Development Environment
Visual Studio¶
We use the Visual Studio Community developed by Microsoft in the classes. It can be downloaded from this link.
Install¶
The Visual Studio Installer is installed first that is responsible for installing the IDE.
The following modules will be needed in this class:
- ASP.NET and web development
- .NET desktop development
The expected size of the installation will be around 10 GB with the listed components.
The IDE also can be modified later via this installer, further modules can be installed or removed according to our needs.
A login window may pop-up at the first start of the IDE, however, it is optional. The "General" option is perfect for the workflow selection .
Other Options¶
Several other IDEs might work depending on personal preferences, e.g., JetBrains Rider or VS Code.
Visual Studio vs VS Code¶
Overview¶
- Visual Studio: A full-featured IDE. It contains built-in compilers, advanced debuggers, and project management tools in a single installation.
- VS Code: A lightweight source code editor. It is built on the Electron framework and relies on a modular extension system to provide IDE-like functionality.
Resource Utilization and Performance¶
- Installation Footprint: Visual Studio requires significant disk space, typically ranging from 10 GB to over 50 GB depending on the selected workloads. VS Code has a minimal footprint of approximately 200 MB to 500 MB.
- Memory Usage: Visual Studio is resource-intensive, often requiring 16 GB of RAM for optimal performance on enterprise-scale solutions. VS Code is highly efficient, capable of running on systems with as little as 1 GB of RAM.
- Execution Speed: VS Code features near-instant startup times. Visual Studio experiences longer load times due to the initialization of complex integrated services and background indexing.
- Visual Studio: Primary support is restricted to Windows. The macOS version has been retired.
- VS Code: Fully cross-platform, with native support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Development Focus and Tooling¶
- Project Types: Visual Studio is engineered for complex, large-scale enterprise applications, particularly those utilizing .NET, C++, and Windows-native frameworks (WPF, WinForms). VS Code is preferred for web development (JavaScript, TypeScript, Python), microservices, and cloud-native workflows.
- Integrated Features: Visual Studio includes built-in visual designers (drag-and-drop UI builders), deep profiling tools, and sophisticated memory diagnostics. VS Code provides basic syntax highlighting and Git integration out of the box, requiring extensions for advanced debugging or language-specific tooling.
- Project Management: Visual Studio uses a structured Solution (.sln) and Project (.csproj) hierarchy for managing dependencies. VS Code utilizes a file-based approach, treating projects as simple folders.
Command-line Interface¶
.NET also has command-line interface (CLI), a cross-platform toolchain for developing, building, running, and publishing .NET applications. Install .NET article helps installing the core tools if that is the preferred workflow. The practice material includes the CLI workflow for its projects.