Wanted : review of collection libraries features / issues / performance

Question

I know there are couple 3rd party collection libraries out there (C5, PowerCollections and I guess loads more of other not so complete libraries) as well as the System.Collections.Generics classes. I am however quite unsure which library use to when. I have tried the C5 collections, but some sources claim that they are slower then the default collections.

Which libraries do you use and why ? Do you ever wander away from the defaults (there are some collections types that are not supported - so sometimes it may be neccessary).

Do you know of any links for such 3rd party libraries reviews ?

Basically I am looking for anything that could shed some light figuring out what collections libraries to use when.

PS: I am not looking for explanations of when to use linked list and when to use a dictionary. I am looking for choices in the world of collection Libraries.

Answer 1

I think the choice of library depends on your need for a particular type of collection. Just because one library has a great linked list, doesn't mean it has an awesome dictionary.

But, having that said, I have generally found PowerCollections to work as my starting collection library of choice because they work similar to how the built in collections work. I love looking through C5's source code though, they offer more abstraction and interesting algorithms.