C# is a widely used language for many reasons. C# is a cross-platform programming language that can be run on multiple platforms, including desktop applications, websites, and Android applications. C# is not a difficult language to learn, it is an object-oriented programming language like java and python. As you may be hesitating on which language to choose, I decided to write this article to give you more details about C# language and help you decide whether to choose this language or not.
What is C#?
C# is pronounced C-sharp, it is a modern general-purpose language that can be used to perform different tasks and create applications that can be run on different devices and operating systems. C# is an object-oriented programming language created by Microsoft and is mainly used on the Windows .NET framework. The first version of C# was released in 2002, and the latest version C# 11 was released in November 2022.
What is C# used for?
Like other programming languages such as Java, C# can be used to create different programs, mobile applications, desktop applications, websites and games. There are mainly three areas in which C# is used:
Windows Applications
With the .NET Framework, C# is used to create Windows applications using Windows Forms or WPF. C# was created by Microsoft, so it is easy to understand why C# is mainly used for Windows applications.
Games
C# is one of the best programming languages for creating games. This language is widely used to create fan-favourite games like Rimworld on the Unity game engine. Unity is the most popular game engine on the market today.
C# for website development
C# is also used to develop professional dynamic websites on the .NET framework. So even if you learn C# to create games, you can still use it to create websites as well.
What apps are made with C#?
Here are a handful of programs and applications written in C# that demonstrate the language’s diversity and reliability:
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Microsoft Visual Studio is a development software suite for Windows and Mac OS designed by Microsoft. The latest version is called Visual Studio 2022
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Paint.NET is a free photo editing software. The development project started at Washington State University with the support of Microsoft. It is a free graphics editing program for the Windows operating system. The software is written in C#.
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Open Dental, formerly known as Free Dental, is an open-source dental practice management software under the GNU General Public License. It is written in the C# programming language compatible with the Microsoft .NET Framework and was first released in 2003.
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KeePass Password Safe is a password manager released under the GPL-2.0-or-later free license, allowing to save a set of passwords in an encrypted database in the form of a single file with the extension .kdb or .kdbx depending on the version.
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FlashDevelop is a free text editor for the Microsoft Windows environment, based on the .NET 2.0 framework. It supports ActionScript 2 and 3, MXML and haXe. It includes full functionality and syntax highlighting.
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NMath is a digital package for Microsoft .NET Framework. It is developed by CenterSpace Software. Version 1.0 was released in March 2003 under the name NMath Core. The current version is called NMath 7.1, released in December 2019. NMath is built on top of MKL, a digital library from Intel.
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Pinta is a free software for simple graphics and bitmap image processing voluntarily inspired by Paint.NET It is a software written in C#, based on the GTK+ library. This application is multiplatform, it works under: Mac OS X after installing the software Mono for Mac / MonoFrameworks"
Advantages of C# Programming
C# is easy to learn
C# is an easy language to learn compared to other difficult languages. Thanks to its simplicity and user-friendly syntax, C# is perfect for beginners. This language is a great first step in the field and offers budding developers a comfortable way to learn about programming without getting discouraged or overwhelmed.
C# is object-oriented
C# is fully object-oriented programming, which is not the case with many other programming languages. Object-oriented programming ensures efficiency, flexibility and organization of code, and also avoids repetitiveness. Some developers who are not familiar with OOP may feel a little reluctant to choose a new language that places such importance on it, but don't worry... Object-Oriented Programming For Absolute Beginners in C#! isn’t all that difficult.
C# supports parallel and asynchronous programming
Sometimes, when we develop an application, we may need to run several tasks on different threads so that we don't waste time waiting for a task to finish, such as reading a text file from a database. Unlike other programming languages, C# supports parallel and asynchronous programming.
How can you learn C#?
There are multiple resources online to master C# and start a career as a software developer, Complete C# Masterclass is a good course for beginners. However, there are multiple free courses available on YouTube, for example, IAmTimCorey - YouTube is a good channel for both beginners, and intermediate and advanced C# developers. If you like reading articles, I wrote a whole article in which I try to explain the most important concepts that you need to know to start your journey in the C# language: Learn C# from scratch for absolute beginners. Then, if you are already familiar with C# syntax and want to dive in object-oriented programming, you can follow have a loog on my previous blog post: Learn object oriented programming in C# from scratch!
My articles about Csharp
If you are interested in learning C#, you can find out some of my articles where I explain some of the most important concepts about the languages and also OOP in general and design patterns:
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