Async void message loop

somefile.cs

public class MyNetworkClient {
    public async Task ConnectAsync(string address) {
        await this.MakeTheActualConnection(address);
        this.BeginReceiveLoop();
    }

    // It's async void! But is that bad?
    // I know that an unhandled exception here is going to bring down the process, but where else do you want
    // that exception to go? There's no external control flow that can reasonably receive such an exception.
    private async void BeginReceiveLoop() {
        while (true) {
            var incomingBlock = await this.networkStream.ReadAsync();
            if (incomingBlock == null) {
                // Disconnected or disposed
                return;
            } else {
                this.DoSomething(incomingBlock);
            }
        }
    }
}

Well, if you are willing to take a dependency on reactive extensions, you could solve this quite elegantly.

var obs = Observable.FromAsync(this.networkStream.ReadAsync());
obs.Subscribe(block => DoSomething(block), e => ....);

Observables should be your home ground :)

Here's a base class that safely turns task-returning methods into async void, and exposes the exception and busy indicator as observable properties. https://github.com/michaellperry/rovermob/blob/master/RoverMob/Tasks/Process.cs