You won't need .NET Standard... except when you do need it: Microsoft sets out latest in ever-changing story Microsoft .NET program manager Immo Landwerth has set out the latest summary of how to write code that targets more than one version of the platform. The long-standing problem is that the multitude of different .NET runtimes and platforms causes problems for anyone writing code that targets more than one, such as developers …
The problem is tough but what riles developers is that Microsoft has changed its approach so many times.
Confusion is the name of the game. Trying to figure it out sure beats doing real work.
How many different versions of .Net runtime do you have installed? How much disk space is it taking up? (Shhh... don't mention all the hidden files)
"The idea that someone purchasing a product I wrote in C# requiring a 500Mb download of the correct .NET version just to try it is bizarre."
Bizarre, and not necessarily correct. When you compile your application, you can either compile it with the assumption the framework is installed on the target machine, or you can include the framework files required with the binary you build - in this case, it bundles only the files needed (I've seen apps under 30MB using this method). Also, I seem to remember Microsoft deploying the (non-Core) Framework via Windows Update, so the end-user likely has the framework installed, anyway.
> I've seen apps under 30MB using this method
Oh, how things have changed since I were a lad...
I remember writing a "student database" program for a high school in the early '80s, on a dual-floppy TRS-80, using Z80 assembler. The machine had 32k of RAM, most of which was needed for holding data. The program ended up being about 10k, and now a 30MB app is considered small. Sigh.
Obligatory "Now get off my lawn!"
Well, you're a little older than me, but yeh that can't be right (I hope). That line is presented as if it is seldom to see an "app" with no shared objects under 30MB. If true, wtf happened? That really seriously cannot be right, so I assume Microsoft just considers certain .so's to be dependencies unbeknownst to the programmer.
30MB? Are some kind of loony typing addict? At the present rate, I will be dead long before I get that far. I am up to about 50k on my current project. I am just unwriting a load of code. I think I have done a good day's work if I get rid of a few hundred lines of useless code.
It is not that a modern PC lacks the memory to run apps that use megabytes, but more code means more errors.
"A few years ago, Friday, October 14 was World Standards Day. Or, at least, it was World Standards Day in *some* countries. However, in America, the celebrations were held on October 11th. In Finland, World Standards Day was marked on October 13th. Italy planned a separate conference on standards for October 18th." - ASR sig from years ago.
Funny you should mention that - if you read The future of .NET Standard by Immo Landwerth (linked in article) it actually uses it
I remember when they claimed .NET was going to be cross-platform and portable, when they were trying to displace Java. Good job...
Java, you can write some code for Java, run it under a JVM, and it runs. .NET.... well, worrying about accessing the registry aside, see the article; it really sounds like if you want cross-platform code you'd have more portable code writing C to POSIX standard, then throwing the if/thens in to deal with Windows, than you get using the supposedly-cross-platform .NET.
Well, not really. .NET 5 is just .NET Core 4. They renamed it to signal people still on the .NET Framework that Core is finally done, and .NET Framework is a sinking ship that all rats must jump off.
I'm not bitter because this means a lot of work for me that won't result in any new features to show sales... no, not me.
"I want to believe. I just hope we're not hearing about yet another story in a few years," said Microsoft program manager Glenn Block, who works on Microsoft Graph. If that is an internal perspective, what are the rest of us to make of it?
This is guaranteed. As soon as a new UI/device/abstraction comes along, MS will do a massive amount of effort supporting it through introducing abstraction layers and other things that will later need to be rationalised.
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