Question

I am pretty much interested into using the newly enhanced Parallelism features in .NET 4.0.

I have also seen some possibilities of using it in F#, as much as in C#.

Despite, I can only see what PLINQ has to offer with, for example, the following:

var query = from c in Customers.AsParallel()
            where (c.Name.Contains("customerNameLike"))
            select c;

There must for sure be some other use of this parallelism thing.

Have you any other examples of using it? Is this particularly turned toward PLINQ, or are there other usage as easy as PLINQ?

Thanks! =)

Answer 1

The new parallel programming features provided in .NET 4 are not limited to just PLINQ.

As stated by Microsoft: “Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET Framework 4 enhance support for parallel programming by providing a new runtime, new class library types, and new diagnostic tools. These features simplify parallel development so that you can write efficient, fine-grained, and scalable parallel code in a natural idiom without having to work directly with threads or the thread pool.“

I would recommend that you review Parallel Programming in the .NET Framework as a good starting place.

Overall, .NET 4 and Visual Studio 2010 provide these features:

• Task Parallel Library
• Parallel LINQ (PLINQ)
• Data Structures for Parallel
  Programming
• Parallel Diagnostic Tools
• Overall improvements to the
  ThreadPool and the base class
  libraries

I personally have found the Task and Task{T} classes in the Task Parallel Library to be more flexible when creating and coordinating asynchronous work.