What is .NET?

.NET is a free and open-source software development platform developed by Microsoft. It provides a framework for building various applications, including desktop, web, mobile, gaming, and IoT applications. The platform includes a set of libraries, runtime, and development tools that enable developers to build applications using different programming languages such as C#, F#, and Visual Basic.

.NET is designed to simplify software development by providing a consistent programming model and a common set of APIs that can be used across different operating systems and devices. This allows developers to write code once and deploy it to various platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Some of the key components of the .NET platform include the Common Language Runtime (CLR), the .NET Framework Class Library (FCL), and the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

The CLR is responsible for managing the execution of .NET code and providing various services such as memory management, type safety, and exception handling. The FCL is a collection of reusable classes and types that can be used to build different applications. And Visual Studio IDE is a robust development environment that provides various tools and features to help developers write, test, and debug .NET applications.

The current version of .NET is .NET 7.

 

.NET team has announced the release dates of upcoming versions and expects to release one major version every year in November, as you can see from the above release schedule, .NET 6.0, 7.0. and 8.0 will be released in Nov 2021, 2022, and 2023 respectively.

What is new in .NET 7?

.NET 7 is the latest version of the .NET platform, released by Microsoft in November 2021. It includes several new features and improvements over the previous version, .NET 6. Here are some of the main new features:

1. Support for Apple Silicon: .NET 7 includes support for Apple Silicon, allowing developers to build and run .NET applications natively on Macs with Apple M1 processors.
2. Simplified code and package sharing: .NET 7 introduces a new feature called Source Link, which simplifies code and package sharing by enabling developers to navigate to the source code of a package directly from the IDE.
3. Improved performance: .NET 7 includes several performance improvements, including faster startup times and reduced memory usage.
4. Enhanced support for cloud-native development: .NET 7 includes enhancements for building cloud-native applications, such as improved support for Kubernetes and Azure Functions.
5. C# 10 language features: .NET 7 supports new language features in C# 10, such as global usings, file-scoped namespaces, and interpolated strings as format items.

Preview features: .NET 7 includes several preview features that are not yet ready for production use but can be tested by developers, such as the new HTTP client factory and the minimal API template. Overall, .NET 7 brings several new features and improvements that make it easier and more efficient for developers to build and run .NET applications.

Here is a detailed article on new features of .NET 7: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/announcing-dotnet-7/ 

Components of .NET 7

The following is a list of .NET components: 

• Application frameworks and libraries
• .NET Standard
• Runtime Components
• Language Compilers
• Languages – C#, F#, and Visual Basic
• Tools - Visual Studio, Visual Studio for Mac, Visual Studio Code, and Command Line Interface (CLI) are tools used to build, test, and deploy .NET applications. 

.NET application frameworks and libraries

.NET can be used to develop the following types of applications:

1. Desktop applications - .NET provides four major technologies to build desktop applications, WPF, Windows Forms, UWP, and Xamarin.
2. Web applications - ASP.NET is a set of libraries and tools to build web applications, including front-end websites, APIs, and Microservices.
3. Blazor - Blazor is the newest addition to .NET. Blazor is a single-page web app framework built on .NET that runs in the browser via WebAssembly. A Blazor application can be deployed as a set of static files without any .NET support on the server.
4. Mobile apps - MAUI is a framework to develop native mobile apps using C#.
5. Cloud-native applications - The cloud has become the prime destination for software applications. Cloud-native apps are designed to build, test, and deploy in the cloud. Cloud-native apps are modern, high-performance, automated, and highly scalable. The key features of cloud-native apps are contemporary design, microservices and containers, backing services, and automation.
6. Games - .NET works well with Xamarin and Unity to develop mobile and gaming console game apps. Unity is one of the most popular gaming development tools and supports C# and .NET development, and works well with Visual Studio.
7. Internet of Things - .NET can be used to build IoT systems. It's multi-platform and supports hundreds of sensors, displays, and input devices using GPIO, SPI, I2C, PWM, SerialPort, and more.

Where can I download .NET?

The latest version of .NET can be downloaded here: https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/5.0

What are the critical features of .NET 7?

Several key features of .NET make it a popular and powerful software development platform. Here are some of the main features:

• Cross-platform development: .NET allows developers to build applications that can run on multiple operating systems and devices, including Windows, Linux, and macOS.
• Language interoperability: .NET supports multiple programming languages, including C#, F#, and Visual Basic. This allows developers to choose the language best suited for the task and still use the same .NET framework and libraries.
• Common Language Runtime (CLR): The CLR manages the execution of .NET code and provides services such as memory management, security, and exception handling. This allows developers to write code without worrying about low-level details like memory management.
• Base Class Library (BCL): The BCL is a collection of classes and types that provide standard functionality for .NET applications, such as file input/output, networking, and threading.
• Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation: .NET code is compiled at runtime using JIT compilation, which improves performance by optimizing the code for the specific hardware it is running on.
• Garbage collection: .NET includes automatic memory management through garbage collection, which helps prevent memory leaks and improves application stability.
• Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Visual Studio is a powerful IDE that provides a rich set of tools and features for developing .NET applications, including code editing, debugging, and testing.
• .NET and DevOps: With the integration of Github, .NET supports a complete software development life cycle and DevOps.

C# 10

We can't finish discussing .NET without discussing its primary programming language, C#. C# is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. C# is also the most versatile programming language among them all. 

1. C# is simple, clean, and modern.
2. C# is safe, productive, and fast.
3. C# is open source.
4. C# is a language for all kinds of software applications.
5. C# is a language for emerging technologies.
6. C# is evolving. 

The current version of C# is C# 10.

What is the salary of a .NET developer?

The annual average salary of a .NET developer in the United States is $98,541, according to indeed.com. However, the salary of .NET developers depends on the location, company, and number of years of experience.

The following table shows the average salary of a .NET developer by the state in the USA.

 

Just because the salary of a .NET developer is $102k in New York does not mean that all cities in New York pay that amount. For example, in New York City, this salary may easily be 50% more than the average state salary.

 

Some companies pay well over average depending on the project, skillset, and person. As you can see from the above salaries, Selby Jennings pays much higher than any other company, according to Indeed.

Summary

This article taught us what .NET is all about and the types of software applications we can create using .NET. We also saw the key features of .NET and why .NET is so popular. At the end of this article, we reviewed the job market and available jobs and salaries for .NET developers.

You have come to the right place if you are new to .NET and want to learn more about it. Welcome to C# Corner, a prime destination for .NET developers.