Asynchronous methods

The Task Parallel Library (TPL) constitutes the core part of parallel computing in the .NET framework and has inherently the same stature in Xamarin runtime(s).

Asynchronous method execution, together with the async and await keywords (introduced with C# 5.0), can make the apps more responsive and efficient and decrease the complexity of implementing multithreading and synchronization. Without having the need to implement a parameterized thread, start and push are delegated to a background thread, with so called "awaitables." You can convert your methods to async promises easily with Task or Task<T> as the return type. In return, the runtime chooses the best time to execute the code and returns the result to your execution context.

For instance, the previous thread creation example with Tasks would be as simple as:

Task.Run(() => MyLongRunningProcess());

// Or
Task.Factory.StartNew(MyLongRunningProcess, TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning);

However, the...