Welcome to .NET Development!
This tutorial series is designed to guide you through the fundamentals of developing applications with the .NET platform. Whether you're new to programming or experienced with other technologies, we'll help you get started quickly.
What is .NET?
.NET is a free, cross-platform, open-source framework for building many different types of applications. With .NET, you can:
- Build web applications and services with ASP.NET.
- Create desktop applications for Windows with WPF and Windows Forms.
- Develop mobile applications for iOS and Android with .NET MAUI.
- Build games with Unity.
- And much more!
It's powered by C#, a modern, object-oriented programming language that is both powerful and easy to learn.
Getting Started
Before you dive in, you'll need to set up your development environment. The primary tool for .NET development is the .NET SDK, which includes the compiler, libraries, and tools needed to build and run .NET applications.
Install the .NET SDK
Visit the official .NET download page to install the latest SDK for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux).
Your First Application: "Hello, World!"
Let's create a simple console application to confirm your setup. Open your terminal or command prompt, navigate to a directory where you want to create your project, and run the following commands:
dotnet new console -o MyFirstApp
cd MyFirstApp
dotnet run
You should see the output:
Hello, World!
Inside the MyFirstApp directory, you'll find a Program.cs file. Let's look at its contents:
// Program.cs
System.Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
This single line of code is all it takes to print text to the console. We'll explore more complex concepts as we progress.
Next Steps
In the next tutorials, we'll cover:
- Understanding C# basics: variables, data types, and operators.
- Working with control flow: loops and conditional statements.
- Introduction to object-oriented programming (OOP) in C#.
- Building your first web application with ASP.NET Core.
Ready to continue your learning journey?