Overview of C# as a Language

With the introduction of modern-day programming practices, it is evident that developers are looking for more advanced constructs to help them to deliver the best software in the most effective way. Languages that evolve on top of frameworks are built to enhance the capabilities of the developers in a way that allows them to quickly build their code with less complexity so that the code is maintainable, yet readable.

There are many high-level object, oriented programming languages available on the market, but among them I would say one of the most promising is C#. The C# language is not new in the programming world and has existed for over a decade, but with the dynamic progress of the language itself creating so many newer constructs, it has already left some of the most widely accepted language competition behind. C# is an object-oriented, type-safe, general-purpose language that is built on top of the .NET framework that was developed by Microsoft and approved by the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA) and the International Standards Organization (ISO). It is built to run on the Common Language Infrastructure and can interact with any other languages that are built based on the same architecture. Inspired by C++, the language is rich in delivering the best of breed applications without handling too many complexities in code.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Evolution of C#
• Architecture of C#
• Fundamentals and syntax of the C# language
• Visual Studio as an editor
• Writing your first program in Visual Studio