The Case for .NET in the Classroom
Introduction
I recently finished by M.S. Computer Science degree and throughout the course, I used a variety of programming languages to complete assignments such as Matlab (Octave), Python, R, Java, Scala, Scheme (Lisp), and C. While all powerful in their own way, in my personal time (if and when I had any), I tried to learn about .NET tools and the ecosystem as a whole mainly because I have been a long time user of Microsoft products that include but are not limited to Zune, Kin, Surface and Windows Phone. Coincidentally, around the time I started my program, Microsoft was in the process of making an aggressive push to be more open and return to its roots of making tools and services that developers love. That being said, this is not exactly something that many people are aware of and the company's image in the eyes of consumers and developers using open source technologies has only recently started to improve. With recent acquisitions of companies like Skype and Xamarin as well as products like HoloLens, the opportunities for developers to build transformative solutions for consumers and businesses across a wide range of devices is limitless. Equally exciting and advantageous is the fact that the underlying ecosystem many of these technologies rely on is .NET. Keeping all that in mind, I strongly believe that there is no better time to introduce .NET into the classroom, especially at the university level in order to equip the next generation of developers with the necessary tools to achieve more in a wide range of environments.
Microsoft Past
Enterprise and Licensing
For the longest time, Microsoft has been synonymous with enterprise and rightfully so as most businesses run Windows and Office. What this also meant was licensing. Many of the products and services that Microsoft provided for businesses and developers were licensed products. Even though there were in some instances free versions of the products, they had their limitations. As a result, this naturally created a barrier to entry to try and experiment with their products.
Overhead
Even when trying to do the simplest thing with .NET Framework (particularly C#, ASP.NET or F#), you needed to run Visual Studio. Like the enterprise and licensing, this provided a barrier to entry for someone trying to learn the language. Conversely, in the most closely related language Java, you could've gotten started with a text editor and command line (among other things, this might be one reason Java has been widely used in the classroom).
Platform Specific
Although most of the world ran Windows, developer tools and products like the .NET Framework targeted Windows only. While this was acceptable a few years ago, the world is much different today than it was then. The current state of computing, while not entirely a statement on Microsoft and their products is one that Microft has astutely recognized. People want their services and experiences to travel with them regardless of the platform or products they use.
Along these lines is the type of devices individuals performed their computing on. A few years ago, the Windows PC was the main device for productivity. Therefore, there was little to no need to focus on mobile, let alone cross-platform capabilities. Now, individuals can perform elaborate and deeply complex workflows from the palm of their hand. Therefore, the focus has shifted from a single device category to multi-device and multi-platform one.
Microsoft Today
Microsoft has significantly transformed their business practices and refocused on what at one time made them one of the top companies in the world by making experiences and products consumers and more importantly developers love.
Mobile-First, Cloud-First
This was the strategy Satya Nadella tried to get the entire team to rally around when he became CEO of the company. At the time, Microsoft had recently purchased Nokia, yet its mobile phone efforts were non-existent aside from the three percent. Therefore, this strategy seemed ambiguous and unattainable at least from a consumer perspective.
Upon further inspection, this strategy is not limited to mobile phones. Instead it refers to the ability of individuals' computing experiences, with the aid of the cloud, to go wherever they can be most productive. The hardware and to some extent, the software in terms of the platform no longer bind individuals as the services are available nearly everywhere.
A shining example of this is Xamarin. Xamarin is a mobile app development platform built on the .NET ecosystem. With this purchase, Microsoft allowed developers who were native .NET developers to work in the same environment they were used to, while targeting a new family of devices running Android or iOS. Aside from learning the some of the inner workings the Xamarin framework, at the core, individuals can leverage the .NET tools they're used to using.
Emerging Technologies
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning have been at the forefront of discussions involving technology both in the enterprise as well as academia. Microsoft has made strides on many fronts to position themselves and provide the means for individuals to use the Microsoft set of tools to create solutions. One of the ways Microsoft has worked on providing developers and individuals with tools for deep learning is the Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit (CNTK). This framework is very similar to Tensorflow. Although models can be built using BrainScript or Python, the models themselves can be easily plugged into .NET solutions seamlessly. Another way in which Microsoft is providing tools for artificial intelligence is through its Bot Framework. The Bot Framework has different parts. One of them is the creation of chat bots using either NodeJS or C#. These bots can target different chat applications that include but are not limited to Skype, Facebook Messenger, Slack and many others. These bots can be made even more intelligent with Microsoft's Language Understanding Service (LUIS) which takes care of the natural language processing the bot might need to process requests adequately.
The second part of the Bot Framework is Cortana Skills. Using LUIS and the Bot Framework, individuals can create speech and text-enabled solutions for individuals that interact with Cortana enabled devices which include but are not limited to smart speakers, PCs and mobile devices. This new kind of experiences again is entirely backed by the .NET ecosystem many developers already use today.
Virtual and Mixed Reality
While still in its infancy, virtual and mixed reality have received tons of support from technology companies like Facebook with Oculus, Google with Google VR, Apple with AR Kit. Likewise, Microsoft's solution is HoloLens. Applications for HoloLens can be developed with .NET tools and Unity. Yet again, developers can leverage their .NET skills to build applications for yet another family of devices to build new immersive experiences that not too long ago were closer to science-fiction than reality.
.NET Core and .NET Standard
A lot of computing functions overall are fairly standard. For example, reading from the console is a relatively universal procedure regardless of the platform. Microsoft has found a way to take advantage of the power of .NET for these scenarios and released .NET Standard and .NET Core which are cross-platform environments to develop C#, ASP.NET and F# solutions. These applications can run on the web as well as any OS platform further expanding the capabilities of the ecosystem as well as extending the number of solutions developers can create.
Furthermore, Visual Studio, while helpful is not a requirement to start creating applications. Most things if not all can be done via the command line and a text editor. Therefore, the barrier to entry both in terms of cost and start time has been greatly reduced and individuals get started building applications in little to no time for free.
Conclusion
While this is not the entire gamut of tools and services Microsoft provides, it is a good demonstration of how learning a single set of skills like C# and F# in conjunction with the standard curriculum can greatly empower the next generation of computer scientists and developers by expanding the number of devices and platforms they can target across a wide variety of industries and disciplines making the number of applications nearly limitless.