These are the customer-reported issues addressed in 15.8.3:

• Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8.2 contained a pre-release build of .NET Core SDK 2.1.401 that is incompatible with Visual Studio. We have corrected this issue with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.8.3.
• VSCppUnit test case creation failure.
• Python IntelliSense not working on Python 2.7.
• XAML designer causing Visual Studio to close unexpectedly. 

Entity Framework is Microsoft’s flagship Object/Relation Mapper, and the recommended way to access relational databases. Entity Framework Core is a complete rewrite from the “classic” Entity Framework, building on the new multiplatform .NET Core framework and adding the ability to connect to nonrelational data sources while keeping the features that made Entity Framework Code First so popular. In Entity Framework Core Succinctly, join Ricardo Peres to explore this new version of the O/RM, from getting set up to avoiding common traps. 

public class TravelAgent
{
    public TravelAgent()
    {
        this.Bookings = new HashSet<Booking>();
    }

    public int AgentId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<Booking> Bookings { get; set; }
}

public class Booking
{
    public int BookingId { get; set; }
    public int AgentId { get; set; }
    public string Customer { get; set; }
    public DateTime BookingDate { get; set; }
    public bool Paid { get; set; }
    public virtual TravelAgent TravelAgent { get; set; }
}

<connectionStrings>
  <add name="Recipe3ConnectionString"
    connectionString="Data Source=.;
    Initial Catalog=EFRecipes;
    Integrated Security=True;
    MultipleActiveResultSets=True"
    providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

protected void Application_Start()
{
    // Disable Entity Framework Model Compatibilty
    Database.SetInitializer<Recipe1Context>(null);

    // The bidirectional navigation properties between related entities
    // create a self-referencing loop that breaks Web API's effort to
    // serialize the objects as JSON. By default, Json.NET is configured
    // to error when a reference loop is detected. To resolve problem,
    // simply configure JSON serializer to ignore self-referencing loops.
    GlobalConfiguration.Configuration.Formatters.JsonFormatter
        .SerializerSettings.ReferenceLoopHandling =
        Newtonsoft.Json.ReferenceLoopHandling.Ignore;
    ...
}

public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
{
    config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
      name: "ActionMethodSave",
      routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
      defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional });
}

internal class Program
{
    private HttpClient _client;
    private TravelAgent _agent1, _agent2;
    private Booking _booking1, _booking2, _booking3;
    private HttpResponseMessage _response;

    private static void Main()
    {
        Task t = Run();
        t.Wait();
        Console.WriteLine("\nPress <enter> to continue...");
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static async Task Run()
    {
        var program = new Program();
        program.ServiceSetup();
        // do not proceed until clean-up is completed
        await program.CleanupAsync();
        program.CreateFirstAgent();
        // do not proceed until agent is created
        await program.AddAgentAsync();
        program.CreateSecondAgent();
        // do not proceed until agent is created
        await program.AddSecondAgentAsync();
        program.ModifyAgent();
        // do not proceed until agent is updated
        await program.UpdateAgentAsync();
        // do not proceed until agents are fetched
        await program.FetchAgentsAsync();
    }

    private void ServiceSetup()
    {
        // set up infrastructure for Web API call
        _client = new HttpClient {BaseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost:6687/")};
        // add Accept Header to request Web API content negotiation to return resource in JSON format
        _client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
    }

    private async Task CleanupAsync()
    {
        // call cleanup method in service
        _response = await _client.DeleteAsync("api/travelagent/cleanup/");
    }

    private void CreateFirstAgent()
    {
        // create new Travel Agent and booking
        _agent1 = new TravelAgent {Name = "John Tate"};
        _booking1 = new Booking
        {
            Customer = "Karen Stevens",
            Paid = false,
            BookingDate = DateTime.Parse("2/2/2010")
        };

        _booking2 = new Booking
        {
            Customer = "Dolly Parton",
            Paid = true,
            BookingDate = DateTime.Parse("3/10/2010")
        };
  
        _agent1.Bookings.Add(_booking1);
        _agent1.Bookings.Add(_booking2);
    }

    private async Task AddAgentAsync()
    {
        // call generic update method in Web API service to add agent and bookings
        _response = await _client.PostAsync("api/travelagent/update/",
            _agent1, new JsonMediaTypeFormatter());

        if (_response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            // capture newly created travel agent from service, which will include
            // database-generated Ids for each entity
            _agent1 = await _response.Content.ReadAsAsync<TravelAgent>();
            _booking1 = _agent1.Bookings.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Customer == "Karen Stevens");
            _booking2 = _agent1.Bookings.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Customer == "Dolly Parton");

            Console.WriteLine("Successfully created Travel Agent {0} and {1} Booking(s)",
            _agent1.Name, _agent1.Bookings.Count);
        }
        else
            Console.WriteLine("{0} ({1})", (int) _response.StatusCode, _response.ReasonPhrase);
    }

    private void CreateSecondAgent()
    {
        // add new agent and booking
        _agent2 = new TravelAgent {Name = "Perry Como"};
        _booking3 = new Booking {
            Customer = "Loretta Lynn",
            Paid = true,
            BookingDate = DateTime.Parse("3/15/2010")};
        _agent2.Bookings.Add(_booking3);
    }

    private async Task AddSecondAgentAsync()
    {
        // call generic update method in Web API service to add agent and booking
        _response = await _client.PostAsync("api/travelagent/update/", _agent2, new JsonMediaTypeFormatter());

        if (_response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            // capture newly created travel agent from service
            _agent2 = await _response.Content.ReadAsAsync<TravelAgent>();
            _booking3 = _agent2.Bookings.FirstOrDefault(x => x.Customer == "Loretta Lynn");
            Console.WriteLine("Successfully created Travel Agent {0} and {1} Booking(s)",
                _agent2.Name, _agent2.Bookings.Count);
        }
        else
            Console.WriteLine("{0} ({1})", (int) _response.StatusCode, _response.ReasonPhrase);
    }

    private void ModifyAgent()
    {
        // modify agent 2 by changing agent name and assigning booking 1 to him from agent 1
        _agent2.Name = "Perry Como, Jr.";
        _agent2.Bookings.Add(_booking1);
    }

    private async Task UpdateAgentAsync()
    {
        // call generic update method in Web API service to update agent 2
        _response = await _client.PostAsync("api/travelagent/update/", _agent2, new JsonMediaTypeFormatter());
        if (_response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            // capture newly created travel agent from service, which will include Ids
            _agent1 = _response.Content.ReadAsAsync<TravelAgent>().Result;
            Console.WriteLine("Successfully updated Travel Agent {0} and {1} Booking(s)", _agent1.Name, _agent1.Bookings.Count);
        }
        else
            Console.WriteLine("{0} ({1})", (int) _response.StatusCode, _response.ReasonPhrase);
    }

    private async Task FetchAgentsAsync()
    {
        // call Get method on service to fetch all Travel Agents and Bookings
        _response = _client.GetAsync("api/travelagent/retrieve").Result;
        if (_response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            // capture newly created travel agent from service, which will include Ids
            var agents = await _response.Content.ReadAsAsync<IEnumerable<TravelAgent>>();

            foreach (var agent in agents)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Travel Agent {0} has {1} Booking(s)", agent.Name, agent.Bookings.Count());
            }
        }
        else
            Console.WriteLine("{0} ({1})", (int) _response.StatusCode, _response.ReasonPhrase);
    }
}

C# 11 is the next version of C# coming in .NET 7, and it is introducing a warning wave that issues a warning when a type is declared with all lower-case letters. This is being done so that in the future the language can begin moving away from conditional keywords and instead use full on keywords instead. The warning is alerting customers to types that may become keywords in future versions. 

Every day millions of users are commuting on the electronic highway. For you as a web developer you want to ensure that your website is adapted to the needs of the modern user and that you're not putting up road blocks, forcing users to take side roads.

Using modern web standards you can remove these road blocks and optimise your website to accommodate all users regardless of the browser they're using. 

using System;

namespace FastReflectionTests
{
    class Person
    {
        public string Name { set; get; }

        public string Speak()
        {
            return string.Format("Hello, my name is {0}.", this.Name);
        }
    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //روش متداول
            var vahid = new Person { Name = "Vahid" };
            Console.WriteLine(vahid.Speak());

            var type = vahid.GetType();

            //نمایش متدهای یک کلاس
            var methods = type.GetMethods();
            foreach (var method in methods)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(method.Name);
            }

            //تغییر مقدار یک خاصیت
            var setNameMethod = type.GetMethod("set_Name");
            setNameMethod.Invoke(obj: vahid, parameters: new[] { "Ali" });

            //فراخوانی یک متد
            var speakMethod = type.GetMethod("Speak");
            var result = speakMethod.Invoke(obj: vahid, parameters: null);
            Console.WriteLine(result);
        }
    }
}

 Hello, my name is Vahid.
set_Name
get_Name
Speak
ToString
Equals
GetHashCode
GetType
Hello, my name is Ali.

using System;
using System.Reflection.Emit;

namespace FastReflectionTests
{
    class Program
    {
        static double Divider(int a, int b)
        {
            return a / b;
        }

        delegate double DividerDelegate(int a, int b);
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //روش متداول
            Console.WriteLine(Divider(10, 2));

            //تعریف امضای متد
            var myMethod = new DynamicMethod(
                                        name: "DividerMethod",
                                        returnType: typeof(double),
                                        parameterTypes: new[] { typeof(int), typeof(int) },
                                        m: typeof(Program).Module);
            //تعریف بدنه متد
            var il = myMethod.GetILGenerator();
            il.Emit(opcode: OpCodes.Ldarg_0); //بارگذاری پارامتر اول بر روی پشته ارزیابی
            il.Emit(opcode: OpCodes.Ldarg_1); //بارگذاری پارامتر دوم بر روی پشته ارزیابی
            il.Emit(opcode: OpCodes.Div); // دو پارامتر از پشته ارزیابی دریافت و تقسیم خواهند شد
            il.Emit(opcode: OpCodes.Ret); // دریافت نتیجه نهایی از پشته ارزیابی و بازگشت آن

            //فراخوانی متد پویا
            //روش اول
            var result = myMethod.Invoke(obj: null, parameters: new object[] { 10, 2 });
            Console.WriteLine(result);

            //روش دوم
            var method = (DividerDelegate)myMethod.CreateDelegate(delegateType: typeof(DividerDelegate));
            Console.WriteLine(method(10, 2));
        }
    }
}

Sean Killeen - Casting a Wider .NET: OSS Maturity in the .NET Community
Caitie McAffery - Distributed Sagas: A Protocol for Coordinating Microservices
Jeremy Bellows - Neuroevolution
Bobby Johnson - Zero to Sixty with DotNetCoreKoans
Ted Neward - Polytechnical Careering
Jasmine Greenaway - Climbing trees with UI Automation
Natallia Dzenisenka - Parallel Programming with F# and Hopac
Deren Liao - gRPC: Efficient RPC framework for .NET microservices
Alistair Champan - Using Docker to supercharge .NET development on Linux
Mikayla Hutchinson - Mono: Today and Tomorrow
Kent Bye - VR & AR: Design Patterns for the Experiential Age
Sara Ford - The Psychology of Developer Tool Usability
Immo Landworth - .NET Standard for Library Authors
Ken Egozi - Devil's Advocate
Sergey Bykov - Orleans: Rails for the Cloud
Andreia Gaita - C# in Games
Karel Zikmund - Challenges of Managing CoreFX Repo
Jeremy Abbott - Productive Web Applications (F#) 

public class ImageInfo
{
    public Mat Image { set; get; }
    public int ImageGroupId { set; get; }
    public int ImageId { set; get; }
}

public IList<ImageInfo> ReadTrainingImages(string path, string ext)
{
    var images = new List<ImageInfo>();
 
    var imageId = 1;
    foreach (var dir in new DirectoryInfo(path).GetDirectories())
    {
        var groupId = int.Parse(dir.Name);
        foreach (var imageFile in dir.GetFiles(ext))
        {
            var image = processTrainingImage(new Mat(imageFile.FullName, LoadMode.GrayScale));
            if (image == null)
            {
                continue;
            }
 
            images.Add(new ImageInfo
            {
                Image = image,
                ImageId = imageId++,
                ImageGroupId = groupId
            });
        }
    }
 
    return images;
}

private static Mat processTrainingImage(Mat gray)
{
    var threshImage = new Mat();
    Cv2.Threshold(gray, threshImage, Thresh, ThresholdMaxVal, ThresholdType.BinaryInv); // Threshold to find contour
 
    Point[][] contours;
    HiearchyIndex[] hierarchyIndexes;
    Cv2.FindContours(
        threshImage,
        out contours,
        out hierarchyIndexes,
        mode: ContourRetrieval.CComp,
        method: ContourChain.ApproxSimple);
 
    if (contours.Length == 0)
    {
        return null;
    }
 
    Mat result = null;
 
    var contourIndex = 0;
    while ((contourIndex >= 0))
    {
        var contour = contours[contourIndex];
 
        var boundingRect = Cv2.BoundingRect(contour); //Find bounding rect for each contour
        var roi = new Mat(threshImage, boundingRect); //Crop the image
 
        //Cv2.ImShow("src", gray);
        //Cv2.ImShow("roi", roi);
        //Cv.WaitKey(0);
 
        var resizedImage = new Mat();
        var resizedImageFloat = new Mat();
        Cv2.Resize(roi, resizedImage, new Size(10, 10)); //resize to 10X10
        resizedImage.ConvertTo(resizedImageFloat, MatType.CV_32FC1); //convert to float
        result = resizedImageFloat.Reshape(1, 1);
 
        contourIndex = hierarchyIndexes[contourIndex].Next;
    }
 
    return result;
}

public CvKNearest TrainData(IList<ImageInfo> trainingImages)
{
    var samples = new Mat();
    foreach (var trainingImage in trainingImages)
    {
        samples.PushBack(trainingImage.Image);
    }
 
    var labels = trainingImages.Select(x => x.ImageGroupId).ToArray();
    var responses = new Mat(labels.Length, 1, MatType.CV_32SC1, labels);
    var tmp = responses.Reshape(1, 1); //make continuous
    var responseFloat = new Mat();
    tmp.ConvertTo(responseFloat, MatType.CV_32FC1); // Convert  to float
 
 
    var kNearest = new CvKNearest();
    kNearest.Train(samples, responseFloat); // Train with sample and responses
    return kNearest;
}

public void DoOCR(CvKNearest kNearest, string path)
{
    var src = Cv2.ImRead(path);
    Cv2.ImShow("Source", src);
 
    var gray = new Mat();
    Cv2.CvtColor(src, gray, ColorConversion.BgrToGray);
 
    var threshImage = new Mat();
    Cv2.Threshold(gray, threshImage, Thresh, ThresholdMaxVal, ThresholdType.BinaryInv); // Threshold to find contour
 
 
    Point[][] contours;
    HiearchyIndex[] hierarchyIndexes;
    Cv2.FindContours(
        threshImage,
        out contours,
        out hierarchyIndexes,
        mode: ContourRetrieval.CComp,
        method: ContourChain.ApproxSimple);
 
    if (contours.Length == 0)
    {
        throw new NotSupportedException("Couldn't find any object in the image.");
    }
 
    //Create input sample by contour finding and cropping
    var dst = new Mat(src.Rows, src.Cols, MatType.CV_8UC3, Scalar.All(0));
 
    var contourIndex = 0;
    while ((contourIndex >= 0))
    {
        var contour = contours[contourIndex];
 
        var boundingRect = Cv2.BoundingRect(contour); //Find bounding rect for each contour
 
        Cv2.Rectangle(src,
            new Point(boundingRect.X, boundingRect.Y),
            new Point(boundingRect.X + boundingRect.Width, boundingRect.Y + boundingRect.Height),
            new Scalar(0, 0, 255),
            2);
 
        var roi = new Mat(threshImage, boundingRect); //Crop the image
 
        var resizedImage = new Mat();
        var resizedImageFloat = new Mat();
        Cv2.Resize(roi, resizedImage, new Size(10, 10)); //resize to 10X10
        resizedImage.ConvertTo(resizedImageFloat, MatType.CV_32FC1); //convert to float
        var result = resizedImageFloat.Reshape(1, 1);
 
 
        var results = new Mat();
        var neighborResponses = new Mat();
        var dists = new Mat();
        var detectedClass = (int)kNearest.FindNearest(result, 1, results, neighborResponses, dists);
 
        //Console.WriteLine("DetectedClass: {0}", detectedClass);
        //Cv2.ImShow("roi", roi);
        //Cv.WaitKey(0);
 
        //Cv2.ImWrite(string.Format("det_{0}_{1}.png",detectedClass, contourIndex), roi);
 
        Cv2.PutText(
            dst,
            detectedClass.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture),
            new Point(boundingRect.X, boundingRect.Y + boundingRect.Height),
            0,
            1,
            new Scalar(0, 255, 0),
            2);
 
        contourIndex = hierarchyIndexes[contourIndex].Next;
    }
 
    Cv2.ImShow("Segmented Source", src);
    Cv2.ImShow("Detected", dst);
 
    Cv2.ImWrite("dest.jpg", dst);
 
    Cv2.WaitKey();
}