I'm very enjoying the "dotnet" command line. Mostly I do "dotnet new" and then add to the default Hello World app with the Visual Studio Code editor. Recently, though, I realized that the -t "type" and -l "lang" options are there and I wasn't using them. I think they are a little awkward, in that you have to:

dotnet new -t Web

when I think it should be more like dotnet new [type] as in

dotnet new web

What do you think? I find the -t a little heavy. I like the idea of "web" being empty, and "web/mvc" or "web/webapi" having more fleshed out stuff. Even "web/angular," you get the idea. Sound off in the comments. Regardless, there's cool templating tooling coming, I hear, but for now there's more there than I realized.

Of course, there's the default "dotnet new" which is a Hello World console app with a program.cs and project.json. In the future I think it will just run the app, and you'll have to do something like -v verbosity to get the details that we don't usually need to see.

C:\Users\scott\Desktop\test\console>dotnet run

Project console (.NETCoreApp,Version=v1.0) will be compiled because expected outputs are missing

Compiling console for .NETCoreApp,Version=v1.0



Compilation succeeded.

0 Warning(s)

0 Error(s)



Time elapsed 00:00:01.1591124



Hello World!

You can add -l (lang) to it and "dotnet new -l F#" and get an F# Console app rather than a C# one:

C:\Users\scott\Desktop\test\fsharp>dotnet run fabu!

Project fsharp (.NETCoreApp,Version=v1.0) was previously compiled. Skipping compilation.

Hello World!

[|"fabu!"|]



C:\Users\scott\Desktop\test\fsharp>type Program.fs

// Learn more about F# at http://fsharp.org



open System



[<EntryPoint>]

let main argv =

printfn "Hello World!"

printfn "%A" argv

0 // return an integer exit code

There's also "dotnet new -t lib" which is super basic and gives you a quick new project with a Class1 and an Empty Method. Not so useful, but good to know.

You can also "dotnet new -t xunittest" to make a new test project. Nice that this is built-in! Now I just "dotnet test" after a "dotnet restore" and I get test results!

xUnit.net .NET CLI test runner (64-bit win10-x64)

Discovering: testing

Discovered: testing

Starting: testing

Finished: testing

=== TEST EXECUTION SUMMARY ===

testing Total: 1, Errors: 0, Failed: 0, Skipped: 0, Time: 0.146s

SUMMARY: Total: 1 targets, Passed: 1, Failed: 0.

Side Note: If the folder name of the project is the same as one of the dependencies, it can confuse the resolver. For example, I did my new test project in a folder creatively named "XUnit." This is also the name of a dependency. I got the error: Errors in C:\Users\scott\Desktop\test\xunit\project.json Cycle detected: xunit (>= 1.0.0) -> xunit (>= 2.1.0) -> xunit (>= 2.1.0). Note that 1.0.0 there. That's my project, which is 1.0.0. Solution? Rename my project's containing folder.

There's ASP.NET Core Hello World, which is "dotnet new -t Web." This will give you a nice simple ASP.NET Core app with some simple defaults that's setup for bower, gulp, and npm usage. I anticipate we'll see varying levels of what folks consider "complete."

yo aspnet: dotnet new -t web isn't the only way to make a new ASP.NET Core project from the command line (CLI). You can also use the Yeoman generator or "yo aspnet" to make very interesting projects, as well as create your own generators. In fact, Steve Sanderson has some impressive generators like his "aspnet-spa" generator for making Angular, React, and Knockout Single Page Apps (SPA) with ASP.NET Core.

All these generators work on Windows, Mac, and Linux, of course. I believe the intent is to reconcile them all such that Visual Studio proper and Visual Studio Code via the CLI will all get the same "File | New Project" results. Visual Studio will still be more "visual" but everything you can do in one world can and should be possible in another.

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