MS.NET Documentation FAQ

MS.NET is a free, cross-platform, open-source developer platform for building many different types of applications. With .NET, you can build console, web, mobile, desktop, IoT, cloud, microservices, and machine learning applications.

Yes, MS.NET is free to use, including for commercial applications. There are no licensing fees associated with .NET itself.

The primary languages for .NET are C#, F#, and Visual Basic. C# is the most widely used. You can also use other languages that compile to Intermediate Language (IL).

Visual Studio is the flagship IDE for .NET development, offering a rich feature set. Visual Studio Code is a popular, lightweight, cross-platform code editor with excellent .NET support through extensions. JetBrains Rider is another powerful cross-platform IDE.

C# is a modern, object-oriented, and type-safe programming language. Key features include garbage collection, strong typing, LINQ (Language Integrated Query), asynchronous programming (async/await), pattern matching, and a rich standard library.

NuGet is the package manager for the .NET ecosystem. You can use the NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio or the `dotnet add package` command-line interface to add and manage external libraries.

.NET applications can be deployed in several ways:

• Self-contained deployments: Include the .NET runtime and libraries along with your application.
• Framework-dependent deployments: Rely on a .NET runtime already installed on the target machine.
• Web deployments: Deploy to web servers like IIS, Azure App Service, or use self-hosted web servers.
• Containerization: Package your application using Docker for consistent deployment across environments.

Azure App Service is a popular choice for hosting .NET web applications. You can deploy using Visual Studio, Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Azure CLI, or by pushing directly to a Git repository.

Common errors include:

• Missing .NET SDK or runtime.
• Incorrect project configuration in `.csproj` file.
• Dependency conflicts.
• `NullReferenceException` if objects are not initialized properly.
• `FileNotFoundException` if resources are not correctly referenced.

Always check the detailed error messages and stack traces.

Debugging is a core feature in IDEs like Visual Studio. You can set breakpoints, step through code, inspect variables, and analyze the call stack. For .NET Core/5+, you can also use the `dotnet-dump` and `dotnet-trace` tools for collecting diagnostic information.