The Moth

The next version number of the .NET Compact Framework is 3.5, compared to version number 2.0 that ships today. This is so the version numbers can align with v3.5 of the full framework (NetFx3.5). You can play with NETCF 3.5 in the Orcas Jan CTP.

Below is some new NETCF stuff that I found (v3.5.6282.0):

* Remember the EventWaitHandle class that I wrote 2 years ago? It is now part of the compact framework (System.Threading). As part of the addition, the inheritance hierarchies have changed so AutoResetEvent and ManualResetEvent now inherit from EventWaitHandle and not WaitHandle (making this blog entry half-obsolete :)).

* Remember the Stopwatch class that I wrote? It is now in the CF (System.Diagnostics).

* The Array class get the Resize method and some new Sort overloads.

* The CompilerGeneratedAttribute class from the System.Runtime.CompilerServices namespace is now added.

* The SerializationException class from the System.Runtime.Serialization namespace is added.

* System.Text.StringBuilder gets a new overload for the AppendFormat method and also both overloads of the AppendLine method.

* The System.Threading.Thread class gets the static MemoryBarrier method.

* The String class now contains the Contains method.

* A whole bunch of classes get a public Dispose method including GraphicsStream, FileStream, MemoryStream, StreamReader, StreamWriter, StringReader, StringWriter, TextReader, TextWriter and others.

* To support the next addition, the InvalidDataException class is added to the System.IO namespace in System.dll

* We get the entire System.IO.Compression namespace (i.e. GZipStream, DeflateStream, CompressionMode) from the System.dll

* Relevant to the previous addition, there is a new enum System.Net.DecompressionMethods that is the type of the new property AutomaticDecompression on the HttpWebRequest class.

* We get the entire System.Media namespace (SoundPlayer, SystemSound, SystemSounds) from the System.dll

* Mainly to support the previous addition, we get two classes in the System.ComponentModel namespace: AsyncCompletedEventArgs and AsyncCompletedEventHandler.

* The Trace class from the System.Diagnostics namespace only had 3 overloads of the Assert method. Now it becomes much more useful with 4 overloads for each of the methods Write, WriteIf, WriteLine and WriteLineIf. It also gets the Fail, Flush and Close methods. Add to that the new TextWriterTraceListener and tracing looks much better overall in NETCF v3.5

Stay tuned for more coming this week...