Java 1.7 vs C# List/Set/Map syntactic sugar
<p>The following is supposed to be part of Java 1.7:</p>

<pre><code>List&lt;String&gt; list = ["item"];
String item = list[0];

Set&lt;String&gt; set = {"item"};

Map&lt;String, Integer&gt; map = {"key" : 1};
int value = map["key"];
</code></pre>

<p>The same can pretty much be done in C# (and VB.NET) with a slightly difference syntax. In .NET, this is implemented as <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa288464%28v=vs.71%29.aspx" rel="nofollow">indexed properties</a>, which is a language feature any developer can use to apply onto own classes.</p>

<p>Does anyone know if these feature are <strong>strictly hardcoded</strong> for List, Set, and Map and subclasses or there is a more general language feature behind this?</p>
