Introduction

Completed

If you're new to the C# programming language, you might be wondering how it relates to .NET. After all, it seems like the term .NET is applied to many things. What is .NET? Is C# part of .NET? How does .NET work? Why do you need to learn about .NET?

In this module, you learn about:

  • .NET and its ecosystem
  • The technical aspects of the system
  • Each part's role in helping you build and deploy your software
  • The .NET ecosystem as a whole, including the resources that can help you learn
  • How to contribute to this ecosystem

Finally, you write C# code using a web-based editor to better understand how the parts of .NET work together to create a .NET application.

By the end of this module, you'll have a good understanding of .NET, and you'll be ready to take your next steps in building .NET applications.

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you're able to:

  • Describe the major parts of .NET and its ecosystem
  • Explain how .NET languages and the .NET compiler, runtime, and libraries work together to produce a running application
  • Choose when it makes sense to use .NET to build your applications

Prerequisites

  • You should have already written your first lines of C# code
  • You should be able to recognize how to use Console.WriteLine() to send text to an output window
  • You should be able to recognize minor issues in your code and fix them

If you haven't already written a simple "Hello World" application in C#, review this learning path's first module, Write your first C# code.