Understanding NuGet packages

.NET Core is split into a set of packages. Each of these packages represents a single assembly of the same name. For example, the System.Collections package contains the System.Collections.dll assembly.

The following are the benefits of packages:

• Packages can ship on their own schedule
• Packages can be tested independently of other packages
• Packages can support different OSes and CPUs
• Packages can have dependencies specific to only one library
• Apps are smaller because unreferenced packages aren't part of the distribution

The following table lists some of the more important packages:

Package	Important types
System.Runtime	Object, String, Array
System.Collections	List<T>, Dictionary<TKey, TValue>
System.Net.Http	HttpClient, HttpResponseMessage
System.IO.FileSystem	File, Directory
System.Reflection	Assembly, TypeInfo, MethodInfo

Referencing packages

Packages are referenced in the project file; for example, let us explicitly...