New features in Visual Basic 10.docVIP

New features in Visual Basic 10 Jonathan Aneja, Program Manager Lucian Wischik, Specification Lead Paul Vick, Principal Architect April 9, 2010 Contents Introduction 1 New Language Features 2 Multiline Lambdas 2 Sub Lambdas 3 Single-line Sub Lambdas 3 Implicit Line Continuation 3 Auto-implemented Properties 6 Collection Initializers 7 Array Literals 7 Nullable Optional Parameters 8 Generic Variance 8 Covariance 8 Contravariance 9 Limitations 9 Interop with Dynamic Languages 10 Compiling without PIAs 10 Relationship with C# 11 Resources 12  Introduction We are proud to release Visual Basic 10, the latest version of the Visual Basic language. This is the version of the language that ships with Visual Studio 2010 and .NET 4. Microsoft has committed to a policy of “co-evolution” between Visual Basic and C#, where major new features will appear in both languages at the same time, and important new features that appear in both languages in this release include interop with the Dynamic Language Runtime, and the ability to build solutions that no longer require Primary Interop Assemblies to be deployed on end-user machines. Some new features in this version of the language, such as implicit line continuations, provide a cleaner or simpler syntax that will be used in almost every function you write. Other new features, such as statement lambdas, enable powerful idioms in new Microsoft frameworks such as Silverlight 4 and the Task Parallel Library. Visual Basic 10 also marks the first release in which the language specification is deployed with the product. It can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\VB\Specifications. Visual Basic has always strived to be the most productive tool for building line-of-business, data-centric applications. Version 9.0 of the language delivered Language Integrated Query (LINQ), first-class XML support, as well as other core features such as nullable types. We are proud to release Visual Basic 10, which makes the lang