Rust is a blazingly fast and memory-efficient programming language with no runtime or garbage collector. It is also one of the fastest-growing programming languages, is the subject of a new Visual Studio Code topic. Announced in the latest update to VS Code (the April 2022 update bringing it to v1.67), the new Rust in Visual Studio Code topic describes Rust programming language support in VS Code with the rust-analyzer. Rust has been gaining popularity and is seeing tremendous adoption amongst developers. This post will assist anyone wanting to develop Rust applications using Visual Studio Code (VS Code).

According to VS Code, “Rust is a powerful programming language, often used for systems programming where performance and correctness are high priorities,” reads the new topic. “If you are new to Rust and want to learn more, The Rust Programming Language online book is a great place to start. This topic goes into detail about setting up and using Rust within Visual Studio Code, with the rust-analyzer extension.”

The new topic comes amid a years-long rise in Rust popularity. For example, Rust made a big splash in the .NET-centric developer community several years ago when we reported “C++ Memory Bugs Prompt Microsoft to Eye Rust Instead.” That article referenced posts from the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) titled “A proactive approach to more secure code” along with “We need a safer systems programming language” and “Why Rust for safe systems programming.”

There doesn’t seem to have been much progress since then on adopting Rust as a C++ replacement for systems programming, but Microsoft, which joined the Rust Foundation last year, posted documentation in February titled “Overview of developing on Windows with Rust.” Microsoft has also spearheaded Project Verona on GitHub, described as “a research project being run by Microsoft Research with academic collaborators at Imperial College London. We are exploring research around language and runtime design for safe scalable memory management and compartmentalization. The prototype here only covers the memory management aspects of the research.” Also, one of those MSRC 2019 posts noted that Rust topped Stack Overflow’s list of most loved languages for four years running, and its ascent continues today.

As far as the rust-analyzer extension for VS Code, its features include:

• Codecompletion with imports insertion
• Go to definition, implementation, type definition
• Find all references, workspace symbol search, symbol renaming
• Types and documentation on hover
• Inlay hints for types and parameter names
• Semantic syntax highlighting
• A lot of assists (code actions)
• Apply suggestions from errors

It has been installed more than 587,000 times, earning an average 4.9 rating (scale 0-5) from 157 developers who reviewed it.

Installation Process

Install Rust

First, you will need to have the Rust toolset installed on your machine. Rust is installed via the rustup installer, which supports installation on Windows, macOS, and Linux. Follow the rustup installation guidance for your platform, taking care to install any extra tools required to build and run Rust programs.

As with installing any new toolset on your machine, you’ll want to make sure to restart your terminal/Command Prompt and VS Code instances to use the updated toolset location in your platform’s PATH variable.

Install the rust-analyzer extension

You can find and install the rust-analyzer extension from within VS Code via the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X) and searching for ‘rust-analyzer’. You should install the Release Version.

To discuss more of rust-analyzer features or to learn more about this topic you can refer to the extension’s documentation at https://rust-analyzer.github.io.

Check your installation

If you complete the above instruction you will be good to go and start coding in Rust, but after installing Rust, you can also check whether everything is installed correctly or not by opening a new terminal/Command Prompt, and typing:

rustc –version

Which will output the version of the Rust compiler. If you run into problems, you can consult the Rust installation guide. You can keep your Rust installation up to date with the latest version by running:

rustup update

There are new stable versions of Rust published very 6 weeks so this is a good habit. When you install Rust with rustup, the toolset includes the rustc compiler, the rustfmt source code formatter, and the clippy Rust linter. You also get Cargo, the Rust package manager, to help download Rust dependencies and build and run Rust programs. You’ll find that you end up using cargo for just about everything when working with Rust

Local Rust documentation

When you install Rust, you also get the full Rust documentation set locally installed on your machine, which you can review by typing rustup doc. The Rust documentation, including The Rust Programming Language and The Cargo Book, will open in your local browser so you can continue your Rust journey while offline.

Next steps & Summary

This has been a brief overview showing the rust-analyzer extension features within VS Code and the installation process for Rust in VS Code. For more information, see the details provided in the Rust Analyzer extension User Manual, including how to tune specific VS Code editor configurations.

To stay up to date on the latest features/bug fixes for the rust-analyzer extension, see the CHANGELOG. You can also try out new features and fixes by installing the rust-analyzer Pre-Release Version available in the Extensions view Install dropdown.

If you have any issues or feature requests, feel free to log them in the rust-analyzer extension GitHub repo.

If you’d like to learn more about VS Code, try these topics:

• Basic Editing – A quick introduction to the basics of the VS Code editor.
• Install an Extension – To learn about other extensions are available in the Marketplace.
• Code Navigation – To move quickly through your source code.

.NET is a cross-platform and open-sourced developer platform for building different types of applications. The tech-giant Microsoft developed it. It’s also designed for new developers trying to learn how to use .NET by making games. Here we will discuss why and what are the benefits of using .NET in game development. We will also talk about the different game engines in .NET and its tools, which make .NET a perfect choice for developing games. .NET is also part of Microsoft Game Stack, a comprehensive suite of tools and services just for game development.

Why use .NET in game development?

The major plus for .NET is that it is a cross-platform, a single code base can be used on different operating systems, be it Windows, MAC, or Linux. So developing a game in .NET means it is compatible with all these platforms.

.NET works seamlessly with game engines like Monogame and Unity, and many more. You can create incredible 2D and 3D games using these. Game engines and framework developers are using .NET to ensure secure cross-platform scripting for multiple gaming platforms. Another significant advantage is developing your game and its mobile application, website, and other online services using the same platform. So why not use .NET in game development.

What is a Game Engine?

Not so long ago, developers used to make their games from scratch, but now they have made a lot of reusable code in their games and have made APIs and tools they can reuse for each game. So whenever a developer is developing a new game, they can make use of all these.

A game engine is a software development environment designed to build video games. They contain abstraction of graphics, input, and media API. And also, asset managers and design tools for audio and visuals.

With the increasing popularity of C#, more engines are now being used .NET. The mono runtime compatible with .NET 5 can run C# code on many platforms like Android, iOS, Mac, etc. It is one of the main reasons for using .NET in game development.

Available game engines

The first step to developing games in .NET is to choose a game engine. You can think of engines as the frameworks and tools you use for developing your game. There are many game engines that use .NET and they differ widely.

Stride

It was developed by Silicon Studios, an utterly integrated engine with a graphic editor. It is a complete C# and .NET engine which is open-source and royalty-free. Another advantage is you can use parts of these engines independently

Mono Game

Mono Game is a very flexible engine; other game engines even use this as their base. FlatRedBall is an example of this. It can be used as a framework to build other game engines. Many game developers use it for their cross-platform game development.

Wave Engine

Another game engine that is fully developed in .NET is WaveEngine. It has a lot of reality features like spatial audio and ready to use out of the box. It has many of its components open-sourced and free.

NeoAxis

NeoAxis is yet another game engine written purely in .NET. It is also free and open-sourced. It supports a whole lot of features like the latest Android release

Online services for your game

If you’re building your game with .NET, then you have many choices on how to build your online game services. You can use ready-to-use services like Microsoft Azure PlayFab. You can also build from scratch on Microsoft Azure. .NET also runs on multiple operating systems, clouds, and services, it doesn’t limit you to use Microsoft’s platforms.

The ecosystem

The .NET game development ecosystem is rich. Some of the .NET game engines depend on foundational work done by the open-source community to create managed graphics APIs like SharpDX, SharpVulkan, Vulkan.NET, and Veldrid. Xamarin also enables using platform native features on iOS and Android. Beyond the .NET community, each game engine also has their own community and user groups you can join and interact with. .NET is an open-source platform with over 60,000+ contributors. It’s free and a solid stable base for all your current and future game development needs.

Rich set of .NET tools

.NET is vibrant in terms of game development tools. As it is an open-source platform with a rich community of developers and users. Most of the .NET engines also depend on the base of other open-source work. In addition to the community of .NET developers, each of these game engines also has a different user base. They need different kinds of tools according to their needs and .Net has a variety of tools to help them. .NET tools you are used to are also used for making games. Visual Studio is a great IDE that works with all .NET game engines on Windows and macOS. It provides word-class debugging, AI-assisted code completion, code refactoring, and cleanup. It works seamlessly with all of the game engines. In addition, it provides real-time collaboration and productivity tools for remote work. Another feature is assisted in code completion and cleanup. Also, it includes code refactoring. This perfect environment is the reason for the growing demand for .NET in game development. GitHub also provides all your DevOps needs. Host and review code, manage projects, and build software alongside 50 million developers with GitHub.

Conclusion

Indeed, the future of .NET in game development is bright. Game Engines use the latest versions of .NET, and it even gets upgraded as the new version releases. With strong game engines, a rich set of tools, and C# .NET’s growing popularity is gamers’ favorite. That’s why it has become one of the best choices for game developers.

The software industry offers multiple choices for developers and business owners. Some languages come and go forever, and some make a toll in the industry and immediately gain popularity, such as ASP.NET Core and Node.js. These are the two most popular software development environments with strong community support that help the skilled .NET Core developers in speeding up, fastening, and scaling up the entire development process. Before choosing any programming language let us know more about these two programming platforms and see what they have to offer.

The Basics

Node.js

As an alternative to Apache HTTP Server, Node.js was created for Apple’s, SmartOS, FreeBSD, AIX, Microsoft Windows, Android, and Linux operating systems. As the official site explains Node.js is a software platform built on the basis of V8, where V8, in turn, is the JavaScript engine developed by Google with open source code written in C++.

In this modern age, JavaScript has become the most interesting trend. Companies are migrating their sites to JavaScript-based technologies. Nodejs is a cross-platform runtime environment that connects libraries written in different programming languages and also enables interaction with I/O devices. Developers can use Node.js in web development by utilizing an agile software development approach. It offers both scalable and robust services to clients.

ASP .NET Core

ASP.NET Core is one of the most important open-source web application frameworks. It is developed and designed by Microsoft. It is a framework created on CLR (Common Language Runtime) that enables the developers to use any .NET dialect like C# (object-oriented), VB .NET (a bequest of Visual Essential), F# (utilitarian to begin with), C++, and more.

The .NET Core framework offers a wide range of web forms MVC and uses HTML5, JavaScript, CSS, and Templates which are used to create different types of services and applications for Windows. But ASP.NET Core is used to create dynamic web pages and it is a part of the .NET Core framework.

Performance

Node.js

When it comes to the performance of Node.js, many developers in the market believe that applications created using Node.js offer better performance. This technology is capable of handling multitasking with ease and this is because it works on JavaScript engine V8, the high-performing engine. Besides this, it can also tackle more traffic on the server.

.NET Core

In comparison to Node.js performance, ASP.NET Core only proves its robustness for a certain type of project. Node.js can manage tasks that require less computation. But with time .NET Core has become 15% faster and this has made it a good choice for developers.

Stability & Reliability

ASP.NET Core/.NET Core is a winner in this category. The security and reliability the platform provides make it a great option to create robust software with C# language. Node.js is more reliable for complex enterprise software developed with TypeScript than on its own.

Node.js is a technology that is known as a full-stack JavaScript framework that serves both the server-side and client-side of the applications. This technology can interpret the JavaScript code with the help of the JavaScript v8 engine by Google. And it complies with the JS code into the machine code directly without any issues. This approach enables faster and better implementation of code and also the code execution is also enhanced by the JavaScript runtime environment.

On the other hand, one of the most important advantages of the .NET Core is to offer high performance and optimize the code to offer better results. ASP.NET Core is a technology that demands less coding and this helps the developers to easily optimize the code. And because of this, the development team has to spend less time creating a solution and this helps in cutting down the budget.

Community Support

Both development environments can boast of having active and strong community support which ultimately means it won’t be burdensome to find a solution to the problem. However, keep in mind that .NET has more community support on Stack Overflow whereas Node.js is supported more via GitHub. The best example is the Stack Overflow question and answer website which has around 4 million registered users.

The community support for .NET Core appears to be rising as well. Every day, the official Dotnet YouTube channel posts useful videos that engage the community in a good way.

How to make the right decision?

Node.js is one of the most popular JavaScript-based platforms that is designed to increase the use of JS in creating efficient and scalable network applications, and the ASP.NET core is a platform that enables the use of different libraries, programming languages, and editors to create websites, web apps, and mobile apps. There are such sites as Microsoft, StackOverflow, and Dell that run on a .NET environment. Again developers can use Node.js for creating web applications and APIs for various operating systems like Windows, Linux, and OS X. Besides, using this technology you can create apps for big companies like Uber, PayPal, LinkedIn, Netflix, eBay, and more. If you know the type of app or software you want to develop it will be easier for you to choose the solution.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing a technology out of these two modern platforms, ASP.NET Core is a web application development technology that can be more suitable for small and medium-size solutions. While on the other Node.js is used when the developers want to create a robust solution for the clients which is also lightweight. This proves that the selection depends on the project type, size, and the need for the functionalities in that project.

The .NET framework is one of the most popular open-source frameworks that is used by millions of software developers. According to the latest estimates, there are over 6 million .NET engineers worldwide. This has spurred the growth of various third-party development tools. To get a first-hand opinion on the most valuable and useful developer tools out there. Today, we presented a compiled list of essential .NET developer tools. Let’s have a look at the 10+ most valuable tools every .NET developer should use.

Best Tools for .NET Developers

• Visual Studio Gallery
• GitHub Extension for Visual Studio
• ReSharper
• NDepend
• NuGet
• Web Essentials for Visual Studio
• Novi Builder
• .NET Reflector
• SQL Complete
• LINQPad
• ELMAH
• Microsoft Web Platform Installer

Visual Studio Gallery

This is an essential tool that offers quick access to Visual Studio extensions, controls, and templates. The marketplace integrates with the IDE, allowing you to access over 7,000 products currently available. The Visual Studio Gallery is critical in how you locate the right extension for your needs. Without the VS Gallery, clicking on Extensions in VS wouldn’t work.

GitHub Extension for Visual Studio

With version control being so popular, Microsoft couldn’t ignore GitHub by NOT including it within Visual Studio. For developers, GitHub is vital. This extension helps us to connect our IDE directly to our GitHub repositories. This means that one can create, clone, and publish your projects, and create or view pull requests right within Visual Studio.

ReSharper

A developer who wants to become more productive when writing C# code should run, not walk, to purchase this tool. This is a Visual Studio extension by JetBrains. ReSharper adds the power to analyze code quality, then to find and fix the errors quickly. It also has several shortcuts for quick and easy refactoring and navigation.

NDepend

NDepend is also a Visual Studio extension for static code analysis. For optimizing and refactoring code at a high level, NDepend is one of the best. It essentially allows developers to see the “wood for the trees”, giving a wide view of your application and how is your code organized. The tool helps us measure our code quality using various metrics, to visualize its design, and to accurately estimate your technical depth, right within the IDE.

NuGet

NuGet is a package manager for .NET that allows you to access various third-party libraries, or to create and share your tools. With over 98 thousand packages currently available, it is the largest database of third-party components for .NET. NuGet streamlines the delivery of third-party components directly into your Visual Studio project at design time and contains a command line for CI/CD automated deploys.

Web Essentials for Visual Studio

This Visual Studio extension augments the core VS functionality with more powerful and useful features, including task shortcuts and improved Intellisense for CSS/HTML/JavaScript, etc. This is a handy tool for web developers using Visual Studio that can be a real productivity booster. In this one extension, you receive custom editors, a Browser Link to immediately see changes in the browser, TypeScript, Less, Markdown, and CoffeeScript support.

Novi Builder

Novi Builder is a visual HTML editor that allows changing texts, images, links, backgrounds, and other elements effortlessly. There are 200+ useful elements that make it possible to create different pages. Novi also provides a code editor to work with HTML, CSS, and JS code for your online projects.

.NET Reflector

.NET Reflector is a decompiler and static analyzer for the .NET framework. It helps you understand and debug your .NET code, including third-party components, even if you don’t have any documentation or comments. It also gives us a solid insight into what an assembly contains and what code is actually doing when decompiled.

SQLComplete

SQLComplete is a productivity tool that augments the SQL Server Management Studio with several useful features, including tab coloring, script generation, navigation, and more. Full-stack developers always get their hands dirty with SQL. This freemium tool is the equivalent of Intellisense in C# and plugs into SQL Server Query Analyzer and Visual Studio. Along with its exceptional Intellisense capabilities, it also has a handful of features to assist with snippets, templating, and SQL formatting.

LINQPAD

This is a safe playground where you can test your LINQ queries or any C#/F#/Visual Basic program. The tool has a built-in debugger and autocomplete features, and is a perfect platform for prototyping with instant feedback. LIt is simply a Notepad for LINQ and also an essential tool for experimenting with LINQ and testing code snippets before they are introduced into code.

ELMAH

ELMAH stands for Error Logging Modules and Handlers. It is an open-source debugging and error logging tool for ASP.NET, and is provided by Google. It really stands in comparison to some other paid .NET logging solutions that you can find online.

Microsoft Web Platform Installer

This free package management software makes it easy to access the latest components of the Microsoft Web Platform, including IIS, SQL Server Express, .NET Framework, Visual Web Developer, and much more. The system keeps you up to date by automatically installing the latest versions of each component.

Conclusion

The choice of .Net tool varies greatly on the specific task or situation. Using additional instruments can free you from routine tasks and automate many processes, thus optimizing your performance and eliminating errors. Some of them have some similar as well as some unique features that can be very helpful on a specific situation.

What if we could create native mobile apps and desktop apps using .NET C# and XAML from a single code base? How cool would that be? Yes, now we can create native Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows applications from a single code base. This is possible using .NET’s new feature called Multi-platform App UI (MAUI). .NET Multi-platform App UI (.NET MAUI) is a cross-platform framework for creating native mobile and desktop apps with C# and XAML. Microsoft Build 2020 announced that Microsoft has evolved Xamarin.Forms and taken the next step in the .NET unification to give us a cross-platform mobile-first framework for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. .NET MAUI will introduce new ways to build applications – available in .NET 6 and in preview now!

What is .NET MAUI?

.NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI) is the evolution of Xamarin. Forms extended from mobile to desktop scenarios with UI controls rebuilt from the ground up for performance and extensibility. – Maddy Leger, Program Manager Xamarin/.NET MAUI Team. is an open-source cross-platform framework which can be used to develop and build native Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows applications from a single code base.

What are Xamarin and Xamarin.Forms?

Xamarin is an open-source .NET platform for building iOS, Andriod, macOS, and Windows applications. It was introduced in 2011. It allows us to share business logic across platforms, using .NET, while creating a native UI for each. Xamarin allows developers to share an average of 90% of their application across platforms. To help with the overhead of creating native UI’s for each platform, we have Xamarin.Forms.

Xamarin.Forms is an open-source UI framework that allows us to combine the code for Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Mac, and Windows applications into a single shared codebase.

Microsoft is now thinking about creating a unified .NET platform that can replace .NET Framework, .NET Core, and Xamarin. .NET MAUI is the next step in unifying .NET by replacing Xamarin.Forms. It addresses some of the issues and downsides of Xamarin.Forms, while providing an updated architecture on top of the new generation of .NET and project system.

Difference between MAUI and Xamarin.Forms

Microsoft is rebuilding the core of Xamarin.Forms, bringing us performance improvements, consistent design systems, and an extension from mobile to desktop. Now you may ask if we use Xamarin.Forms then why should we move to MAUI? Why is so special about MAUI?

.NET MAUI provides cross-platform APIs for native device features. It has some major Improvements like a Single project experience across platforms and .NET hot reload. .NET MAUI allows us to have a single project experience instead of one project for each target platform. We can use one language across our application to target all the supported platforms and easily share resources across them while maintaining an option for platform-specific code. Also the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) and XAML pattern used in existing Xamarin.Forms applications will continue to be supported and improved with the evolution. .NET MAUI will introduce further support for the Model-View-Update (MVU) development pattern, popular in C#, enabling developers to write fluent C# UI and create a code-first development experience.

How .NET MAUI works?

.NET MAUI unifies Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows APIs into a single API that allows a write-once run-anywhere developer experience, while additionally providing deep access to every aspect of each native platform.

.NET 6 provides a series of platform-specific frameworks for creating apps: .NET for Android, .NET for iOS, .NET for macOS, and Windows UI 3 (WinUI 3) library. These frameworks all have access to the same .NET 6 Base Class Library (BCL). This library abstracts the details of the underlying platform away from your code. The BCL depends on the .NET runtime to provide the execution environment for your code. For Android, iOS, and macOS, the environment is implemented by Mono, an implementation of the .NET runtime. On Windows, Win32 provides the execution environment.

.NET MAUI provides a single framework for building the UIs for mobile and desktop apps. The following diagram shows a high-level view of the architecture of a .NET MAUI app:

In a .NET MAUI app, you write code that primarily interacts with the .NET MAUI API (1). .NET MAUI then directly consumes the native platform APIs (3). In addition, app code may directly exercise platform APIs (2), if required.

About .NET hot reload

.NET MAUI includes support for .NET hot reload, which enables you to modify your managed source code while the app is running, without the need to manually pause or hit a breakpoint. Hot reload increases productivity for .NET developers, allowing instant updates to running applications with new code changes. .NET MAUI includes support for XAML hot reload, which enables you to save your XAML files and see the changes reflected in your running app without recompilation. In addition, your navigation state and data will be maintained, enabling you to quickly iterate on your UI without losing your place in the app.

During Microsoft Build 2021, Microsoft announced the availability of .NET MAUI Preview 4. Each preview provides us with more features and tools with general availability scheduled for November 2021 at .NET Conf. With the release of Preview 4, we can now create functional applications across all supported platforms using .NET MAUI. In addition, they have added new capabilities to support running Blazor on desktop using .NET MAUI, allowing the reuse of Blazor UI components across native desktop and web applications. Alongside Preview 4 is the release of Visual Studio 2019 version 16.11 Preview. The Visual Studio 2019 16.11 Preview enables .NET Hot Reload for MAUI and provides productivity features for developing .NET MAUI projects. To see what is coming in future releases, visit the MAUI product roadmap.

.NET is one of the best software development framework and ecosystem designed and supported by Microsoft that allows for easy desktop and web application engineering. It’s a popular free platform which is used for a lot of different types of applications as it provides the programming environment for most software development phases. .NET best suits businesses that look for a wide range of features like web-based services, desktop software, and cloud infrastructure support. .NET provides a lot of features to build applications on Windows, Linux, macOS, iOS, watchOS, Android, tvOS, or using WebAssembly. The platform comes with new APIs, language features, and runtime capabilities.

Recently, Microsoft .NET open source framework just celebrated its 20th birthday and the company is now pushing ahead with a new version, .NET 7. In a blog post, Microsoft said they would be releasing .NET 7 Preview 1 alongside ASP.NET Core Preview 1 and EF7 Preview 1.

“.NET 7 is built on the foundation established by .NET 6, which includes a unified set of base libraries, runtime, and SDK, a simplified development experience, and higher developer productivity,” says Microsoft’s Jeremy Likness. “Major areas of focus for .NET 7 include improved support for cloud native scenarios, tools to make it easier to upgrade legacy projects, and simplifying the developer experience by making it easier to work with containers.”

.NET 7 Preview 1 is now available!. This is the first preview of the next major version of .NET, which will include the next wave of innovations for web development with ASP.NET Core. This .NET 7 Preview 1 is the first of many. .NET 7 preview releases in preparation for the .NET 7 release in November 2022.

In May 2019, the company announced the big release that would tie the ecosystem together: All .NET elements were supposed to be bundled in the .NET 5 development platform. While changes were made to the schedule because of COVID-19, the .NET 5 unified development platform was finally introduced in November 2020. The successor to .NET Core 3.1 and .NET Framework 4.8, .NET 5 puts order into the fragmentation of the .NET world. It includes ASP.NET Core, Xamarin, Entity Framework Core, WPF, WinForms, and ML.NET. While .NET 5 set the unification foundations, the newest .NET 6 version delivered the final parts of it in November 2021, with Visual Studio 2022 released the same day. This is a unified platform for building projects across cloud, browser, IoT, mobile, and desktop environments, enabling all to use the same .NET libraries, SDK, and runtime.

Some headline features of this .NET 7 is the addition of .NET Multi-platform App UI (MAUI). Also, the new tools that will make it easier to build cloud-native apps by simplifying the setup and configuration necessary to implement secure authentication and authorization, and also improving the performance of application startup and runtime execution.

More .NET news

.NET Framework 4.5.2, 4.6, and 4.6.1 will reach End of Support on Apr 26, 2022. After this date, they will no longer provide updates, including security fixes or technical support for these versions. If you are currently using .NET Framework 4.5.2, 4.6, or 4.6.1 runtime you need to update your deployed runtime to a more recent version – at least .NET Framework 4.6.2 before April 26, 2022 – in order to continue to receive updates and technical support. There is no need for you to retarget or recompile your application against .NET Framework 4.6.2. When .NET Framework 4.5.2, 4.6, and 4.6.1 reach the end of support, applications that run on top of these versions will continue to run. Starting May 2022, Microsoft won’t be issuing security updates for .NET Framework 4.5.2, 4.6, and 4.6.1 when they issue these security updates for .NET Framework 4.6.2 and later versions. This means that starting May 2022, if a computer has .NET Framework 4.5.2, 4.6, or 4.6.1 installed, it may be insecure. Additionally, if you run into any issue and need technical support, you will be asked to first upgrade to a supported version.

Now you may ask why are they doing this?

The .NET Framework was previously digitally signed using certificates that use the Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA-1). SHA-1 is a legacy cryptographic hashing algorithm that is no longer deemed secure. After looking at download and usage data across the different versions of .NET Framework, they have found that updating .NET Framework 4.6.2 and newer versions to support newer digital certificates (for the installers) would satisfy the vast majority (98%) of users without them needing to make a change. The small set of users using .NET Framework 4.5.2, 4.6, or 4.6.1 will need to upgrade to a later .NET Framework version to stay supported.

There is no change to the support timelines for any other .NET Framework version, including .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, which will continue to be supported as documented on .NET Framework Lifecycle FAQ.

After many years opposing open source, Microsoft is now leaning into making the space better. It’s fair to say many developers were initially skeptical of Microsoft and its commitment to making open source tools as the company, seeking to maintain its dominant position, opposed many developers and projects. But Microsoft’s GitHub acquisition(opens in a new tab) for $7.5 billion in 2018 helped the company turn a new page and win over skeptics.

By maintaining .NET 7 – which is truly open source and cross-platform – so thoroughly (you could even say lovingly), Microsoft is doing its bit for the furtherance of computing. Tell us what is, please share with us what you think about this new .NET 7 release.

Here’s an interesting new project. It’s called DevURLs and it’s a really nice developer news aggregator. It collects news stories from top 30 software development websites and programming blogs and presents it in a neat way.

This website is now my homepage and I visit it multiple times a day to get my daily dose of programming news.

Here’s something that all you, my fellow C# developers, will find useful. Yesterday a company called Browserling announced that they’re launching a network of online developer tools.

If you haven’t heard about Browserling then you should check them out. They’re a friendly and fun cross-browser testing service and they’ve created and open-sourced over a hundred projects, including browserify for node.js.

Online developer tools network is a collection of websites where each website focuses on a single category of developer tools. Right now there are four websites in the network and they’re releasing 30 more websites over the next couple of years.

• Online String Tools – A collection of online string utilities
• Online JSON Tools – A collection of online JSON utilities
• Online XML Tools – A collection of online XML utilities
• Online CSV Tools – A collection of online CSV utilities

All websites in the network are ad-free. The reason why Browserling built this network is because their developers got fed up with other online services that offer similar tools. They were often filled with ads, popunders, blinking buttons and other crap. Browserling’s developers had had enough of this and they decided to create their own utilities that just work in your browser and do the right thing.

Let’s take a look at each site in more details.

Online String Tools

String Tools for Developers

Online String Tools has hundreds of tiny string utilities for converting strings, generating strings, encoding/decoding strings, filtering and replacing strings and more. All string utilities work right in your browser. There is no server-side processing going on and everything is super fast.

Online JSON Tools

JSON Tools for Developers

Online JSON Tools has two dozen utilities for working with JSON config files and JSON documents. Just like string tools, JSON tools work in your browser and are powered by modern JavaScript code, which makes them very fast. You can convert JSON to various data formats, encode and decode JSON, and compress, validate and prettify JSON.

Online XML Tools

XML Tools for Developers

Similar to string and JSON tools, this website offers two dozen utilities for working with XML configuration files and XML documents. All tools on this website also work inside your browser and nothing gets sent to the server. You can pretty much do all XML tasks with these tools. For example, you can compress XML, prettify XML and validate XML documents, and you can also convert XML to other data formats, such as YAML, TSV, CSV, JSON and Base64.

Online CSV Tools

CSV Tools for Developers

Online CSV Tools offers over two dozen different utilities for working with CSV data files. All CSV data processing happens in the browser and it’s super fast. You can convert CSV to a bunch of other data formats, like JSON and YAML, then you can work with CSV columns and rows. You can insert rows, swap columns, as well as change CSV delimiter and change quoting of CSV fields.

What’s next?

Browserling loves marathons. They will be adding 30 more websites to their network over the next 5 years. Here are some of the other sites they will be launching:

• Online BROWSER Tools – A collection of browser/web developer tools
• Online YAML Tools – A collection of Yet Another Markup Language tools
• Online TSV Tools – A collection of Tab Separated Values tools
• Online IMAGE Tools – A collection of image editing tools
• Online AUDIO Tools – A collection of audio editing tools
• Online PDF Tools – A collection of PDF editing tools
• Online CRYPTO Tools – A collection of cryptography tools
• Online RANDOM Tools – A collection of randomization tools
• Online FILE Tools – A collection of file editing tools
• Online TIME Tools – A collection of various time and date tools
• Online LIST Tools – A collection of tools for working with data lists
• Online CSS Tools – A collection of CSS tools
• Online JS Tools – A collection of JavaScript tools
• … and more websites!

If you found these tools useful, please follow Browserling on Twitter and follow Browserling on Facebook.

I have a friend who is just starting to learn C#, so I am getting some interesting questions whose answers seem obvious to me but apparently not to beginners.  Today I answer the question: What’s the best way to initialize Flags enumerations in C#?

As a quick review, here is how Microsoft describes the Flags enumeration:  “You can use an enumeration type to define bit flags, which enables an instance of the enumeration type to store any combination of the values that are defined in the enumerator list.  (Of course, some combinations may not be meaningful or allowed in your program code.)  You create a bit flags enum by applying the System.FlagsAttribute attribute and defining the values appropriately so that AND, OR, NOT and XOR bitwise operations can be performed on them.”

In other words, each enumeration value must correspond to a single, unique bit.  So one way to initialize flags is to use integers that are a power of 2.  The disadvantage of this method is it’s not easy to see which bit is being set, and errors might creep in enumerations with many flags, especially when you start getting up into the range of 16384, 32768, 65536, and 131072.  But there is nothing inherently wrong with this approach either:

[Flags]
public enum DaysOfTheWeek
{
	None = 0,
	Sunday = 1,
	Monday = 2,
	Tuesday = 4,
	Wednesday = 8,
	Thursday = 16,
	Friday = 32,
	Saturday = 64,
}

Read the rest of this entry »

I was using Visual Studio on my laptop when suddenly the font in the code editor got so small I could barely read it.  I figured I must have engaged some obscure key sequence, so I did a little research and discovered there are many ways to change the zoom level in Visual Studio:

Keyboard Shortcuts

• To make the font larger, press CTRL+SHIFT+PERIOD
• To make the font smaller, press CTRL+SHIFT+COMMA

Keyboard+Mouse Shortcuts

• To make the font larger, press & hold the CTRL key while scrolling the mouse wheel up one click
• To make the font smaller, press & hold the CTRL key while scrolling the mouse wheel down one click

Note this also works with the trackpad on most laptops.  Sliding your finger up or down along the right edge of the trackpad is the same as scrolling the mouse wheel.  By the way, I had the CTRL key pressed while I slid my finger down along the right edge of the trackpad, and this is how I accidentally made the font really small.  Also note that each click increases or decreases the font size by 10%.

Read the rest of this entry »