.NET Framework vs .NET Core vs .NET Standard ?!?

I think get a grip on the latest trends only to learn that I'm still steps behind.  Thanks to Immo Landwerth for this clear article and cool tricks.  It's ten months old but new to me.  😑


.NET Standard - Demystifying .NET Core and .NET Standard

"NET Standard is a specification. Each .NET Standard version defines the set of APIs that all .NET implementations must provide to conform to that version. You can think of it as yet-another .NET stack, except that you can’t build apps for it, only libraries. It’s the .NET implementation you should use for libraries that you want to reference from everywhere."

Descriptions of .NET Implementations

	OS	Open Source	Purpose
.NET Framework	Windows	No	Used for building Windows desktop applications and ASP.NET Web apps running on IIS.
.NET Core	Windows, Linux, macOS	Yes	Used for building cross-platform console apps and ASP.NET Core Web apps and cloud services.
Xamarin	iOS, Android, macOS	Yes	Used for building mobile applications for iOS and Android, as well as desktop apps for macOS.
.NET Standard	N/A	Yes	Used for building libraries that can be referenced from all .NET implementations, such as .NET Framework, .NET Core and Xamarin.

Visual Studio Version History With Toolset Paths

Product name	Codename	Version Number	Supported .NET Frameworks	Supported .NET / CORE Versions	Release date
Visual Studio 97	Boston	5	N/A	N/A	Feb-97
Visual Studio 6.0	Aspen	6	N/A	N/A	Jun-98
Visual Studio 2002	Rainier	7	1	N/A	13-Feb-02
Visual Studio 2003	Everett	7.1	1.1	N/A	24-Apr-03
Visual Studio 2005	Whidbey	8	2.0, 3.0	N/A	7-Nov-05
Visual Studio 2008	Orcas	9	2.0, 3.0, 3.5	N/A	19-Nov-07
Visual Studio 2010	Dev10, Rosario	10	2.0 – 4.0	N/A	12-Apr-10
Visual Studio 2012	Dev11	11	2.0 – 4.5.2	N/A	12-Sep-12
Visual Studio 2013	Dev12	12	2.0 – 4.5.2	N/A	17-Oct-13
Visual Studio 2015	Dev14	14	2.0 – 4.6	1	20-Jul-15
Visual Studio 2017	Dev15	15	3.5 – 4.7	1.0-1.1, 2.0	7-Mar-17
Visual Studio 2019	Unknown	16	TBA	TBA	TBA

Product name	.NET	Toolset Path
Visual Studio 2005		Windows installation path\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727\
Visual Studio 2008	.NET 3.5	Windows installation path\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5\
Visual Studio 2010	.NET 4.0	Windows installation path\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\
Visual Studio 2012	.NET 4.5	Windows installation path\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\
Visual Studio 2013	.NET 4.5.1	%ProgramFiles%\MSBuild\12.0\bin
Visual Studio 2015	14	%ProgramFiles%\MSBuild\14.0\bin
Visual Studio 2017	15	%ProgramFiles%\MSBuild\15.0\bin
Visual Studio 2019	TBA	TBA

Run Visual Studio Command Tools Within Powershell

Visual Studio command tools (ie, msbuild, mstest, dotnet) can be directly executed from Powershell and open in a new window.

Likewise, the reverse can also occur.  You can run Powershell from within the Visual Studio tools.

1. Depending on your version of Visual Studio, locate the path to the common tools.  For example, if you decided to set an environment variable for this path, it could be something like:
1. VS150COMNTOOLS=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\Common7\Tools\
2. VS140COMNTOOLS=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0\Common7\Tools\
3. VS120COMNTOOLS=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 12.0\Common7\Tools\
4. VS110COMNTOOLS=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 11.0\Common7\Tools
2. At this point,  you can open the tool by opening Run --> cmd.exe /k ""%VS150COMNTOOLS%VsDevCmd.bat" & powershell"
3. At this point, a Powershell prompt will open so that you can directly run msbuild, mstest, etc.

.NET: Customize Builds Per Environment

Two Options:
1.  Web.Config Transformations
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd465326.aspx
2.  Deployment Parameters:  Useful when you have to create a package without knowing some of the values that will be needed when the package is installed.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff398068.aspx

Web.Config Transform:
1. Open Build --> Configuration Manager
2. Create new "Active solution configuration" for each version you need and then close.
3. Navigate to Solution Explorer and right-click on your web.config and select "Add Config Transform."  This should generate the new config files you created in Configuration Manager.
4. Open the transform file for the build configuration that you want to work with.

Further Reference:
https://code.msdn.microsoft.com/ASPNET-Web-Deployment-c2d409f9

NET : Easily Get DLL Assembly Info Via Visual Studio

Unfortunately, I had to try and remember how to easily get DLL information without going into the GAC. However, fortunately, there is easy way to get DLL assembly information ( including token, culture, & version ) directly from Visual Studio :

1. Open your Visual Studio Solution
2. Set a breakpoint and run in debug mode
3. Open the Immediate Window
4. Enter the path to your DLL using System.Reflection:

?System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFile (@"C:\VSS\WebSoluable\bin\AjaxControlToolkit.dll").FullName

And you should receive something similar to the following:

"AjaxControlToolkit, Version=3.5.11119.20050, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=28f01b0e84b6d53e"