.NET 4.0 essential booklist

It is no secret that .NET 4.0 is out soon. What 3 books are on your "essential" shopping list? Mine are;

1. Pro C# 2010 by Andrew Troelsen (I have the 2005 and 2008 editions)
2. Programming WCF Services by Juval Lowy
3. CLR Via C# by Jeffrey Richter

Right now, my plan is to read the MSDN section on the new parallel libraries.

These books may be on my wishlist- not sure

Don't really think I need to read a book to learn an API. MSDN or blogs should be fine.

This is on my todo list (someday?), I don't know how relevant it is to .NET though:

"Hacking, the Art of Exploitation" by Jon Erickson

http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Art-Exploitation-Jon-Erickson/dp/1593271441/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265912489&sr=8-2

"Free Culture" by Lawrence Lessig

http://www.amazon.com/Free-Culture-Nature-Future-Creativity/dp/0143034650/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265912463&sr=8-1

"The Age of Spiritual Machines" by Ray Kurzweil

http://www.amazon.com/Age-Spiritual-Machines-Computers-Intelligence/dp/0140282025/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265912597&sr=8-1

spivonious said:

Right now, my plan is to read the MSDN section on the new parallel libraries.

The task parallel library basically just takes LINQ and makes it parallel, adds parallel map function called Parallel.ForEach, as well as Parallel.For, and a thread pool / blocks implementation a la Grand Central Dispatch. It's very simple stuff.

Bass said:

spivonious said:

*snip*

The task parallel library basically just takes LINQ and makes it parallel, adds parallel map function called Parallel.ForEach, as well as Parallel.For, and a thread pool / blocks implementation a la Grand Central Dispatch. It's very simple stuff.

You forgot to mention the new concurrent collection classes. And I think you're underestimating the entirety of the TPL. Sure, for simple scenario's it's not really difficult, to just use a Parallel.ForEach or Parallel.For, but to grasp the architecture of the TPL and all its possibilities is not “very simple stuff”.

TommyCarlier said:

Bass said:

*snip*

You forgot to mention the new concurrent collection classes. And I think you're underestimating the entirety of the TPL. Sure, for simple scenario's it's not really difficult, to just use a Parallel.ForEach or Parallel.For, but to grasp the architecture of the TPL and all its possibilities is not “very simple stuff”.

I'm sure a lot of people find some TPL really difficult to grasp, but then again I've personally found that some people have difficulty grasping what the "if" statement does in C. I personally have difficulty understanding the advanced concepts of Topology, while there others who take to it like a fish in the water. Simple is subjective.

Bass said:

TommyCarlier said:

*snip*

I'm sure a lot of people find some TPL really difficult to grasp, but then again I've personally found that some people have difficulty grasping what the "if" statement does in C. I personally have difficulty understanding the advanced concepts of Topology, while there others who take to it like a fish in the water. Simple is subjective.

The updated CLR book should be pretty awesome the first one is well worth a read.

Exoteric -would recommend the LINQ in action book (havent read the apress one)

Jon Skeet is probably nearly done with his next edition of C# in depth which I am looking forward to.

Should probably pimp my own book as well (Introducing .net 4 with VS2010 by Apress (http://www.apress.com/book/view/143022455x an overview of all the changes)

The TPL & threading api changes includes a fair bit more than that but I think its fair to say the TPL is pretty intuitive to use.

There are obviously changes in all areas but the biggest changes are the TPL, DLR and Workflow.

The free training kit for VS2010 and white papers are pretty good.