the full conversation, so I was not comfortable blurting out about what I thought I heard, but I felt like I should perhaps offer some information about DataContexts and their lifetime here.

DataContexts should be short-lived.  How short?  As short as possible, yet reasonable.  Why?  Well, as one of the key Microsoft developers working on LINQ to SQL told me, the data in a DataContext is stale the moment you retrieve it.  The reason this is significant has to do with the way data is returned from your query.

I cover this in detail in Chapter 16 of my book, Pro LINQ: Language Integrated ...

As I mentioned in my previous post, having my book in the company of Scott Meyers and Kernighan & Ritchie is very exciting and a position I never even imagined I would be in.  Today, I passed them in the C & C++ Windows Programming category.  What a thrill!

Of course by the time you read this, I may not even be on the list.  But, I am keeping my fingers crossed.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/3967/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_b_2_5_last/105-3517084-9813220

Well, it finally happened.  My book is so chock-full of useful LINQ information that we had to upgrade it from a Foundations level book to a Pro level book.  Since we had to change the name to reflect the depth of information we also adopted the branding that Microsoft appears to be moving toward.  Therefore my book previously titled Foundations of LINQ in C# has been retitled Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008.

Look for Pro LINQ: Language Integrated Query in C# 2008 in your book store at the end of October
2007.