DotNET Standard 2.0: Everything You Need To Know

December 14, 2017

The developers on the innovation landscape were eagerly waiting for the inception of dotNET core. After the release of 1.0 and set of 1.x, dotNET version 2.0 has brought wonders for developers. Yes! Finally the access to new framework and tooling is accessible now. Its old saying that don't use any 1.x product from Microsoft. The 1.x dotNET version includes a little pain and strain to maintain the development work seamless.

So dotNET Core 2.0 is the new promise land? The version 2.0 of dotNET standard and core enhances the rough situation significantly by considerably revamping the core feature set of dotNET Core, making sure all the major improvements done in Version 1 are included. So what all improvements are brought in Version 2.0?

1. dotNET Standard 2.0 Expanded APIs & the Ability to Reference Full Framework Libraries

dotNET standard extends its functionalities by including a large set of APIs intending to include the missing features. The number of APIs supported by it is 32,000+ APIs. The core version makes the code importation process to a dotNET standard lib easy without implementing any code changes.

The prime issue faced by dotNET core was the missing third-party libraries. Just for instance, at time of 1.0 release, known logging libraries like log4net were missing. Using dotNET core will not only help you to focus on full dotNET framework but even help you to solve all these issues.

The new dotNET standard 2.0 has incorporated a new compatibility shim which will enhance the functionality of any dotNET Core app to reference any full framework library.

2. Expanded OS Support

The existence of dotNET Core is in order to establish the portability across the multiple operating systems - different desktops, servers, and mobile. Microsoft and the community are working hard to expand the support of dotNET Core. Linus is considered as a single operating system and this statement stands true for Windows and macOS. The preview can now be seen on ARM32 support even.

3. ASP dotNET Core Razor Pages Are New

The core version now manages the razor syntax based pages, known as Razor Pages. Yes! Now you can effortlessly develop a razor view without the need of a controller. However, you have the rights to generate a class that inherits from Page Model that is essentially a controller and model class specifically dedicated to that page. This approach is useful in specific cases and can assist you in solving big complex controllers.

4. Visual Basic for dotNET Core

Well it is guaranteed that you are eager to hear about this..! The Visual BASIC (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is now supporting dotNET core! If considering the present scenario it will not allow you to develop any class libraries and console application.

5. Libraries

The 1.x version didn't consist of any third party library. But considering the present scenario, now developers can easily access the likelog4net libraries. Thus you can say the standard and core versions are more compatible than Core 1.0.