LINQ Leads .NET Framework 3.5

Since its introduction in 2000, the .NET Framework has become the lynchpin of Microsoft’s developer platform. The latest update, version 3.5, introduces LINQ, a set of extensions to the C# and VB programming languages that make querying data such as XML, relational databases, and in-memory data structures substantially easier. In addition, updates to the WCF make it easier to build Web services based on the increasingly popular REST architecture.

The .NET Framework 3.5 is not an entirely new version of the framework; rather, it is essentially an add-on to the previous version (3.0), which was itself an add-on to version 2.0. Despite the seemingly significant increase in the version number, all three releases share the same version of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), the software engine that loads, verifies and executes applications. (For more on how version 3.5 differs from its predecessors, see the illustration “When Is a Version Not a Version?“.)

Connecting to Data with LINQ

LINQ consists of an updated set of .NET class libraries that provide basic query functionality, along with changes in the VB and C# programming language to make those capabilities more accessible. (The C++ language also can use the underlying class libraries, but it does not include any language extensions, so accessing LINQ from C++ is not as convenient as with C# and VB.)