.NET and Why You Should Care

What is .NET?

.NET is an open-source developer platform from Microsoft for building all sorts of applications.

What's a Developer Platform?

• A developer ecosystem
• A set of tools and libraries that accelerate the development of your applications

.NET Strikes a Balance Between

• Productivity
• Performance
• Security
• Reliability

What Can You Do With it?

.NET Does All of This While Using the Same:

• Programming languages
• Libraries
• Tools and techniques

How Does .NET Do All of This?

Programming Languages

• Visual Basic
• F# (F Sharp)
• C# (C Sharp)

Tooling

• Base Class Library (BCL)
• Nuget (package management)
• Visual Studio (Windows & Mac)
• Command line tools - dotnet

Common Intermediate Language (CIL)

.assembly Hello {}
.assembly extern mscorlib {}
.method static void Main()
{
    .entrypoint
    .maxstack 1
    ldstr "Hello, world!"
    call void [mscorlib]System.Console::WriteLine(string)
    ret
}
        

Common Language Runtime (CLR)

• The .NET virtual machine
• Just in time (JIT) compilation
• Memory management/garbage collection
• Type safety and exception handling

Anatomy of a .NET Project

Files and Layout

• .csproj - Defines a C# project
  • Build configuration
  • Dependencies
• .sln - Organizes multiple projects (monorepo)
• .cs - C# source file
• obj - Object, or intermediate, files
• bin - Binary files

Assemblies

• Unit of deployment and versioning
• Contains compiled code, resources, metadata
• Can be process assemblies (.exe) or library assemblies (.dll)
• Can have dependencies on other assemblies
• Loaded and executed by .NET runtime

A Note on .NET Versions

• .NET Framework
• .NET Core
• A unified .NET (.NET 5+)

C# Syntax

using System;

namespace MyNamespace;

class Program {
    static void Main(string[] args) {
        string message = "Hello, world!"
        // var message = "Hello, world!"
        Console.WriteLine(message);
    }
}
        

C# Syntax - Control Flow

static void Main(string[] args) {
    if (myInt > 10) {
        // do something
    } else {
        // do something else
    }

    foreach (var item in myList) {
        // do something with item
    }

    try {
        // some code that might throw an exception
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        // handle the exception
    }
}
        

C# Syntax - Properties

class Person
{
    private int age;
    public int Age {
        get { return age; }
        set { age = value; }
    }

    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    public string FullName => $"{FirstName} {LastName}";
}
        

C# Syntax - Inheritance

public class Animal {
    public virtual void MakeSound() {
        Console.WriteLine("The animal makes a sound");
    }
}

public class Cat : Animal {
    public override void MakeSound() {
        Console.WriteLine("The cat meows");
    }
}
        

C# Syntax - Attributes

[Serializable]
public class MyClass {
    [Obsolete("This method is deprecated.")]
    public void MyOldMethod() {
        // do something old
    }
}
        

C# Syntax - Generics

public class MyGenericClass<T> {
    private T[] myArray;

    public MyGenericClass(int size) {
        myArray = new T[size];
    }

    public void SetItem(int index, T item) {
        myArray[index] = item;
    }

    public T GetItem(int index) {
        return myArray[index];
    }
}
        

Demo! 🎉

So Why Should You Care?

Productivity 🔨

• Cross platform
• Covers most application types
• Large BCL for reusable code
• Powerful debugging tools

Performance 🔥

• JIT compilation
• Native interoperability
• Multi-threading support

Security 🔒

• Regular updates
• Strong Cryptography
• Sandboxed execution environment

Reliability 🛡️

• Strong type system
• Automatic memory management
• Stable runtime
• Support from Microsoft

Questions?