I’ve been relatively quiet on my blog lately in part because of all the work on ASP.NET MVC. However, the ASP.NET team is a relatively small team so we often are required to work on multiple features at the same time. So part of the reason I’ve been so busy is that while we were wrapping up ASP.NET MVC, I was also busy working on a core .NET Framework feature we plan to get into the next version (it was a feature that originated with our team, but we realized it belongs in the BCL).
The goal of the feature is to help deal with the very common task of handling string input. In many cases, the point is to convert the input into another type, such as an int or float. However, how do you deal with the fact that the string might not be convertible to the other type.
We realized we needed a type to handle this situation. A type that would represent the situation after the user has submitted input, but before you attempt the conversion. At this point, you have a string or another type.
For more details on the StringOr<T> Community Technology Preview (CTP), please see details on lead developer Eilon Lipton's Blog (he’s a big fan of cats as you can see). He provides source code and unit tests for download. As always, please do provide feedback as your feedback is extremely important in helping shape this nascent technology.
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