Announcing Reactive Extensions (Rx) for .NET & Silverlight

Finally, the long wait is over. Rx is available on DevLabs!

What is Rx?  

Rx is a .NET Library that allows programmers to write succinct declarative code to orchestrate and coordinate asynchronous and event-based programs based on familiar .NET idioms and patterns.

At the heart of the library are two new interfaces IObservable<T> and IObserver<T>. These interfaces are part of .NET 4 and Silverlight 4 by default. For .NET 3.5 and Silverlight 3.5, they ship with the Rx library.

The Rx library provides API create instances of these interfaces from scratch, convert existing asynchronous patterns such as events to these interfaces, query, transform and merge observables. All together creating a new powerful way of writing asynchronous applications.

In the recent past there have been several videos on Channel9 talking about Rx in Depth. We can strongly recommend watching them:

• Kim Hamilton and Wes Dyer: Inside .NET Rx and IObservable/IObserver in the BCL (VS 2010)
• Expert to Expert: Brian Beckman and Erik Meijer - Inside the .NET Reactive Framework (Rx)
• E2E: Erik Meijer and Wes Dyer - Reactive Framework (Rx) Under the Hood 1 of 2
• E2E: Erik Meijer and Wes Dyer - Reactive Framework (Rx) Under the Hood 2 of 2

How do I get started?

• First, visit the DevLabs Rx Project Page, watch the videos, read the documentation and download the bits. There are 3 versions of Rx available: Rx for .NET 3.5 SP1, Rx for Silverlight 3 and Rx for .NET 4 Beta 2.
• Make sure you have the right prerequisites installed (.NET 3.5, Silverlight 3 or .NET 4 Beta 2). (Having Visual Studio 2008 SP1 or Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 installed, will make writing your Rx programs a lot easier).
• Watch Jeff's screencast on getting Rx ready to be used.
• Code along with Wes' hello world Rx screencast.
• Read and post any questions to the Rx forum
• Read the Rx Release Notes
• Subscribe to this blog to get the latest updates on Rx.

What will I find on this blog?

The Rx Team blog will be updated regularly with new information about Rx such as:

• Code snippets
• API documentation
• Whitepapers
• Links to videos and screencasts
• Information about new releases

So there you have it, don't keep yourself suffering through programming asynchronous applications the hard way and go download Rx already :)

Thanks,

The Rx Team