C# 3.0? You haven't even shipped 2.0 yet?

One of my readers commented (and I'm paraphrasing here):

Why are you asking me about features for the next version of C#, when the 2.0 version hasn't even shipped yet?

A fair question.

One of the problems that we have in the tools division is the long lead time between the time when we're done with a product and the time that it's actually available to our customers. Delta a few small items and some bugfixes, the C# compiler is essentially done for Whidbey, so that's why we're thinking about the next version.

We've always had this offset, but because we're attempting to expose our designs much earlier than we have in past, it may look strange from the outside. As involving customers early on in design becomes more common, this should be less weird.

Hope that explains things a little better.