Performance Improvements in .NET 10

Summary

My kids love “Frozen”. They can sing every word, re-enact every scene, and provide detailed notes on the proper sparkle of Elsa’s ice dress. I’ve seen the movie more times than I can recount, to the point where, if you’ve seen me do any live coding, you’ve probably seen my subconscious incorporate an Arendelle reference or two. After so many viewings, I began paying closer attention to the details, like how at the very beginning of the film the ice harvesters are singing a song that subtly foreshadows the story’s central conflicts, the characters’ journeys, and even the key to resolving the climax. I’m slightly ashamed to admit I didn’t comprehend this connection until viewing number ten or so, at which point I also realized I had no idea if this ice harvesting was actually “a thing” or if it was just a clever vehicle for Disney to spin a yarn. Turns out, as I subsequently researched, it’s quite real. In the 19th century, before refrigeration, ice was an incredibly valuable commodity. Winters in the northern United States turned ponds and lakes into seasonal gold mines. The most successful operations ran with precision: workers cleared snow from the surface so the ice would grow thicker and stronger, and they scored the surface into perfect rectangles using horse-drawn plows, turning the lake into a frozen checkerboard. Once the grid was cut, teams with long saws worked to free uniform blocks weighing several hundred pounds each. These blocks were floated along channels of open water toward the shore, at which point men with poles levered the blocks up ramps and hauled them into storage. Basically, what the movie shows. The storage itself was an art. Massive wooden ice houses, sometimes holding tens of thousands of tons, were lined with insulation, typically straw. Done well, this insulation could keep the ice solid for months, even through summer heat. Done poorly, you would open the doors to slush. And for those moving ice over long distances, typically by ship, e...