.NET basics and Visual Studio Installation Steps

.NET (pronounced as dot NET) is a Microsoft platform to develop web applications (or) websites, desktop applications, azure apps, mobile apps, gaming, etc. The first version of .NET (1.0) released in 2002.

Basics of .NET

If .NET is a platform then what is .NET Framework?
.NET framework is a programming environment under the .NET platform to run or build applications(websites, desktop, azure, mobile, gaming, etc.) on windows.

What is .NET core then?
.NET core is like the .NET framework only, the key difference is it's targeted for cross-platform development. We can run or build apps on Mac OS, Linux including Windows.

Any supporting languages for .NET application development?

Yes. Below is the list of languages .NET supporting now for application development.

1. C#
2. Visual Basic
3. F#
4. C++

How to install the .NET framework?

It’s a default installation component with most of the software including windows. No need for explicit installation. If you are executing some app on windows that require a .NET framework, the setup might install the required framework automatically. For example, if you install the Visual Studio IDE along with that corresponding framework also install in your machine.

What is Visual Studio?

Visual Studio is a development environment from Microsoft for creating, running, and debugging .NET applications.

What are the different versions of Visual Studio? any free versions?

There are three major versions in the visual studio.

1.Visual Studio Community Edition
2. Visual Professional Edition
3. Visual Studio Enterprise Edition

Out of these three, community edition is a free to use version. Refer to this link to know more.

What is the latest version of the .NET framework?

The current version of .NET framework is 4.7

What are the key areas under .NET Framework?

The three major key areas under .NET framework is

1. CLR(common language runtime) 

2. CTS(common type systems) 

3. Set of Base class libraries

What is the role of ASP.NET in .NET?

ASP.NET is a framework to develop web applications and web services using .NET and C# combination.

What is C#?
C# is an object-oriented programming language used to code for .NET applications. The syntax is similar to Java and C/C++.

What are the steps to select project templates in Visual Studio

Step 1:

Install the Visual Studio (free(Community Edition) or licensed (Professional, Enterprise))

Note: features are the same all versions the only difference is Community edition is not for commercial usage.

Step 2:

Once installation completed, then in the start menu check for Visual Studio with a version number. For example, Visual Studio 2019. Click on that.

Or else press window symbol key + R, then type ‘devenv’ to launch the installed visual studio version.

Step 3:

While loading the Visual Studio for the first time, we can see the language selection option(C# or Visual Basic(VB)). Select your choice.

Step 4:

Once language selected, we can see the visual studio IDE. Select the ‘New’ option from the menu bar. In New, the options are like Project, Website, and a few others.

If you select a website, only asp.net related templates can be loaded. If you select Project, we can choose for multiple project templates like Web, Azure, Core, Services, Windows, etc.

Select the template based on the project you want to create.

Conclusion

So after successful coding does the following steps:

Step 1:

Build or Compile your application by pressing F6 key (or) navigate to Build -> Build Solution from the menu

Step 2:

If there are no compile-time errors( any syntax errors),  you can see the build is a successful message in the below bar.

Step 3:

Now the time for run the application and see the output.

Select F5 If you want to run the application with debugging (or)

Select Ctrl+F5 if you want to run  the application without debugging