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1. What is .NET?

.NET is a free, cross-platform, open-source developer platform for building many different types of applications. With .NET, you can:

• Build web apps and services, APIs, microservices, and mobile backends with ASP.NET Core.
• Build cross-platform apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux with .NET MAUI.
• Build cross-platform console apps and class libraries.
• Build desktop apps for Windows with WPF, Windows Forms, and UWP.
• Build games with Unity.
• And much more!

It's designed for high performance, security, and productivity.

2. Setting Up Your Development Environment

To start building with .NET, you'll need a few essential tools:

Once installed, you can verify your installation by opening your terminal or command prompt and running:

3. Your First .NET Application

Let's create a simple "Hello, World!" console application using the .NET CLI.

1. Open your terminal or command prompt.
2. Navigate to the directory where you want to create your project.
3. Run the following commands:
   dotnet new console -o MyHelloWorldApp
   cd MyHelloWorldApp
   dotnet run

You should see the output: Hello World!

Inside the MyHelloWorldApp directory, you'll find a Program.cs file. You can open this file in your IDE to see the code.

4. Exploring .NET Project Types

.NET supports a variety of project templates. You can list available templates with:

Some common project types include:

• webapi: For building RESTful HTTP services.
• blazorserver: For building interactive web UIs with C# on the server.
• blazorwasm: For building interactive web UIs with C# running in the browser via WebAssembly.
• wpf: For building Windows desktop applications.
• winforms: For building Windows desktop applications.

To create a new project of a specific type, use the dotnet new command followed by the template name and an output directory:

5. Next Steps and Resources

This is just the beginning! Explore the following resources to deepen your .NET knowledge: