Tooling Overview

Here's an overview of the key tools you'll encounter in your .NET journey:

Install the dotnet CLI

Visit the official .NET website: https://dot.net
Download and install the .NET SDK for your operating system
Verify the installation by opening a terminal and running:
```
dotnet --version
```
You should get the version number of the .NET SDK installed on your system.

MacOS Users: If the dotnet command is not found, you may need to create a sym link after running the installer: sudo ln -s /usr/local/share/dotnet/dotnet /usr/local/bin/

Install Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a lightweight but powerful source code editor that works well with .NET development. Here's how to install it:

Visit the official Visual Studio Code website: https://code.visualstudio.com/
Download the installer for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux)
Run the installer and follow the installation wizard
Once installed, open VS Code

Install C# Extension for VS Code

To enhance your .NET development experience in VS Code:

Open VS Code
Go to the Extensions view by clicking on the square icon in the left sidebar or pressing Ctrl+Shift+X (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+X (macOS)
Search for "C#" in the Extensions marketplace
Look for the C# Dev Kit extension by Microsoft and click "Install"

This extension provides features like IntelliSense, debugging, and more for C# development in VS Code. NOTE: the extension has licensing requirements for businesses but is free for individuals to use.

I also really like NuGet Gallery - it provides a nice UI for exploring NuGet packages. (Much nicer than using the CLI, IMO.)

Installing Postman

While optional, Postman is a powerful tool for testing APIs. It's what we'll use to test our API in this course (along with Swagger - tbh I just think Postman is cleaner to show on a screen).

Visit the official Postman website: https://www.postman.com/downloads/
Download the installer for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux)
Run the installer and follow the installation wizard
Once installed, open Postman

Using the dotnet CLI

The .NET Command Line Interface (CLI) is a cross-platform tool for developing, building, running, and publishing .NET applications. Here are some essential commands:

dotnet new: Creates a new project, configuration file, or solution based on the specified template.
```
dotnet new console -n MyConsoleApp
```
Common templates include:
- console: Console application
- classlib: Class library
- web: ASP.NET Core empty web app
- webapi: ASP.NET Core Web API
- mvc: ASP.NET Core Web App (Model-View-Controller)
- blazorserver: Blazor Server App
- blazorwasm: Blazor WebAssembly App
- wpf: Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) Application
- winforms: Windows Forms Application
To list all available templates:
```
dotnet new list
```
To install additional templates:
```
dotnet new install <TEMPLATE_PACKAGE_NAME>
```
For example, to install the Microsoft.AspNetCore.SpaTemplates:
```
dotnet new install Microsoft.AspNetCore.SpaTemplates
```
dotnet build: Builds a .NET project and all its dependencies.
```
dotnet build
```
dotnet publish: Publishes the application and its dependencies for deployment.
```
dotnet publish -c Release
```
dotnet run: Runs source code without any explicit compile or launch commands.
```
dotnet run
```
dotnet restore: Restores the dependencies and tools of a project.
```
dotnet restore
```
dotnet test: Runs unit tests using the test runner specified in the project.
```
dotnet test
```

Other IDEs/Tools

While we'll focus on VS Code in this course, it's worth mentioning other popular tools in the .NET ecosystem:

Visual Studio: A full-featured IDE for Windows, offering comprehensive .NET development capabilities.
ReSharper: A powerful extension for Visual Studio that enhances productivity with code inspections, refactorings, and navigation features. Spencer considers it 100% essential for VS development.
JetBrains Rider: A cross-platform .NET IDE developed by JetBrains, known for its performance and advanced features. Spencer considers it the best .NET IDE available (sorry Microsoft)

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