From 00c73c648528e112d7112dfa3efb96b37bffde24 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "copilot-swe-agent[bot]" <198982749+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2026 18:28:00 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 1/4] Initial plan From feec8503f19aefb5974d13fb0b39cae039f67ed9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "copilot-swe-agent[bot]" <198982749+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2026 18:31:00 +0000 Subject: [PATCH 2/4] Update introduction.md: style, freshness, and accuracy improvements Co-authored-by: meaghanlewis <10103121+meaghanlewis@users.noreply.github.com> --- docs/core/introduction.md | 33 +++++++++++++++++---------------- 1 file changed, 17 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/core/introduction.md b/docs/core/introduction.md index eae1e2a028f8f..0bb30db665673 100644 --- a/docs/core/introduction.md +++ b/docs/core/introduction.md @@ -1,21 +1,22 @@ --- title: Introduction to .NET description: Learn about .NET. .NET is a free, open-source development platform for building many kinds of apps. -ms.date: 1/5/2024 +ms.date: 03/10/2026 ms.custom: "updateeachrelease" +ai-usage: ai-assisted --- # Introduction to .NET -.NET is a free, cross-platform, [open-source developer platform](https://github.com/dotnet/core) for building [many kinds of applications](apps.md). It can run programs written in [multiple languages](../fundamentals/languages.md), with [C#](../csharp/index.yml) being the most popular. It relies on a [high-performance](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/category/performance/) runtime that is used in production by many [high-scale apps](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/category/developer-stories/). +.NET is a free, cross-platform, [open-source developer platform](https://github.com/dotnet/core) for building [many kinds of applications](apps.md). It can run programs written in [multiple languages](../fundamentals/languages.md), with [C#](../csharp/index.yml) being the most popular. It relies on a [high-performance](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/category/performance/) runtime used in production by many [high-scale apps](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/category/developer-stories/). To learn how to [download .NET](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/) and start writing your first app, see [Getting started](./get-started.md). -The .NET platform has been designed to deliver productivity, performance, security, and reliability. It provides automatic memory management via a [garbage collector (GC)](../standard/automatic-memory-management.md). It is type-safe and memory-safe, due to using a GC and strict language compilers. It offers [concurrency](../csharp/asynchronous-programming/index.md) via `async`/`await` and `Task` primitives. It includes a large set of libraries that have broad functionality and have been optimized for performance on multiple operating systems and chip architectures. +The .NET platform has been designed to deliver productivity, performance, security, and reliability. It provides automatic memory management via a [garbage collector (GC)](../standard/automatic-memory-management.md). It's type-safe and memory-safe, because it uses a GC and strict language compilers. It offers [concurrency](../csharp/asynchronous-programming/index.md) via `async`/`await` and `Task` primitives. It includes a large set of libraries that have broad functionality and have been optimized for performance on multiple operating systems and chip architectures. .NET has the following [design points](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/why-dotnet/): * **Productivity is full-stack** with runtime, libraries, languages, and tools all contributing to developer user experience. -* **Safe code** is the primary compute model, while [unsafe code](../csharp/language-reference/unsafe-code.md) enables additional manual optimizations. +* **Safe code** is the primary compute model, while [unsafe code](../csharp/language-reference/unsafe-code.md) enables more manual optimizations. * **Static and dynamic code** are both supported, enabling a broad set of distinct scenarios. * **Native code interop and hardware intrinsics** are low cost and high-fidelity (raw API and instruction access). * **Code is portable across platforms** (OS and chip architecture), while platform targeting enables specialization and optimization. @@ -28,11 +29,11 @@ The .NET platform has been designed to deliver productivity, performance, securi .NET includes the following components: -- Runtime -- executes application code. -- Libraries -- provides utility functionality like [JSON parsing](../standard/serialization/system-text-json/overview.md). -- Compiler -- compiles C# (and other languages) source code into (runtime) executable code. -- SDK and other tools -- enable building and monitoring apps with modern workflows. -- App stacks -- like ASP.NET Core and Windows Forms, that enable writing apps. +- Runtime — executes application code. +- Libraries — provides utility functionality like [JSON parsing](../standard/serialization/system-text-json/overview.md). +- Compiler — compiles C# (and other languages) source code into (runtime) executable code. +- SDK and other tools — enable building and monitoring apps with modern workflows. +- App stacks — like ASP.NET Core and Windows Forms, that enable writing apps. The runtime, libraries, and languages are the pillars of the .NET stack. Higher-level components, like .NET tools, and app stacks, like ASP.NET Core, build on top of these pillars. C# is the primary programming language for .NET and much of .NET is written in C#. @@ -54,7 +55,7 @@ Exceptions are the primary error handling model in .NET. Exceptions have the ben App stacks, like ASP.NET Core and Windows Forms, build on and take advantage of low-level libraries, language, and runtime. The app stacks define the way that apps are constructed and their lifecycle of execution. -The SDK and other tools enable a modern developer experience, both on a developer desktop and for continuous integration (CI). The modern developer experience includes being able to build, analyze, and test code. .NET projects can often be built by a single `dotnet build` command, which orchestrates restoring NuGet packages and building dependencies. +The SDK and other tools enable a modern developer experience, both on a developer desktop and for continuous integration (CI). The modern developer experience includes building, analyzing, and testing code. .NET projects can often be built by a single `dotnet build` command, which orchestrates restoring NuGet packages and building dependencies. NuGet is the package manager for .NET. It contains hundreds of thousands of packages that implement functionality for many scenarios. A majority of apps rely on NuGet packages for some functionality. The [NuGet Gallery](https://nuget.org/) is maintained by Microsoft. @@ -62,23 +63,23 @@ NuGet is the package manager for .NET. It contains hundreds of thousands of pack .NET is free, open source, and is a [.NET Foundation](https://dotnetfoundation.org/) project. .NET is maintained by Microsoft and the community on GitHub in [several repositories](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/Documentation/core-repos.md). -.NET source and binaries are licensed with the [MIT license](https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/blob/main/LICENSE.TXT). Additional [licenses apply on Windows](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/license-information-windows.md). +.NET source and binaries are licensed with the [MIT license](https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/blob/main/LICENSE.TXT). Other [licenses apply on Windows](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/license-information-windows.md). ## Support .NET is [supported by multiple organizations](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/support.md) that work to ensure that .NET can run on [multiple operating systems](https://github.com/dotnet/core/blob/main/os-lifecycle-policy.md) and is kept up to date. It can be used on Arm64, x64, and x86 architectures. -New versions of .NET are released annually in November, per our [releases and support policies](releases-and-support.md). It is [updated monthly](https://github.com/dotnet/announcements/labels/Monthly-Update) on Patch Tuesday (second Tuesday), typically at 10 AM Pacific time. +New versions of .NET are released annually in November, per the [releases and support policies](releases-and-support.md). It's [updated monthly](https://github.com/dotnet/announcements/labels/Monthly-Update) on Patch Tuesday (second Tuesday), typically at 10 AM Pacific time. ## .NET ecosystem -There are multiple variants of .NET, each supporting a different type of app. The reason for multiple variants is part historical, part technical. +Multiple variants of .NET exist, each supporting a different type of app for both historical and technical reasons. .NET implementations: -* **.NET (Core)** -- Modern .NET. A cross-platform and open source implementation of .NET, rethought for the cloud age while remaining significantly compatible. It is evolving and actively supported. -* **.NET Framework** -- The original .NET. It provides access to the broad capabilities of Windows and Windows Server. It is actively supported, in maintenance. -* **Mono** -- The original community and open source .NET. A cross-platform implementation of .NET Framework. +* **.NET (Core)** — Modern .NET. A cross-platform and open source implementation of .NET, rethought for the cloud age while remaining significantly compatible. It's evolving and actively supported. +* **.NET Framework** — The original .NET. It provides access to the broad capabilities of Windows and Windows Server. It's actively supported, in maintenance. +* **Mono** — The original community and open source .NET. A cross-platform implementation of .NET Framework. ## Next steps From 07e4d6d9aa6be2613eb05e350d51d1398e423880 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Meaghan Osagie (Lewis)" Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:09:15 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 3/4] Apply suggestions from code review Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com> --- docs/core/introduction.md | 8 ++++---- 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/core/introduction.md b/docs/core/introduction.md index 0bb30db665673..f0c4c3c30abb4 100644 --- a/docs/core/introduction.md +++ b/docs/core/introduction.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ ai-usage: ai-assisted To learn how to [download .NET](https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/) and start writing your first app, see [Getting started](./get-started.md). -The .NET platform has been designed to deliver productivity, performance, security, and reliability. It provides automatic memory management via a [garbage collector (GC)](../standard/automatic-memory-management.md). It's type-safe and memory-safe, because it uses a GC and strict language compilers. It offers [concurrency](../csharp/asynchronous-programming/index.md) via `async`/`await` and `Task` primitives. It includes a large set of libraries that have broad functionality and have been optimized for performance on multiple operating systems and chip architectures. +The .NET platform is designed to deliver productivity, performance, security, and reliability. It provides automatic memory management via a [garbage collector (GC)](../standard/automatic-memory-management.md). It's type-safe and memory-safe, because it uses a GC and strict language compilers. It offers [concurrency](../csharp/asynchronous-programming/index.md) via `async`/`await` and `Task` primitives. It includes a large set of libraries that have broad functionality and that are optimized for performance on multiple operating systems and chip architectures. .NET has the following [design points](https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/why-dotnet/): @@ -30,10 +30,10 @@ The .NET platform has been designed to deliver productivity, performance, securi .NET includes the following components: - Runtime — executes application code. -- Libraries — provides utility functionality like [JSON parsing](../standard/serialization/system-text-json/overview.md). +- Libraries — provide utility functionality like [JSON parsing](../standard/serialization/system-text-json/overview.md). - Compiler — compiles C# (and other languages) source code into (runtime) executable code. - SDK and other tools — enable building and monitoring apps with modern workflows. -- App stacks — like ASP.NET Core and Windows Forms, that enable writing apps. +- App stacks — like ASP.NET Core and Windows Forms that enable writing apps. The runtime, libraries, and languages are the pillars of the .NET stack. Higher-level components, like .NET tools, and app stacks, like ASP.NET Core, build on top of these pillars. C# is the primary programming language for .NET and much of .NET is written in C#. @@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ Multiple variants of .NET exist, each supporting a different type of app for bot .NET implementations: * **.NET (Core)** — Modern .NET. A cross-platform and open source implementation of .NET, rethought for the cloud age while remaining significantly compatible. It's evolving and actively supported. -* **.NET Framework** — The original .NET. It provides access to the broad capabilities of Windows and Windows Server. It's actively supported, in maintenance. +* **.NET Framework** — The original .NET. It provides access to the broad capabilities of Windows and Windows Server. It's actively supported in maintenance mode. * **Mono** — The original community and open source .NET. A cross-platform implementation of .NET Framework. ## Next steps From 5e0642c74c74b8cfb26d92095abebd0b172b77bc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: "Meaghan Osagie (Lewis)" Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2026 12:10:19 -0700 Subject: [PATCH 4/4] Update docs/core/introduction.md Co-authored-by: Copilot <175728472+Copilot@users.noreply.github.com> --- docs/core/introduction.md | 6 +++--- 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/core/introduction.md b/docs/core/introduction.md index f0c4c3c30abb4..73344178b4cbe 100644 --- a/docs/core/introduction.md +++ b/docs/core/introduction.md @@ -77,9 +77,9 @@ Multiple variants of .NET exist, each supporting a different type of app for bot .NET implementations: -* **.NET (Core)** — Modern .NET. A cross-platform and open source implementation of .NET, rethought for the cloud age while remaining significantly compatible. It's evolving and actively supported. -* **.NET Framework** — The original .NET. It provides access to the broad capabilities of Windows and Windows Server. It's actively supported in maintenance mode. -* **Mono** — The original community and open source .NET. A cross-platform implementation of .NET Framework. +* **.NET (Core)** — Modern .NET. A cross-platform and open-source implementation of .NET, rethought for the cloud age while remaining significantly compatible. It's evolving and actively supported. +* **.NET Framework** — The original .NET. It provides access to the broad capabilities of Windows and Windows Server. It's actively supported, in maintenance. +* **Mono** — The original community and open-source .NET. A cross-platform implementation of .NET Framework. ## Next steps