Chapter 7. Concluding C# 2: the final features

So far we’ve looked at the four biggest new features in C# 2: generics, nullable types, delegate enhancements, and iterator blocks. Each addresses a fairly complex requirement, which is why we’ve gone into them in some depth. The remaining new features of C# 2 knock a few rough edges off C# 1. They’re little niggles that the language designers decided to correct—either areas where the language needed a bit of improvement for its own sake, or where the experience of working with code generation and native code could be made more pleasant.

Over time, Microsoft has received a lot of feedback from the C# community (and its own developers, no doubt) about areas where C# hasn’t gleamed quite as brightly as it might. Several smaller changes made it into C# 2 along with the larger ones, alleviating some of these small pain points.

None of the features in this chapter is particularly difficult, and we’ll go through them fairly quickly. Don’t underestimate how important they are, though. Just because a topic can be explored in a few pages doesn’t mean it’s useless. You’re likely to use some of these features on a frequent basis. Here’s a quick rundown of the features covered in this chapter and their uses, so you know what to expect:

7.1. Partial types

7.2. Static classes

7.3. Separate getter/setter property access

7.4. Namespace aliases

7.5. Pragma directives

7.6. Fixed-size buffers in unsafe code

7.7. Exposing internal members to selected assemblies

7.8. Summary