A .NET guideline specifies that an application should never throw a NullReferenceException. However, many applications and libraries do. The NullReferenceException is the most common exception happening. That’s why C# 8 tries to get rid of it. With C# 8, reference types are not null be default. This is a big change, and a great feature. However, what about all the legacy code? Can old libraries be used with C# 8 applications, and can C# 7 applications make use of C# 8 libraries?

This article demonstrates how C# 8 allows mixing old and new assemblies. 

public static int Add(in int number1, in int number2)
{
   number1 = 5; // Cannot assign to variable 'in int' because it is a readonly variable
   return number1 + number2;
}

<ItemGroup>
     <PackageReference Include="BenchmarkDotNet" Version="0.10.12" />
</ItemGroup>

using BenchmarkDotNet.Attributes;

namespace CS72Tests
{
    public struct Input
    {
        public decimal Number1;
        public decimal Number2;
    }

    [MemoryDiagnoser]
    public class InBenchmarking
    {
        const int loops = 50000000;
        Input inputInstance = new Input();

        [Benchmark(Baseline = true)]
        public decimal RunNormalLoop_Pass_By_Value()
        {
            decimal result = 0M;
            for (int i = 0; i < loops; i++)
            {
                result = Run(inputInstance);
            }
            return result;
        }

        [Benchmark]
        public decimal RunInLoop_Pass_By_Reference()
        {
            decimal result = 0M;
            for (int i = 0; i < loops; i++)
            {
                result = RunIn(in inputInstance);
            }
            return result;
        }

        public decimal Run(Input input)
        {
            return input.Number1;
        }

        public decimal RunIn(in Input input)
        {
            return input.Number1;
        }
    }
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var summary = BenchmarkRunner.Run<InBenchmarking>();

                      Method |      Mean |    Error |   StdDev | Scaled | Allocated |
---------------------------- |----------:|---------:|---------:|-------:|----------:|
 RunNormalLoop_Pass_By_Value | 280.04 ms | 2.219 ms | 1.733 ms |   1.00 |       0 B |
 RunInLoop_Pass_By_Reference |  91.75 ms | 1.733 ms | 1.780 ms |   0.33 |       0 B |

    public static class Factorial
    {
        public static int Calculate(in this int num)
        {
            int result = 1;
            for (int i = num; i > 1; i--)
                result *= i;

            return result;
        }
    }

int num = 3;
Console.WriteLine($"(in num) -> {Factorial.Calculate(in num)}");
Console.WriteLine($"(num) -> {Factorial.Calculate(num)}");
Console.WriteLine($"num. -> {num.Calculate()}");

(in num) -> 6
(num) -> 6
num. -> 6

    public class CX
    {
        public void A(Input a)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("int a");
        }

        public void A(in Input a)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("in int a");
        }
    }

    public class Y
    {
        public void Test()
        {
            var inputInstance = new Input();
            var cx = new CX();
            cx.A(inputInstance); // The call is ambiguous between the following methods or properties: 'CX.A(Input)' and 'CX.A(in Input)'
        }
    }

public IEnumerable<int> B(in int a) // Iterators cannot have ref or out parameters
{
   Console.WriteLine("in int a");
   yield return 1;
}

public async Task C(in int a) // Async methods cannot have ref or out parameters
{
   await Task.Delay(1000);
}

using System;

namespace CS72Tests
{
    struct MyStruct
    {
        public int MyValue { get; set; }

        public void UpdateMyValue(int value)
        {
            MyValue = value;
        }
    }

    public static class TestInStructs
    {
        public static void Run()
        {
            var myStruct = new MyStruct();
            myStruct.UpdateMyValue(1);

            UpdateMyValue(myStruct);

            Console.WriteLine(myStruct.MyValue);
        }

        static void UpdateMyValue(in MyStruct myStruct)
        {
            myStruct.UpdateMyValue(5);
        }
    }
}

static void UpdateMyValue(in MyStruct myStruct)
{
   myStruct.MyValue = 5; // Cannot assign to a member of variable 'in MyStruct' because it is a readonly variable
   myStruct.UpdateMyValue(5);
}

• An open letter to the .NET community

• Reflections on recent news

Spawn an Online Game with Blazor, .NET 7 and Clean Architecture in under 60 minutes

In this fun talk, Luke Parker will show you step-by-step how to build a playable game in under 60 minutes. He will go over some basic game design, project planning, then build the game and finally… play live with the audience! Utilizing code sharing and the magic of Clean Architecture allows for very rapid app development. Also, leveraging MudBlazor as the component library lets you save time and to focus on what really matters.
 

Bebop: An Efficient, Schema-based Binary Serialization Format  

Microsoft Open Sources Cross-platform Serialization Library – Bond 

Read the web like Right-to-Left readers do, and learn about the challenges — and how to help solve them.