What is a vNext console application?

Question

I installed Visual Studio 2015 RC to try out the ASP.Net vNext templates. In the "Web" section, I have noticed a console application that appears as

enter image description here

I decided I would mess around with it and I found some interesting points:

The default template does not specify Main() as static.
Many assemblies such as System.CodeDom and System.Net are not available.
Many methods such as System.Console.ReadKey cannot be used.

What are these vNext console applications? Why the restrictions and what are the uses of them?

This is an excellent read: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dn913182.aspx — Frison Alexander, Jun 16 '15 at 01:27
Microsoft is horrible at naming and versioning anything. The DNX is larger than ASP.NET. It is possible to make an application or library which targets the DNX (and indirectly one or more supported frameworks). That application or library may have nothing to do with ASP.NET. It would make more sense under C# to have a template Console Application (DNX) and Class Library (DNX). If you are still wondering why those project templates are under ASP.NET then see the first sentence. Prior to the RC that template was named the even worse "ASP.NET 5 Console Application". — Gerald Davis, Jun 16 '15 at 13:15

score 6 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:13

Answers

What is a vNext console application?

It's a console application that runs within the new .NET runtime environment (DNX).

Why the restrictions and what are the uses of them?

The restrictions occur because you are targeting .NET Core (dnxcore50) instead of (or in addition to) the full .NET Framework (dnx451.) The use of those restrictions, as far as I know, is to allow cross-compatibility with a lot of different operating systems. That is, .NET Core has less functionality than the full framework does, because it is easier to be compatible with many systems that way. Overtime, those restrictions may fall away as more in made fully cross platform.

The default template does not specify Main() as static.

DNX comes with Microsoft.Framework.ApplicationHost. This default application host "knows how to find a public void Main method. This is the entry point used to set up the ASP.NET hosting layer..." It also still knows how to find the traditional static void Main method. An advantage of an instance Main method is that it lets us ask the runtime environment to inject services into our application.

Many assemblies such as System.CodeDom and System.Net are not available. Many methods such as System.Console.ReadKey cannot be used.

System.Console.ReadKey is available in dnx451 but not in dnxcore50. That's also true for System.Net the last time I checked. So, if you want to use those, make sure to target dnx451 instead of dnxcore50.

Want to remove the restrictions? Just delete the dnxcore50 entry from your project.json file. Then you'll only be targeting the full framework without restrictions.

What is a vNext console application?

3 Answers3

Answers

See Also