Practicing and exploring

Test your knowledge and understanding by answering some questions, getting some hands-on practice, and exploring with deeper research the topics in this chapter.

Exercise 1.1 – Online-only material

Make sure that you are ready to use multiple code editors. Chapter 1 of the C# 12 and .NET 8 - Modern Cross-Platform Development Fundamentals book has online sections showing how to get started with multiple projects using various code editors including Visual Studio, Code, or Rider.

You can read the sections at the following link: https://github.com/markjprice/cs12dotnet8/blob/main/docs/code-editors/README.md.

Exercise 1.2 – Practice exercises

If you do not yet have an OpenAI ChatGPT account, sign up for one and try asking it some questions: https://chat.openai.com/.

Exercise 1.3 – Test your knowledge

To get the best answer to some of these questions, you will need to do your own research. I want you to “think outside the book,” so I have deliberately not provided all the answers in the book.

I want to encourage you to get into the good habit of looking for help elsewhere, following the principle of “teach a person to fish.”

1. How are .NET developers who choose to use Rider perceived compared to developers who have only ever used Visual Studio?
2. What is a key phrase to use when prompt engineering ChatGPT?
3. When you ask a question in a forum or Discord channel, what should you keep in mind?
4. After its release in November 2024, you download and install .NET 9 SDK. How can you configure your projects to continue to target .NET 8 for long-term support and also enjoy the benefits of the C# 13 compiler?
5. What is the GitHub repository for this book used for?

Appendix, Answers to the Test Your Knowledge Questions, is available to download from the following link: https://packt.link/isUsj.

Exercise 1.4 – Explore topics

Use the links on the following page to learn more about the topics covered in this chapter: https://github.com/markjprice/tools-skills-net8/blob/main/docs/book-links.md#chapter-1---introducing-tools-and-skills-for-net.