Anders Hejlsberg and LINQ: A Belated Interview with the C# Guru

Anders Hejlsberg said in this pre-PDC 2005 "Behind The Code" interview (02:20) that Bill Gates called the Clarity project "The most exciting thing he saw during his demo days." Clarity was the earlier code name for Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and C# 3.0. The "Life and Times of Anders Hejlsberg" traces the career of C#'s chief architect from his early days in Denmark to Scotts Valley (Calif.) as Borland International's Principal Engineer, and finally to Redmond and Microsoft, where he's now a Distinguished Engineer and Technical Fellow. The interview is laced with mentions of LINQ and related C# 3.0 technologies, despite interviewer Barbara Fox's attempts to minimize the episode's technical content. Anders' remarks on C# 1.0 and 2.0 start at 31:15. A brief discussion of "What's Next for C#" begins at 43:55. Type "LINQ" in the Search This Blog input box and click the link or click here to perform a Google Blog Search for the close-to-30 posts on the OakLeaf blog that relate to LINQ, DLinq, XLinq, or all three. Somewhat off-topic: The "Behind the Code" series appears to be an enormous resource consumer, at least compared with the traditional hand-held sessions conducted by Robert Scoble and his colleagues. This one-hour episode required(?) a 27-person staff: Producer, co-producer, director, line producer, floor manager, technical director, lighting director, gaffer, grip, audio mixer, two audio assistants, four cameramen, prop master, video (switcher?), engineer (for ?), tape operator, makeup person, script supervisor, media processor, editor, title designer, audio post (producer), and field unit camerman. The production overhead might explain why an interview taped "five weeks before PDC" wasn't posted to the Channel 9 lineup until February 1, 2006. I didn't discover the existence of the interview until I wrote the post for the "Behind the Code" Jim Gray interview. Technorati: LINQ DLinq XLinq C# 3.0 TurboPascal Delphi Anders Hejlsberg