Visual C# Developer Center : Future Versions

Visual C# Developer Center : Future Versions: "C# 3.0 introduces several language extensions that build on C# 2.0 to support the creation and use of higher order, functional style class libraries. The extensions enable construction of compositional APIs that have equal expressive power of query languages in domains such as relational databases and XML. "

SQL Server Developer Center: XML Indexes in SQL Server 2005

SQL Server Developer Center: XML Indexes in SQL Server 2005: "Although not everyone would agree, one of the main reasons for the success of the relational database has been the inclusion of the SQL language. SQL is a set-based declarative language. As opposed to COBOL (or most .NET-based languages for that matter), when you use SQL, you tell the database what data you are looking for, rather than how to obtain that data. The SQL query processor determines the best plan to get the data you want and then retrieves the data for you. As query-processing engines mature, your SQL code will run faster and better (less I/O and CPU) without the developer making changes to the code. What development manager wouldn't be pleased to hear that programs will run faster and more efficiently with no changes to source code because the query engine gets better over time?
One of the ways to allow the query processor the choice of optimized access is to create indexes over the data. Creating the correct index can dramatically change how the query engine evaluates the query. You decide which indexes to create by analyzing which queries you actually perform and figuring up how the engine could optimize those queries. A tool to analyze query workloads and suggest indexes comes with SQL Server. In SQL Server 2005, this tool is Database Tuning Advisor. "

ASP.NET Home: Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites Using Web Standards

ASP.NET Home: Building ASP.NET 2.0 Web Sites Using Web Standards: "Web standards enable you to build Web sites that are accessible to the broadest possible audience with the least amount of work. The promise of Web standards is that you can design a page once and have the page appear and function in exactly the same way in any modern browser. For example, when built against standards, a page that was designed to display a certain way in Microsoft Internet Explorer can appear the same way in other browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Netscape Navigator, Opera, Camino, and Safari, without requiring you to perform any additional work.
An additional benefit of Web standards is that they make your Web sites more easily accessible to persons with disabilities. This is a broad audience that includes everyone from a middle-aged person with failing eyesight, to a person who just broke his or her arm while skiing, to a person who is completely blind. Standards prevent you from unintentionally blocking persons with temporary or permanent disabilities from your Web pages."