About

C# is a multiparadigm, managed, garbage-collected, object-oriented programming language created by Microsoft in conjunction with the .NET platform. C# is also used with non-Microsoft implementations (most notably, Mono).

C# Background

Versions 1.0/1.2 and 2.0 of C# were submitted and approved as both ECMA and ISO/IEC standards. As of December 2010, there are no ECMA or ISO/IEC specifications for C# 3.0 through 5.0; however, language specifications are available from Microsoft (3.0 and 5.0).

The language's type-system was originally static, with only explicit variable declarations allowed. However, the introduction of var (C# 3.0) and dynamic (C# 4.0) allow it to use type-inference for implicit variable typing, and to consume dynamic type-systems, respectively. Delegates (especially with lexical-closure support for anonymous-methods (C# 2.0) and lambda-expressions (C# 3.0)) allow the language to be used for functional programming.

Compilation is usually to the Common Intermediate Language (CIL), which is then JIT-compiled to native code (and cached) during execution in the Common Language Runtime (CLR); however, options like Ngen (.NET) and AOT (Mono) mean this isn't the only option. Additionally, some frameworks (e.g. the Micro Framework) act as CIL interpreters, with no JIT.

Perhaps unusually, generics in C# are provided (in part) by the runtime, unlike (for comparison) C++ templates, or Java's generics (which use type-erasure).

With the combination of Microsoft .NET for Windows (desktop/server), Mono (desktop/server/mobile), Silverlight / Moonlight (browser/mobile), Compact Framework (mobile), and Micro Framework (embedded devices), C# is available for a wide range of platforms.

Current Version

• Stable: C# 7.3
• Preview: C# 8.0 - Preview 5

Hello World

using System;
class Hello
{
    static void Main() 
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hello, World");
    }
}

Resources

• Specification
• Wikipedia Article
• Eric Lippert's blog
• Programming Guide

• MSDN

  • Naming Guidelines
  • Framework Design Guidelines

• Books

  • CLR via C#
  • C# in a Nutshell
  • C# in Depth
  • Accelerated C#
  • Head First C#
  • The C# Programming Language (3rd Edition, 4th Edition)
  • Framework Design Guidelines
  • Essential C# (4.0 (3rd Edition))
  • Pro C# 2010 and the .Net 4 Platform