What's New in .NET 10: Enhancements Every Developer Should Know

Microsoft has unveiled .NET 10, the latest long-term support (LTS) release, bringing a host of enhancements aimed at improving performance, developer productivity, and cross-platform capabilities. This guide breaks down the key updates to help junior developers navigate the new features and improvements.

📅 .NET 10 Roadmap and Release

As part of the .NET 10 roadmap, Microsoft has released several previews, with the latest being .NET 10 Preview 3. These previews offer a glimpse into the planned features and allow developers to provide feedback before the official release. The .NET 10 SDK is available for download, enabling developers to explore and experiment with the new functionalities.​

⚙️ Runtime Enhancements

Performance is a focal point in .NET 10. The Just-In-Time (JIT) compiler introduces array interface method devirtualization and improved inlining strategies, leading to faster execution times. Additionally, support for AVX10.2 instructions enhances computational efficiency on compatible hardware.

🌐 ASP.NET Core and Blazor Enhancements

ASP.NET Core 10.0 brings several updates:​

• Blazor Improvements: Enhancements include better reconnection handling and stricter Content Security Policy (CSP) compliance.​

• OpenAPI Enhancements: Improved support for OpenAPI specifications.​

• Minimal API Updates: Refinements to minimal APIs for more concise and efficient endpoint definitions.

📱 .NET MAUI Advancements

.NET MAUI continues to evolve, offering improved support for building cross-platform applications across Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows. The latest updates focus on performance enhancements and developer productivity.

🧠 C# 14 Features

C# 14 introduces features aimed at simplifying code and enhancing readability:

• Field-Backed Properties: Provides a smoother path from auto-implemented properties to writing custom get and set accessors. The compiler-generated backing field can now be accessed using the field contextual keyword.​

• Unbound Generic Support for nameof: The nameof expression now supports unbound generic types, such as List<>, returning the name of the type without requiring type arguments.

📚 Library Improvements

The .NET 10 libraries have been refined to offer better functionality:

• Certificate Handling: Developers can now locate certificates using thumbprints beyond SHA-1, including SHA-256.​

• PEM Encoding Support: APIs now support reading PEM-encoded data directly from ASCII/UTF-8 sources.​

• Date Handling: The ISOWeek class now supports the DateOnly type, simplifying date manipulations.​

• String Normalization: New APIs allow Unicode string normalization to work with spans of characters, reducing allocations.​

• Numeric String Comparison: A new CompareOptions.NumericOrdering option enables numerical string comparisons.​

• TimeSpan Enhancements: A new TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds overload resolves issues with LINQ expressions.​

• ZipArchive Performance: Optimizations reduce memory usage and improve performance for ZipArchive in Update mode and parallel extraction.​

• OrderedDictionary Enhancements: New TryAdd and TryGetValue overloads return an index for fast access.​

• JSON Serialization Updates: Source generators now allow specifying ReferenceHandler in JsonSourceGenerationOptionsAttribute.​

• Matrix Transformations: New APIs for creating left-handed transformation matrices.​

• PKCS#12 Export Enhancements: New methods allow specifying encryption and digest algorithms for PKCS#12/PFX export.​

🛠️ SDK and Tooling Updates

The .NET 10 SDK introduces several enhancements to streamline development workflows:​

• Package Reference Pruning: Automatically removes unused framework-provided package references, reducing build times and disk usage.​

• Command-Line Improvements: New noun-first aliases for dotnet CLI commands improve readability and consistency

• Interactive Mode Defaults: The --interactive flag is now enabled by default for CLI commands in interactive terminals.​

• Shell Tab-Completion: The dotnet CLI now supports generating native tab-completion scripts for popular shells using the dotnet completions generate [SHELL] command. Supported shells include bash, fish, nushell, powershell, and zsh.​

• Container Image Creation: Console apps can now create container images via dotnet publish /t:PublishContainer without requiring the <EnableSdkContainerSupport> property in the project file.​

• Container Image Format Control: A new <ContainerImageFormat> property allows you to explicitly set the format of container images to either Docker or OCI.​

• Testing Platform Support: A new dotnet test experience made specifically for Microsoft.Testing.Platform can be opted-in via dotnet.config.

📈 Performance and Optimization

Performance remains a cornerstone of .NET 10, with numerous enhancements across the runtime and libraries aimed at reducing overhead and improving execution speed. These optimizations ensure that applications run more efficiently, providing a better experience for end-users.

🗺️ Planning Ahead

As .NET 10 progresses through its preview stages, staying informed about the latest updates is crucial. Engaging with the community and exploring the new features will prepare you for the official release and help you leverage the full potential of .NET 10 in your projects.

Embrace the advancements in .NET 10 to enhance your development skills and build more robust, efficient applications.