Advancing with .NET 6: A Deep Dive into Improving Performance and Productivity published 9/5/2023 | 3 min read

The .NET landscape has continuously evolved since the original release of .NET Framework in 2002 by Microsoft. As we're moving into the era of .NET 6.0 – the latest version in the series, this post will guide you through its advanced features, performance improvements, and best practices that can enhance developer productivity and create robust systems.

Performance Improvements and Latest Features

.NET 6 focuses on better performance, and lower memory footprint, armed with a slew of fresh features under the hood.

• Single-file Applications: With .NET 6, it's possible to publish your applications as a single, self-contained file irrespective of whether it's a console app, web API, or a microservice. This feature simplifies application delivery and deployment.

  
dotnet publish -r win-x64 -p:PublishSingleFile=true --self-contained true

• Improved C# Patterns: Powerful pattern matching capability, record types, and richer target-typing make C# 10 code cleaner and simpler.

  
record Person(string FirstName, string LastName, int Age);

• Hot Reload: Code changes can be applied to a running application, without restarting. This feature significantly increases productivity for developers.

• Improved Performance: With refinements in the runtime and libraries, .NET 6 includes numerous performance improvements that help applications run faster consuming less memory.

• HTTP/3 Support: The new version provides support for HTTP/3, the next protocol for network communication, offering more efficient connections with reduced latency.

Boosting Productivity

.NET 6 developers can look forward to higher productivity with improved tools and streamlined processes.

• Minimal APIs: A new way of creating lightweight HTTP APIs, which adopt a “less is more” methodology for setting up Web APIs. The syntax is simpler and requires less boilerplate code.

  
app.MapGet("/", () => "Hello, World!");

• Blazor Hybrid Apps: Developers will be able to build native applications for Windows and macOS using .NET and web technologies.

  
@page "/"

<h1>Welcome</h1>
<button @onclick="OnClick" class="btn btn-primary">Click me</button>

@code{
    void OnClick()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Button clicked.");
    }
}

• Visual Studio 2023 Improvements: The dedicated IDE for .NET includes numerous improvements, like a faster 64-bit edition, integrated terminal, and UI refinements.

• NuGet Package Validation: Developers can automatically validate their NuGet packages against a set of best practices to ensure they are error-free.

Building More Robust Systems

.NET 6 enables developers to build resilient, modern, and scalable systems.

• Cross-Platform Native UI Resizeable, multi-window, and faster rendering with support for animations for both wasm and hybrid apps.

• MAUI: The Multi-platform App UI (MAUI) is a unified framework for building all kinds of applications for different platforms like Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.

  
Button button = new Button { Text = "Click me" };
button.Clicked += (s, e) => button.Text = "Clicked!";

• Compiled Bindings: Much faster than classic data bindings and provide compile-time safe checking.

  
[Binding]
private string _firstName;
public string FirstName
{
   get => _firstName;
   set => SetProperty(ref _firstName, value);
}

Exploring the world of .NET 6 will reveal more exciting and innovative features that help streamline your developer journey. As Microsoft continues its commitment to advancing .NET, incorporating .NET 6 into your future projects can drive performance improvements, development efficiency, and robustness to your solutions. Happy coding!

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