Compiling and Executing Programs Terminology
-
Entry Point: Code (usually a method) that's automatically run when a program is launched. In C#, this method is called
Main()
.
Overview & Examples
Setup
Basic boilerplate setup for every C# program:
SomeFileName.csproj
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
SomeFileName.cs
using System;
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// program code goes here
}
}
Running Programs
- We run a program with the following two steps:
-
Compiling: In the project directory, run
> dotnet build
.FileName.cs
should be the name of the file containing program code. This creates an.exe
file. -
Executing: After compiling, run the following to launch the
.dll
file:> dotnet run
.
-
Compiling: In the project directory, run
General Guidelines
- Files with
.cs
extensions contain code written by the developer. - Files with
.csproj
extensions contain project configuration data.
AOT Versus JIT Compiling Overview
- In modern programming languages, source code must be translated into machine code before computers can understand it. Some languages and platforms do this automatically, but others like C# must be explicitly compiled.
Terminology
- Compiling: Translating one type of code into another type. Generally this refers to translating a more human-readable type of code into a more complex type of code meant only for computers.
- Just in Time: When code is compiled as a user interacts with it, as is the case with JavaScript.
- Ahead of Time: When code is compiled ahead of time, as is the case with C#.
Sample .csproj
code:
DoubleIt.csproj
<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
<PropertyGroup>
<OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
<TargetFramework>net5.0</TargetFramework>
</PropertyGroup>
</Project>
- Build a C# program with the following command:
dotnet build
. - Run a C# program with the following command:
dotnet run
. - The
Console.WriteLine()
method prints a string to the console. - The
Console.ReadLine()
method is used to retrieve input the user has typed into the command line.
Dotnet Watcher Terminology
Watcher: Monitors files so we don't need to constantly type dotnet run
. Here's how we add a watcher:
dotnet watch run
We can also do this with the build
command:
dotnet watch build
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