Microsoft released the sixth preview of .NET 8, and one of the major announcements is that .NET MAUI can now be accessed in Visual Studio Code through a new extension.
“Today, we’re excited to announce the first preview of the .NET MAUI extension, which, paired with C# Dev Kit, gives you the tools you need to develop your cross-platform .NET mobile and desktop apps with VS Code on Windows, macOS, and Linux,” Maddy Montaquila, senior program manager for .NET MAUI at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.
Other updates in this .NET 8 preview include a new WASM mode, updates to several source generators, NativeAOT support on iOS and performance improvements.
The new WASM mode is a Hybrid globalization mode, which provides a lighter ICU bundle and leverages the Web API. It is ideal for applications that use localization data from multiple sources.
Several improvements were made to the System.Text.Json source generator, including caching support, better formatting of generated code, and new diagnostic warnings. Improvements were also made to the configuration binding source generator.
Microsoft also introduced a new options validation source generator that implements validation logic and reduces startup overhead, and another new source generator for interoperability with COM interfaces.
There were also several updates to ASP.NET Core that are available in this release. The debugging experience has been improved, there are new metrics, complex form binding is now supported in minimal APIs.
Updates to Blazor include form model binding and validation with server-side rendering, improved page navigation, streaming rendering for preserve existing DOM elements, and more.
“.NET 8 Preview 6 contains exciting new features and improvements that would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of a diverse team of engineers at Microsoft and a passionate open-source community. We want to extend our sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to .NET 8 so far, whether it was through code contributions, bug reports, or providing feedback,” Justin Yoo, senior cloud advocate for .NET at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post.
