Who would have thought that Microsoft will ever provide a way to build web applications on other platforms besides Windows?
Yet, Microsoft did it with the latest release of ASP.NET Core.
Now before we jump onto the topic, let’s see a little flash of ASP.NET.
ASP.NET is basically a lightweight, testable framework. While the framework became quite popular for web app development in the past recent years, Microsoft was facing issues in maintaining two code bases.
So, in order to remedy the situation, Microsoft redefined the complete idea of web application development with ASP.NET Core.
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What is ASP.NET Core?
ASP.NET Core is an open-source, MVC framework that is designed and optimized to build modern web applications. It uses the latest web standards, is Test-driven development-friendly, and also supports a pattern-based way of developing dynamic web applications.
In the previous versions of ASP.NET, the Web API, web pages, and MVC were implemented separately as shown in the below image.
In the latest ASP.NET Core, however, Microsoft unified Web API, web pages, and MVC to clean the separation of concerns.
As you can see, Microsoft has clearly overhauled the previous ASP.NET framework and released a modern and advanced ASP.NET Core. This latest framework does not offer just greater flexibility but also provides competitive advantages for high-end web application development.
If you’re still not convinced yet, check out the below six reasons that state why the new ASP.NET Core is going to be the next big thing in web app development.
6 Reasons to Choose ASP.NET Core for Your Next Web App Development Project.
From the outside, the new ASP.NET Core may seem like just a new version of the ASP.NET framework. But that’s not the reality. This time Microsoft has really pushed all the boundaries in the new ASP.NET Core framework.
ASP.NET is best described as the new kid on the block that quickly famous based on six following reasons.
1: Open-Source
The biggest reason ASP.NET Core has become wildly famous is due to the open-sourcing of the code. That’s right! – all of the framework code is now on GitHub for everyone to review, modify, and contribute to.
Even if you don’t contribute, you will still benefit from the huge .NET Core community that there is. Plus, you won’t have to wait for years in between releases for minor bugs as well as major improvements. All the bug fixes and improvements are now quickly discussed, fixed, and released for anyone to use on regular basis.
2: Advanced Programming Features
As you might already know that .NET has changed and improved steadily over the last 15 years. All the awesome improvements like generics, LINQ, MVC, and much more have drastically changed the way we develop web applications.
And now, with the new ASP.NET Core, the ASP.NET stack has been completely overhauled.
Here are the top features of ASP.NET Core:
- Garbage collection
- Automatic memory management
- Package management
- Easy to create RESTful APIs and MVC web applications
- Asynchronous programming
- Cross-platform support
3: Standardization of Skills
Microsoft offers a beneficial set of patterns and practices for .NET. For instance, there are MVC (model-view-controller) frameworks and standard data access built-in. These standard frameworks help developers to understand how things work quickly.
Plus, unlike Node.js, .NET comes with a set of base class libraries. Simple string functions such as PadLeft() are also built-in. All these arrays of base classes reduce the need for external packages, making .NET Core the best web application development framework to go with.
4: Versatile
Another important reason to choose ASP.NET Core is its versatility. With ASP.NET Core, you can now build a desktop app, web app, background services, and mobile app (thanks to Xamarin).
This versatility is a big deal because it allows you to jump from building web apps to mobile apps easily if you want to mix up what you are doing. This is the striking difference between ASP.NET Core and other server-side programming languages.
Additionally, Microsoft Azure support in ASP.NET Core is also first-class. It allows deploying apps to the cloud with just a few clicks. Awesome, right?
5: Remarkable Developer Tools
The entire ASP.NET Core ecosystem is full of remarkable developer tools. JetBrains, Resharper, and dozens of other tools just make it easier to develop, test, and deploy web applications in ASP.NET Core.
Plus, Microsoft Visual Studio is one of the best IDE available for ASP.NET app development. It supports features like debugging, profiling, code completion, unit testing, git integration, and so much more. And now, the new version of Visual Studio is a fully-fledged, free community edition.
This means you can now code for ASP.NET Core as basic text files with any of your favorite text editors.
6: Easy-to-Learn
Lastly, the syntax in ASP.NET Core is easy to understand and read. If you are familiar with Java, C, or even JavaScript, the C# programming language will be very familiar to learn and code.
In addition, there are numerous resources available online to get you started immediately.
In a Nutshell!
It’s great what Microsoft has done with ASP.NET Core, which is why it will become the next big thing in web app development.
The main problem with other programming languages was that they are only good for one case. For instance, PHP and Ruby are good for web application development. Objective C and Swift are best for macOS and iOS app development. For Background Services, there is Java and Python. But C# is probably the only programming language (besides Java) that can be used for a wide set of use cases.
With that being said, it is clear that ASP.NET Core is the necessary next step in the evolution of .NET.
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