improve my => 'code' 
In the latest release of Orcas, one of the new features provided is "Automatic Properties" which allows developers to use a shorthand like the following:
public class Person {
public string FirstName {
get; set;
}
public string LastName {
get; set;
}
public int Age {
get; set;
}
}
and the compiler knows to interpret this as
public class Person {
private string _firstName;
private string _lastName;
private int _age;
public string FirstName {
get {
return _firstName;
}
set {
_firstName = value;
}
}
public string LastName {
get {
return _lastName;
}
set {
_lastName = value;
}
}
public int Age {
get {
return _age;
}
set {
_age = value;
}
}
}
Prima facie, this looks like a good thing. The developer is typing less code, and still has hooks in property accessors to perform validation, or needed side effects from value changes.
But I have a few problems with this shorthand.
Criticism 1
Why is this shorthand needed when there is a snippet (prop) that provides full property accessors, with better hooks for inserting custom actions like validation?
Criticism 2
I think that the shorthand looks too much like the signature of a method normally found in an interface, not a class. The only difference appears to be an access modifier. So I find the shorthand syntax is confusing...
What do you think?
Jonathan Starr