One of the most used databases these days is PostgreSQL (aka Postgres). Its accomplishments include being the most popular DB [among professional developers] according to Stack Overflow survey of 2022 , the database in all of the fastest TechEmpower benchmarks , and being the most advanced open source database (self-proclaimed). We’ll talk today about combining Postgres with my favorite language and runtime: C# and .NET. Just because Postgres isn’t a first-party Microsoft database, like SQL Server, doesn’t mean you don’t have full support for it in C#.

Disclaimer: This blog post was written by a human, with no AI-generated text. An application’s code base is a living entity. It keeps growing, changing, and adapting. There’s always a new feature to add, more bugs to solve, and new bugs that are created as a result. As the teams grow, the code changes more often and there are ever more features, more issues, and more bugs. Thorough manual testing becomes impossible the bigger your application gets and as you ship more frequently.

We continue on our path to make a web application using C# and .NET. After choosing the front-end technology in part 1 , picking the backend server tech in part 2 , and deploying to Azure in part 3 , we’re going to concentrate on choosing the database. With emphasis on .NET and Azure technologies of course. A database, or rather databases, is one of the most important aspects of any big application.

We have a pretty great ecosystem for C# and .NET. We have amazing IDEs like Visual Studio, a fast runtime, good troubleshooting tools, etc. But I think we can do much better. I think the .NET ecosystem can be somewhat inspired by the development process in JavaScript and TypeScript projects. I’m talking about Visual Studio, MSBuild, and the .NET SDK being a closed ecosystem, whereas in JavaScript there’s an open ecosystem that enables amazing extensibility by the community.

Node.js is probably the most popular backend technology in the industry. Companies like Twitter, LinkedIn, Uber, and many others use Node.js as their primary server technology or combine it with other languages. It has a lot of things going for it like a huge community, a great ecosystem, and it uses the same language in the front end and back end. Since C# and .NET are my main programming languages, I’m trying to figure out if I’m using an underrated technology or if the market trend has a point.

I’ve been a .NET software developer for my entire career, and I love it. I love the C# language, the productivity of the platform, and the ecosystem. But I’ve been dealing with an existential crisis for years now. I see how companies, especially startups, don’t seem to choose .NET as their platform of choice. That role seems to be reserved to Node.js in recent years [1] [2] [3] . Over the last few years, I got to work with Node.

I don’t know about you, but I’m obsessed with shortcuts. I’m much more productive when using just the keyboard, and having to use the mouse annoys me deeply. Over the years, I’ve learned many useful shortcuts that increase productivity. Many of them are for IDEs or other apps, but some of the best shortcuts are part of the operating system itself. Today we’ll cover 6 amazing shortcuts in Windows 10 and 11 that transformed the way I work and can make you much more productive.

Azure Virtual Machines and App Services are the two basic pillars of Azure cloud services. Both offerings provide a way for you to execute workloads or host your server in the cloud. In both, you pay for some virtual machine in an Azure data center that runs your code. But that’s where the similarities end. One is bare bones infrastructure, whereas the other is a managed platform. One is customizable but hard to manage, whereas the other requires forces you to use the specific tooling and configuration Azure offers.

After 6 years of hosting my blog in WordPress , I ported it to Hugo , a static site generator. I used to be a big WordPress believer. I’d tell anyone who wished to hear, and many who didn’t, that WP was the answer to everything. Whether you’re building a personal blog, an e-commerce site, or a portfolio showcase. That belief was crumbling for the last few years up to the point I turned almost 180 degrees.