.NET Development and Framework

.NET is Microsoft’s open-source, cross-platform development framework for building modern applications. From web APIs and cloud services to desktop and mobile apps, .NET provides a comprehensive ecosystem for software development across platforms and deployment targets.

.NET Platform Evolution

.NET 6+ unified the framework, bringing together .NET Core, .NET Framework, Xamarin, and Mono into a single platform with consistent APIs, performance improvements, and long-term support releases. Modern .NET emphasizes cross-platform compatibility, cloud-native architecture, and high-performance runtime characteristics.

ASP.NET Core powers web applications and APIs with minimal APIs, Blazor for interactive web UIs, SignalR for real-time communication, and gRPC for high-performance service communication.

Performance and Productivity drive .NET evolution. Each release brings runtime improvements, compiler optimizations, and language features that reduce boilerplate while maintaining type safety and performance.

.NET Ecosystem

Articles in this section explore .NET runtime features, framework updates, ASP.NET Core patterns, performance optimization, deployment strategies, and integration with cloud platforms. Topics include new language features, framework capabilities, migration paths, and best practices for .NET development.

The focus is practical .NET development: leveraging framework capabilities effectively, staying current with platform evolution, and building maintainable applications that scale.

PackageDownload: NuGet's Forgotten Power Tool

PackageDownload arrived in NuGet 4.8 to solve a niche but genuine problem: downloading packages without adding assembly references. It works. But its version syntax requirements and complete disregard for Central Package Management reveal the messy reality of platform evolution.

Configuration-First Health Checks for Modern .NET

Let’s be honest: health checks are the broccoli of .NET projects. Everyone says they have them, but nobody’s excited to eat their greens. What starts as a humble SELECT 1 in a try/catch quickly explodes into a wild jungle of scripts, copy-pasted connection strings, and endpoints that only half the team remembers. Sure, it works—until it doesn’t. And when it breaks, it’s never at a good time.

Stop Parsing the Same String Twice: CompositeFormat in .NET

Every time you call string.Format() with the same format string, .NET parses it again. And again. And again. CompositeFormat changes that: parse once, reuse forever. The result? Up to 30% faster formatting, fewer allocations, and a one-line code change. Here’s why this matters and how to use it.

How SearchValues Saved Us From Scaling Hell

How SearchValues<T> Saved Us From Scaling Hell

While you’re busy optimizing database queries and adding cache layers, thousands of string searches per second are quietly eating your CPU budget. The problem isn’t visible in your APM dashboard because it’s distributed across every request. But it’s there. Compounding. Scaling linearly with load.

I discovered this the hard way when a log processing API started choking under production traffic. The bottleneck? String validation and sanitization. The fix? A .NET 8 feature that delivered a 5x performance improvement and let us shut down servers instead of adding them. And it’s gotten even better in .NET 9 and 10.

Clean Code: A Lip Service, Not a Standard

Clean Code is often praised but rarely practiced effectively. This article explores how misunderstood ideals and over-engineering harm .NET systems, how to recognize such failures early, and which C# best practices and official guidelines truly support maintainable software.

ConstantExpectedAttribute: Unlocking Performance Through Compiler Awareness

The ConstantExpectedAttribute, introduced in .NET 7, provides a powerful mechanism to signal compiler expectations about constant values. This enables better performance optimizations, enhanced IDE tooling, and clearer API contracts. Learn how to leverage this attribute to build more efficient and maintainable .NET applications.

Retiring Legacy .NET Projects — Balancing Risk, Cost, and Forward Value

In every mature .NET landscape, legacy projects represent both heritage and hazard. They once powered entire business models — now they silently consume time, budget, and attention. The decision to retire or modernize them isn’t about technology fashion. It’s about sustaining the organization’s capacity for value creation.

TUnit — A Pragmatic Evaluation for .NET Teams

TUnit brings compile-time test discovery and native AOT support to .NET testing — but is it ready for enterprise adoption? A pragmatic analysis of performance gains, tooling maturity, and migration timing for teams evaluating alternatives to MSTest, xUnit, and NUnit.

Still Waiting for the Final Piece: When C# 14 Comes Close, But Not Quite There

C# 14 introduces the new ‘Extension Everything’ syntax—an elegant step toward more expressive code, yet one that still can’t quite match VB.NET’s classic ByRef magic. A humorous reflection on what’s almost, but not fully, possible in .NET 10.

The Generous Gift? Microsoft Extends .NET STS Support to 24 Months

Microsoft has extended .NET STS support from 18 to 24 months. A genuine gift to developers or just catching up with reality? Let’s analyze what this means for your development planning.

.NET 10 RC 1 is Knocking at the Door: Architectural Impact, C# 14, and Performance

.NET 10 RC 1 is knocking at the door, marking the first release candidate and offering the .NET community a detailed preview of what’s to come in the next LTS cycle. While not the final release, RC 1 is “go-live” supported and represents the feature-complete platform that will soon become .NET 10 LTS. In this article, I’ll try to give a rough overview of the architectural impact of .NET 10 RC 1, focusing on the latest C# 14 features, under-the-hood performance improvements, and strategic considerations for the upcoming LTS.

Visual Studio 2026 - Why AI-Native Tooling Will Matter

Let’s skip the typical release-cycle enthusiasm for a second: Most IDE updates come and go. New features, some refactoring helpers, a bit of polish, then back to business as usual. Visual Studio 2026 is different. For once, the promise of “AI-native” isn’t just marketing. If Microsoft lands even half of what they’re previewing, it’s going to matter—a lot.