how legacy is .net framework? still worth learning?

[u/iTouchSolderingIron]

I took on a freelance project. i was told that its "C#, asp.net", didnt ask any further and signed the NDA

once i open i found out it looks strange and then i realise its .net framework classic not .net core.

I cant even use vscode or cursor for it, i must use visual studio because the only server that supports is IIS.

is this stack too legacy to be worth the hassle to learn it?

[u/TallGirlKT]

It depends on which version of .NET they are running. If it's 4.x, the syntax not that much different from .NET Core. If it's a lower version, the there are many language differences.

[u/iTouchSolderingIron → u/TallGirlKT]

<configuration>
    <system.web>
        <compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.6.1" />
<!-- configure the upload size of file, maxRequestLength in KB, executionTimeout in seconds -->
<httpRuntime targetFramework="4.6.1" maxRequestLength="51200" executionTimeout="300" />

looking at it its 4.6.1

unbelievable man. feel like telling em i cant do it... but i need the money.

[u/Strange_Space_7458 → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

Do you think that professional developers only work with the latest stacks? IMO someone with your attitude has no future in software development.

[u/iTouchSolderingIron → u/Strange_Space_7458]

thats not the problem man. the problem is time constraint and when deadline comes i cant produce the goods its gonna be bad for me and them.

i can learn on my own free time and pace, not using someone's commercial project to learn

[u/plastikmissile → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

Then that's an issue with the project requirements not whether the framework is legacy or not. You'd have the same issue even if it was a new framework that you're not familiar with.

There's a lot of .NET Framework code out there that's not easy to port to Core. Doesn't necessarily mean that it's bad code.

[u/SconedCyclist → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

A bit confused here. What is so fundamentally different with the traditional .net framework (4.x) and .net core that you cannot do the work? I'm sincerely curious to see some explicit examples.

[u/plastikmissile → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

.NET Framework isn't that different from .NET Core. It's a lot simpler if you ask me. I suggest you take a deep breath and dive a bit into the code. I'm sure you'll find more familiar code than non-familiar.

[u/TallGirlKT → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

I find a lot of freelance projects are there because no one in the company wants to maintain the old code. Their employees have moved on to newer frameworks, so they look for freelancers.

[u/CoreDreamStudiosLLC → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

A good developer supports both new and old solutions, that's how it is as a programmer.

[u/Internal_Outcome_182 → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

You might be looking at wrong place/file, having targetFramewokr 4.6.1 means nothing..

[u/Far_Swordfish5729]

Not at all. This feeling where you pick up a related technology on the job/project - you’re going to do this your whole career. This is very normal. It just makes a webpage. I had the same expertise with VB COM when .net was the new thing. I’ve had it several more times. Getting paid and being slightly slower is fine. They’ll understand and answer questions as long as you get it in a few months.

Also you don’t know what you’re missing with VS and IIS. It all just works together. Won’t be a problem if you have enough ram. VS Code is a text editor that accepts plugins. It’s fancy eMacs. I’m coding other languages in it now and really miss visual studio.

Also framework just has windows only components in it that use the win32 api behind the scenes. You can’t deploy to Linux but so what. That actually makes it easier for you as a developer since you can just use Windows features like Kerberos tokens without any trouble. Database auth will just magically work for example.

[u/ehr1c]

.NET Framework and .NET Core aren't all that different when it comes to the actual application code. Especially if you have an existing codebase to work off of and you're just adding a feature, it shouldn't be particularly difficult.

[u/aseradyn]

The specifics of a language are often less important to a development career than learning overall concepts, patterns, best practices, and soft skills (teamwork, communication, and organization)

Is the domain interesting? Is the team pleasant and competent? Are the managers good? I'd worry about all that before worrying about the specific framework version they're building on. 

[u/iTouchSolderingIron → u/aseradyn]

solo , no team, 4 days (3 now) , they want me to put an existing form in a tabbed page and create a new tab with some toggle in the settings page.

they need this done fast because they have a fair coming up the next day after the deadline and it cannot fail during the fair.

you can see why i have to behave responsibly and not gamble on myself being able to pick everything up in 4 days and ship a flawless product.

[u/Essence1337 → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

In the 4 hours between your post and this comment you would easily be able to have found the major differences between .NET Core and framework (hint: there are very few).

[u/coffeefuelledtechie → u/iTouchSolderingIron]

Surely you should have known if you can pick this work up before you took it on?

If I gave this to a contractor I’d expect them to have done this well within the 3 days it’s taken you to not do it.

[u/Backson]

At my place we use .NET 6 and recently 8 for new stuff, and there are some old programs that go back to .NET Framework 4.5, which is not much different. So no big deal

[u/Last_Paladin_37]

Yeah you may not be able to “run” it in vscode/cursor but you definitely can edit code and evaluate it. Then run it in VS. version control will still track your cursor edits then all you do is debug/breakpoint in VS

[u/coffeefuelledtechie]

It’s nice to have an awareness of it nowadays as there is still legacy stuff that is framework but I don’t think you need to know it inside out any more.

My new job includes some rewriting from framework to core, so it’s good for me to know what it does but not much more than that.

N.B: it doesn’t mean I don’t know it, I used to work with .NET framework before moving to .NET core so it’s been a while.

[u/Comprehensive-Pin667]

It's incredibly similar for the most part.