.NET 6 is the latest version of .NET that was released in Nov 2021. Not only is .NET 6 a much improved version of the framework compared to its predecessors, but it also introduces some of the coolest features we’ve seen in some of the most popular platforms and languages. This article talks about the latest updates and new features introduced in in .NET 6.0.
.NET 6 – Just Call Me .NET
Prior to .NET 6, there were two separate products of .NET, .NET Framework and .NET Core. .NET Framework was the original .NET that wasn’t open sourced. .NET Core was the open source version of .NET that was rewritten from scratch and works on all platforms, Windows, Linux, and Mac.
With .NET 6.0 and beyond, there will just be one version of .NET and it's just .NET.
.NET 6 is a true unified development platform that allows developers to build applications for cloud, web, desktop, mobile, gaming, IoT and AI. All these sub platforms share common base class libraries, APIs and underlying infrastructure including language and compilers.
.NET 6 is supported by Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and CLI tools.
.NET 6 Is The Fastest .NET So Far
.NET 6 is the fastest version of .NET.
.NET 6 is one of the fastest if not the fastest software platform among them all. Here is a very detailed blog on performance.
Languages - C# 10 and F# 6
C# 10 and F# 6 are the latest versions of C# and F# that ships with .NET 6.
C# 10 offers various many improvements in this release but the key focus has been on simplicity. Some of the key improvements in C# 10 are global using directive, record structs, file scoped namespace, constant interpolated strings, lambda improvements, and null parameter checking. Here is a detailed article on these features:
Hot Reload is one of the coolest features added to .NET that allows developers to modify the source code while it is running and visualize these changes in real-time without the need to restart the application. Hot Reload works in both Visual Studio and CLI.
This is clearly a winner and improves developers' productivity. Here is a detailed article on Hot Reload,
.NET 6 version of Blazor offers a full-fledged production-ready product. Blazor is a front-end web framework to build client side web applications that run in web browsers. Blazor uses HTML, CSS, and C# to build web pages.
Blazor supports two hosting models, Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly. Blazor Server model executes code on the server similar to ASP.NET and passes the HTML to the browser. In the case of Blazor WebAssembly, C# code is executed in the browser using WebAssembly.
Visual Studio 2022 ships with both types of Blazor project templates.
ASP.NET Core 6.0
ASP.NET Core 6.0 offers updates and improvements in several areas such as Minimal API, SignalR, Razor Compiler, ASP.NET Performance and API improvements, and Blazor. Here is a detailed blog on this topic.
.NET MAUI
.NET MAUI, short for .NET Multi-platform App UI is one of the newest features of .NET. It is the next avatar of Xamarin and multi-UI platform. .NET MAUI allows you to write code in a single project that delivers a modern client app experience across desktop and mobile operating systems. .NET MAUI is not production ready yet but is expected to be released soon.
Azure App Service
Azure Functions now supports running serverless functions in .NET 6.
Azure Static Web Apps now supports full-stack .NET 6 applications with Blazor WebAssembly frontends and Azure Function APIs.
Cloud diagnostics have been improved with OpenTelemetry and dotnet monitor, which is now supported in production and available with Azure App Service.
Long-term Support
.NET 6 will be supported for three years as the latest long term support (LTS) release.
Other Key .NET Updates
Here are some other key updates in .NET 6, from the blog,
JSON APIs are more capable and have higher performance with a source generator for the serializer.
Minimal APIs introduced in ASP.NET Core to simplify the getting started experience and improve the performance of HTTP services.
Single-page apps built with ASP.NET Core now use a more flexible pattern that can be used with Angular, React, and other popular frontend JavaScript frameworks.
HTTP/3 has been added so that ASP.NET Core, HttpClient, and gRPC can all interact with HTTP/3 clients and servers.
File IO now has support for symbolic links and has greatly improved performance with a re-written-from-scratch FileStream.
Security has been improved with support for OpenSSL 3, the ChaCha20Poly1305 encryption scheme, and runtime defense-in-depth mitigations.
Single-file apps (extraction-free) can be published for Linux, macOS, and Windows (previously only Linux).
IL trimming is now more capable and effective, with new warnings and analyzers to ensure correct final results.
Source generators and analyzers have been added that help you produce better, safer, and higher performance code.
Source build enables organizations like Red Hat to build .NET from source and offer their own builds to their users.
.NET 6 provides better support for containers that makes .NET 6 apps packing, deployment, and execution much easier and resource friendly.
Improvements in Windows Forms.
.NET 6 Features by Scott Hunter
Watch this keynote video of C# Corner’s .NET Conference 2022 by Scott Hunter, VP Director Program Management at Microsoft.
How Can I Get Started With .NET 6?
The simplest way to get started with .NET 6.0 is to download Visual Studio 2022 that ships with .NET 6 and several .NET 6 based project templates including Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly.
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