Let's take a look at the list of information sources that can be useful for the C# / .NET developers. Our list includes blogs, repositories with source code, standards and accounts of developers who covers the deep aspects of the C# and .NET.
Blogs
.NET Blog
Link: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/
It's an official blog from Microsoft about .NET, and languages and technologies related to this platform. Do you want to know about performance improvements in .NET 6? Or maybe you want to see what's new in F# 6? Would you like to read about new C# 10 features? You are welcome!
.NET Microsoft Tech Community
Link: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/net/ct-p/dotnet
This is a fairly young (at the time of writing this list) platform from Microsoft that covers numerous aspects of .NET. Members of the community can share their materials, ask their questions, ask for help to solve some problems, and so on. Will it catch on? Only time will tell. But in any case, this platform may be interesting to visit.
.NET Core Tutorials
Link: https://dotnetcoretutorials.com/
I'm not a regular reader of this blog. However, I want to recommend it to you. There was a time when I could find useful information on the topic of security there (about the OWASP Top 10 and C#). In my opinion, you can also find something interesting / useful there.
Programming stuff
Link: http://sergeyteplyakov.blogspot.com/
This is the blog of Sergey Teplyakov, who is currently working at Microsoft. The blog is only in Russian and has not been updated for a long time, but there is a lot of interesting material in it. So, if you have not heard about this blog and your language proficiency allows you to get familiarize with it, don't miss the opportunity.
PVS-Studio blog
Link: https://pvs-studio.com/en/blog/posts/csharp/
Let me introduce you to our blog. Here, you can find articles on various topics: on code quality, on bugs found in open-source projects, on the specifics of C# / .NET.
Here are some examples of publications:
- How Visual Studio 2022 ate up 100 GB of memory and what XML bombs had to do with it
- Optimization of .NET applications: a big result of small edits
The sources of .NET
You can't do without source files when you want to better understand what is happening "under the hood" of a particular system. For example, do you want to improve your understanding of how types from the standard library work? The source code of .NET Framework and .NET will help you to do that. Do you want to dig deeper into the compiler? No problem — here is the Roslyn's source code at your service. Do you need to look inside the build system? Here you go — the MSBuild code is also open-source. By the way, if you are interested in build processes, you may also find MSBuild Structured Log Viewer useful. It's a tool that allows you to work with MSBuild build logs in a convenient format.
If you want to know about other components of .NET: NuGet, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework Core or something else — it's worth looking for sources in repositories of .NET Platform.
Standards
Sometimes, the source code is not enough and you have to dig deeper into the standards. I especially like the standard that defines CLI. It can be handy when you want to better understand what is happening in the IL code. List of CIL instructions may be also useful. It can refresh your memory if you have forgotten something.
Twitter accounts
I suddenly discovered Twitter from a new angle. This is both a source of useful and interesting information, and a place where you can ask / discuss something. It's a platform where people will help you or explain you something.
Let me show you a few Twitter accounts that I follow. Maybe you will find them interesting as well:
You can also follow me, so you won't miss anything interesting. ;)
Conclusion
I hope this article helped you find some new sources of useful information.
Where do you check out the latest news and updates? Please, share in the comments! Who knows, maybe you will help someone discover new platform that they needed so badly.
