3 ms·

Is there a primer somewhere that explains simply what the difference and dependence is between .NET (core, foundation), ASP.NET (core, foundation), Xamarin, Vis

Is there a primer somewhere that explains simply what the difference and dependence is between .NET (core, foundation), ASP.NET (core, foundation), Xamarin, Visual Studio (in all it's different flavors including VS.NET etc.) and Visual Studio Code? I tried Wikipedia, and Microsoft's own homepages for each, and am even more confused. I'm a hierarchical thinker, and a hierarchical tree explaining the above would be very very helpful. Disclaimer: I haven't downloaded any of these yet. I usually don't until I've understood something. Bonus question: If I want to develop websites and electron apps using: HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP, what's the minimum set of technologies (or whatever it is that Microsoft is calling them these days) I will need?

oblio 10y ago
Dotnet Foundation = NGO that manages various legal and org things for .NET. Think FSF for GNU. .NET Core = cross platform software development platform. Includes a VM, compiler, tons of libraries. ASP.NET Core = HTTP server + server side .NET libraries. There is no ASP.NET Foundation, it's all part of the Dotnet Foundation. Xamarin = .NET libraries for mobile development. Wraps Android/iOS native libraries. Visual Studio = native Windows IDE for .NET and other languages. Visual Studio Code = portable, Electron/HTML 5 IDE for Javascript/Typescript and other languages. You probably want Visual Studio Code for HTML/PHP. But you should check out .NET Core, it can replace PHP. By the way, if it works, it works, but I find it better to research and do at the same time. Downloading only after you've understood the org chart seems a bit too radical for me :)
- hackaflocka 10y ago
  Thanks. Very helpful. Last 2 Qs: is Framework different from Core? And how does Windows Presentation Foundation fit in all this?
  - oblio 10y ago
    .NET Framework is the old .NET Framework. It's basically the entire shebang, tied to Windows: VM, class libraries, etc. .NET Core is as the name says, just the "core" of the .NET Framework, the part that's cross platform. However, I'm not sure that at this point the code's common, I believe at least a part of it has been reimplemented. I think that in the future .NET Framework will be based on .NET Core. Therefore .NET Framework will be .NET Core + Windows specific bits. WPF is the fancy name for a .NET UI toolkit for Windows, basically. Think of it as a Windows-only GTK.
    - hackaflocka 10y ago
      Thanks. That clarified everything. Sad that one can't find this simplified info on Wikipedia or on the Microsoft website.

oblio 10y ago

Dotnet Foundation = NGO that manages various legal and org things for .NET. Think FSF for GNU. .NET Core = cross platform software development platform. Includes a VM, compiler, tons of libraries. ASP.NET Core = HTTP server + server side .NET libraries. There is no ASP.NET Foundation, it's all part of the Dotnet Foundation. Xamarin = .NET libraries for mobile development. Wraps Android/iOS native libraries. Visual Studio = native Windows IDE for .NET and other languages. Visual Studio Code = portable, Electron/HTML 5 IDE for Javascript/Typescript and other languages. You probably want Visual Studio Code for HTML/PHP. But you should check out .NET Core, it can replace PHP. By the way, if it works, it works, but I find it better to research and do at the same time. Downloading only after you've understood the org chart seems a bit too radical for me :)

hackaflocka 10y ago
Thanks. Very helpful. Last 2 Qs: is Framework different from Core? And how does Windows Presentation Foundation fit in all this?
- oblio 10y ago
  .NET Framework is the old .NET Framework. It's basically the entire shebang, tied to Windows: VM, class libraries, etc. .NET Core is as the name says, just the "core" of the .NET Framework, the part that's cross platform. However, I'm not sure that at this point the code's common, I believe at least a part of it has been reimplemented. I think that in the future .NET Framework will be based on .NET Core. Therefore .NET Framework will be .NET Core + Windows specific bits. WPF is the fancy name for a .NET UI toolkit for Windows, basically. Think of it as a Windows-only GTK.
  - hackaflocka 10y ago
    Thanks. That clarified everything. Sad that one can't find this simplified info on Wikipedia or on the Microsoft website.