Asynchronous Methods: Introduction

A new feature of C# 5.0, that ships in Visual Studio 2012, is the Async Feature. This is an important feature moving into Windows 8 because:

... how vital responsiveness is in touch applications. ... If an application doesn’t respond immediately when you touch it, it feels dead, whereas using a mouse or keyboard introduces a kind of disconnect between you and the computer which makes delays feel more acceptable. -- What's new in C# 5.0 and VB .Net

WinRT is created for the fast fluid experience required for Metro apps, so any operation that might take longer than 50ms to complete is only available through an asynchronous model -- So what does Windows 8 means for .NET Developers?

This feature introduces two keywords - async and await. You use the async keyword to annotate that this method could be invoked asynchronously. You then apply the await keyword to a task inside an async method to suspend the execution of the method until that task is complete.

Further Readings

1. C# 5.0 vNext - New Asynchronous Pattern

Asynchronous Methods Series

1. Introduction